Another One Bites the Dust... Miraculously Not in Boston

I would imagine that a federally mandated tracking anklet would inhibit your defensive range, at least to the left. A U.S. Magistrate Judge handed downa sentence of one year probation to Miguel Tejada for misrepresentation during a 2005 testimony. While the Houston Astros shortstop will not actually have to sport the institutionally imposed bling, the he will bear the mark of a tarnished man, a mark that has seemed to stay away from Boston. Following the first serious action taken by the federal government in the most recent "Juice Justice" crusade, we come to find ourselves less and less surprised by every one of these instances. As a baseball culture, we are becoming more and more desensitized to the whole issue. This is no longer a big deal to anyone. The only people taking this seriously, Congress, should probably be taking it less seriously... with the two wars and $187 ka-trillion deficit and all. But where is the outrage on the part of the public? One place that it's certainly not is in Boston. Now, I'm a firm believer in jinxes, but Red Sox fans have been overwhelmingly lucky as late. We have dodged the body-building bullet that has been fired from every sports media gun in the entire nation, save ours. I'm not complaining, considering how tough it is to see your heroes cut down to human-size in the wake of scandal. Instead, I'd like to take a moment to thank our lucky stars that half of the club-house didn't go down with the ship(for "iceburg" - see George Mitchell). Some sight the fact that the national sports media (not to mention the New England media) may or may not be firmly lodged in the back pocket of John Henry and Larry Lucchino (right next to the old packet of Juicy Fruit and the obscenely large wads of cash). But there was no paying our way out of the Mitchell Report, or other such probes. That specific report used only three major sources, two located in New York, and one in Baltimore. There was no conspiracy to take the Yankees and Mets down. And let's face it, no one is actively looking to cut the Orioles off at the knees. If one of those leaks had been on Lansdowne street, Red Sox Nation would have been blitzed like it was 1941 (and no... it’s not 'TOO SOON, MAN'). The fact of the matter is that we, as fans, are lucky. But we all know that we're on thin ice. If injuries and declining performances are becoming a sign of the increasingly (although begrudgingly) accepted use of steroids in baseball, we've had, and probably still have, a few players on our roster that more than fit the bill. If it came out that half of the players on the Red Sox had bulked up during the Age of Dis-light-enment, I for one would not be surprised. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t be upset. If the steroid culture was, in fact, as pervasive as it has been touted, Red Sox fans can not possibly kid themselves into thinking that our hometown heroes had only heard of the stuff on TV. Bill Simmons jokes that MLB players are now considered guilty if they're proven innocent, and while the Sports Guy is injecting (pun very much intended) some humor into a pretty heavy situation... he's right. Go through the roster of seasons’ past and quite frankly, it's easier to pinpoint who probably didn't take steroids, which is really a tragic convenience. The national sports media holds the likes of Ken Griffey Jr. in the highest of esteemsbecause he's been the guy who everyone knows HASN’T taken steroids. That's right... we're at a point where we're commending a player for NOT breaking the rules. I know that Yogi Berra said that baseball is a game of failure, but this is a bit much. We're at a point where we expect these athletes to break the rules, and when we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have not, they become saints. Do I think that every major leaguer from the late '90's until now was ordering the BALCO Breakfast Plate from Denny's every morning? Of course not. I would like to point out, however, the absurdity and hypocrisy of singling out a disparate few, when there were most likely dozens of athletes getting a little boost, including some of Boston’s Beloved. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go find a new injection site.