Homeruns make people crazy cuckoo.

"Guy embezzles thousands of dollars from his company. Upstanding member of the community. Donates to charity. Hero to little kids. His life is one long ticker-tape parade of attaboys, promotions and company parties. Few have any idea of what the guy's done, and those who do don't want to believe it."

Why would he embezzle money just to donate it to charity?

Are we talking about Robin Hood?


"Eight years later, his secret life is no longer so secret. Evidence has piled up that he broke the law. Maybe there were multiple co-conspirators driving the getaway car, but the DNA trail leads to our hero.

Because so many years have elapsed, we're just supposed to look the other way and let him slide?"

No.


"I don't think so. Wouldn't happen elsewhere, and it's not happening with Mark McGwire on my Hall of Fame ballot."

What evidence does Scott Miller have that Mark McGwire broke the law?

What evidence has piled up?

I want to know what evidence exists besides innuendo and supposition. Poor showing at a bogus Congressional hearing (didn't Congress have anything better to do?).

Because the hypothetical embezzler sure isn't going to jail based on innuendo and suppositon.


"Don't tell me about the hypocrisy of glamorizing Mac and Sammy eight years ago and then tearing it all down now. We know a lot more now than we did eight years ago. That isn't hypocrisy, despite what simpleton columnists and talk-show screamers say. It's called due diligence. It's called continuing education. Few had even heard of BALCO in 1998, and you can be damned sure that nobody was handing out subpoenas back then."

It's hypocritical because you are only angry at prolific HR hitters in baseball. You are not angry at all cheaters equally. You don't care about football players and you don't even care about pitchers. In fact, you don't even care about Randy Velarde, just because he didn't hit enough HRs.


"Don't tell me that anabolic steroids weren't against baseball's rules in '98, so the players all have Get Out Of Jail Free cards from that period. Anabolic steroids were -- and are -- against the federal law. It's not clearly spelled out in baseball's rulebook that the cleanup hitter can't strangle the batboy to death in the dugout, either."

Your first analogy is embezzlement and your second analogy is murder.

Oh, and amphetamines are also illegal according to federal law and used in abundance everyday in MLB.

Shrug.


"McGwire and his fellow Bash (The Integrity of the Game) Brothers have dishonored the sport by dragging it into the worst scandal since the 1919 Black Sox.

They have twisted some of the game's most treasured numbers into an indecipherable maze of voodoo statistics largely devoid of meaning and context."

I think the HR stats of the 1990s are easily decipherable and meaningful. Subtract about 20%. That wasn't really so difficult.

But even if they were truly indecipherable, they can not be devoid of context. How can baseball statistics ever be devoid of context? The context is 1990s in America with lots of players using steroids.

The entire purpose of Miller's article is to present these numbers in the context of steroid abuse, comparing these steroid abusers to players of previous decades. That's what "context" is.

Other contextual factors include small stadiums, small strike zone, better training techniques, bigger salaries, and watered-down pitching.

But I am still wondering why Miller's anger is directed solely at prolific HR hitters.

Hundreds of major league ballplayers have taken steroids.

Miller has narrowed the problem down to approximately six: Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro, Canseco, and Giambi. These six players will be eliminated from HOF consideration and that's the big moral stand.

Ivan Rodriguez will make the Hall of Fame.

Mike Piazza will make the Hall of Fame.

Rickey Henderson will make the Hall of Fame.

Roger Clemens will make the Hall of Fame.

Even Gary Sheffiled will make the Hall of Fame.

I have as much suspicion -- and as little proof -- about all of them as I do about Mark McGwire.


"And those who bring Hall of Famer and noted spitballer Gaylord Perry into the equation right about now? That's a completely disingenuous comparison, misdemeanor vs. felony. Last time we checked, Vaseline wasn't an illegal substance."

In baseball, Vaseline is an illegal substance.

In any case, Miller is the guy who just brought up the character/moral clause thingy.

I don't know what kind of moral relativism would allow misdemeanors but disallow felonies. Sounds like a hypocritical morality if there ever was one.

So, what's McGwire's real crime? The real crime is hitting homeruns. Either that or making the writers look like fools in '98.


"Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were the toasts of the town once, too. Enron was a model company and everyone was making gobs of money.

Then the closet door opened and the skeletons tumbled out.

Do you think Lay and Skilling should have walked when their crimes were revealed simply because those crimes had occurred several years earlier?"

Holey Moley. I'm not really sure Enron was ever a "model company." I am pretty sure the whole thing was a house of cards the whole time.

But what is Miller's problem? Embezzlement, murder, and now Enron?

Miller must be really, really, really upset about guys who took steroids.

In one article, Mark McGwire has been compared to an embezzler, a murderer, and the perpetrators of the greatest white collar crime in US history.