Say it ain't so

But so says the NYT.

"Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, the sluggers who propelled the Boston Red Sox to end an 86-year World Series championship drought and to capture another title three years later, were among the roughly 100 Major League Baseball players to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the results."

Not much else to say right now except that it sucks. A lot. Obviously. But anyone who's surprised by this hasn't been paying much attention.

I do think, though, that Bill James is right. Sad as it is, maybe it's best just to accept the recent past as some sort of "new normal," one that (hopefully) has since been supplanted by a newer normal, and try to move on from there.

After ten years ... the dust does not seem to be settling very rapidly. There seem to be as many different and contradictory opinions on the issue now as there were five or eight years ago. We are all tired of arguing about it, but we still don’t agree. In any case, I am finally ready to say what I have to say about it. It is my opinion that, in time, the use of steroids or other Performance Enhancing Drugs will mean virtually nothing in the debate about who gets into the Hall of Fame and who does not.

And so, no, extending that line of reasoning, it's not tainted. It just happened to have taken place during a certain moment of history that most of us wish had seen people behaving a bit differently.

"The Sum of All Fears"? Not hardly. Just par for the course nowadays.

But what really galls me, presuming this is true, is the lies over the past few years.

"All they are going to find is a lot of rice and beans."

"I know that if I test positive for using any kind of substance, I know that I'm going to disrespect my family, the game, the fans, and everybody. I don't want to be facing that situation, so what I will do, I won't use."

Etc.

Today? “I’m not talking about that anymore,” he said. “I have no comment.”