Steroids and Self Righteousness

In a funny coincidence, I happened to be off on this Thursday- the Thursday when George Mitchell changed baseball. This isn't a blog about who was guity or who wasn't guilty, but is rather a question about who knew. As I was watching the ESPN coverage, I realized that there two in studio analysts were John Kruk and Steve Phillips. Both guys who were active, either playing or general managing during the "steroids era." How in the world do they get off being "analysts" when they both act surprised that steroids were rampant in the late 90's. If you watched any baseball during this period without wondering about steroids you ought to have a brain transplant. My Dad and I used to joke that the reason the Brewers were bad is because we didn't have enough steroid users on our roster, and that was while I was in high school (I graduated in 1996). Now that the paper work and check stubbs are coming out, I want one person to just stand up and say, "I should have known. It was my job to analyse players and player development and I clearly had my head in the sand. Here is the money back that you paid me to pay attention to baseball." The excuses that there was nothing they could do because everyone else was doing sound even more ridiculous coming form grown men then it does coming from my five year old. If you get the chance, try to watch Buster Olney's feature on the rise of steroids in baseball, he dates it as far back as 1988 when Ben Johnson lost his gold medal. Reknowned baseball columnist Thomas Boswell called out Jose Canseco that year, and called for testing, 17 years later baseball finally agreed. I love baseball, I hate steroids, and I am progressively more bitter at those men who given charge of the game and failed.