1998.

"Mark McGwire is just as big a propped-up, juiced-up fraud as Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and the late Ken Caminiti."

Really? What, it takes six years or retrospective analysis to realize this? In 1998, the citizens of St. Louis didn't have eyes and brains?

Some grizzled big city writers were so swept away by the homerun race of 1998, they wrote a glowing ode to the same 'roid heads they now condemn.

This is not just comical in retrospect, it was comical at the time. Putting one's head in the sand is not journalism. But since we all put our collective heads in the sand in 1998, I just assumed we'd all be cool with Giambi & Bonds in 2005.