"Diabolical."

"Even though the era of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds is thankfully long since over, and even though Stanton had nothing to do with them and their diabolical cheating, and even though he himself presumably is not doping now, Stanton is stalked by them, linked to them and even diminished by them.

As the 2017 season reaches its final 10 games for the Marlins, Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in 162 games in 1961 is most definitely within Stanton’s reach. This should be one of the seminal achievements of the 2017 sports year.

But Maris’ record is buried under a mountain of syringes, pills and lies. Bonds is credited with the single-season MLB 'record' of 73, followed by McGwire with 70, Sosa with 66, McGwire with 65 and Sosa again with 64 and 63, all reached between 1998 and 2001, one of the most shameful periods in baseball history."

Are you saying Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa took performance enhancing substances?

Stop the presses! Stop the presses!

"Had MLB owners and players cared to at least try to catch their cheaters back then and instituted the drug testing and other protocols they should have had at the time, we could presume the notorious trio of McGwire, Sosa and Bonds would have gone the way of Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones: caught, punished and purged from the record books.

Had that happened, Maris would have moved from seventh place on the list back to first, where he belongs. And then, all these years later, along comes Stanton.

Can you imagine how we would be viewing his march toward Maris in that case? It would be a national quest transcending sports, bringing new glory and interest to the game throughout American life."

Nah.

In 2017, MLB has already set an all-time record for HRs and there are still two weeks to go.

The only discussion that would transcend sports would be accusations of a juiced ball.


I'm not rooting against Stanton. I'm rooting for him. I also hope he isn't taking steroids. But I don't know for sure that he isn't.