Sosa Tested Positive; Save the Women & Children!

[knapplc]

The leaks are the most troubling thing to me right now. But instead of focusing on this, the press is pushing yet more close-up images of the athlete in question, usually with a serious look or outright frown on their face, and painting this as a shocking story. How could Sammy have done this? Let's go back and examine his every comment in detail. Let's run clips of every interview Sammy gave regarding PEDs again. Let's play somber background music so people really get that this is serious.

Meanwhile, let's completely ignore the larger issue of where this info is coming from. But whatever. They did this with Bonds, and with Palmiero, and with Tejada, and they'll do it again when the next name is outed from this list.

Is the public in general still eating this stuff up, or do most folks grasp the reality of PED use in baseball and just ignore these "big stories" now? I'm curious.


EDIT - and it's not just baseball. People know about football players using this stuff. And I'm sure it's around in the NBA and NHL. We know. Don't we?

[KCollins1304]

Has anything happened to anyone leaking this information? That's what annoys me the most, it's highly illegal and the players put the trust in MLB to be able to keep this information secure and now someone is probably trying to make a couple of dollars with this information.

We'll never know who leaked this information. It will always be kept confidential by the papers.

Leaking that information isn't illegal. It is "merely" a violation of a confidentiality agreement those lawyers/doctors had to sign before gaining access to that information. If outed, the source(s) of the leak would never go to jail. They would lose their job and almost assuredly get sued back to the Stone Age, but they would never go to jail.

I tell you the aspect of this that I'm the most interested in. MLB was contractually obligated to destroy those samples and did not. I will be very interested to see how the players or Union act on that. Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't already filed a suit over it.

From what I've been hearing and reading, the most likely source of the leaks seems to be the Justice Department. I don't understand why more people aren't more upset over the leaks. I thought the same thing with the Barry Bonds/Balco stuff: people didn't seem to care that Grand Jury testimony was being leaked to the press (something that could have a huge impact on court system in this country, and potentially affect everyone), they were more concerened that athletes may not have been completely honest about their use of performance enhancers. Seems like mixed up priorities to me.

I've been surprised the union hasn't done anything about it, but I can't blame A-Rod for not doing anything. Can you imagine the PR disaster that would have ensued if A-Rod even suggested that it was a much larger problem that the test results leaked than that he had done steroids? The whole thing is pretty similar to if you were charged with possession of a drug because a policeman broke into your house and found it without having a warrant or just cause for entering your home.

[keeks137]

I heard an interesting theory that this is happening to the people that are opening their mouths about being clean.

A-Rod supposedly bragged about being clean (I have no source for this, but the radio show seemed to think it happened). He gets outed.

Sosa opens his mouth about perseverence, his natural ability, and waiting for his vote into the hall. He gets outed.

Mark McGwire pleads the fifth on the stand rather than proclaiming his innocence, nothing has happened yet...

[buffalobillsrul2002]

The leaks are the most troubling thing to me right now. But instead of focusing on this, the press is pushing yet more close-up images of the athlete in question, usually with a serious look or outright frown on their face, and painting this as a shocking story. How could Sammy have done this? Let's go back and examine his every comment in detail. Let's run clips of every interview Sammy gave regarding PEDs again. Let's play somber background music so people really get that this is serious.

Meanwhile, let's completely ignore the larger issue of where this info is coming from. But whatever. They did this with Bonds, and with Palmiero, and with Tejada, and they'll do it again when the next name is outed from this list.

Is the public in general still eating this stuff up, or do most folks grasp the reality of PED use in baseball and just ignore these "big stories" now? I'm curious.


EDIT - and it's not just baseball. People know about football players using this stuff. And I'm sure it's around in the NBA and NHL. We know. Don't we?

Sadly, the answer is that the public actually still is eating this stuff up. I'd say the Cafe is the top 1% or 2% most educated sports fans. The lower 98% completely buy whatever the media sells them. So yeah, this crap is going to work for years. Most people don't think beyond the first level of crap spewed to them by the media (I think mostly because they don't want to take the time and brain power to think)