Juice and Jacks

ESPN has been deleted from my web bookmarks. They have taken everything I love and put it behind the "INSIDER" pay per view. Once again, I find myself going to my friends at Fox in FoxSports and leaving the old media ESPN behind.

Now don't get me wrong, I'll still watch ESPN on tv. In fact I watched many baseball games this weekend and a snippet or two of Sportscenter. It would seem that ESPN thinks that the Rafeal Palmeiro steroid scandal is the worst thing to ever happen to baseball and that his Hall of Fame future is shot. ESPN sugested that the scandal eclipses Pete Rose and the Black Sox. It doesn't. Those two scandals put the integrity of the game seriously in doubt. The sad fact is that Palmeiro's steroid cheating hardly impacted the game, at least not more than better equipment, or in this case chemistry, has impacted comparisons between generations.

Since MLB failed to seriously test for steroids in the 80's and 90's, most of the sluggers are under a cloud, but they all had the same advantages in a chemically induced way. Palmeiro might be the only guilty slugger caught red-handed, but there is little doubt that Bonds, McGuire and Giambi used. Sosa, Bret Boone, Juan Gonzalez, and Ivan Rodriquez are also under serious suspicion.

It would be a tragedy if Palmeiro was kept out of the hall while sluggers who wised up, retired, or hid on the DL were let in. The fact is, steroids were a part of the game. My only hope is that sluggers such as Griffey and McGriff who have over 500 HR and Zero suspicion get extra special consideration. I'm not too worried about Griffey, he'll be a first ballot selection. However, the unspectacular McGriff who just managed to hit 35 HR every year for 20 years is likely to be overlooked until there is a weak year.