The monetary benefits clearly outweigh the costs.

The reputational costs are fatal, yet selective.

The long-term health costs may be tragic.  I wouldn't take steroids, I'll tell you that.  But I also understand the allure of a pro sports contract.


Mike Lupica makes passing mention of a local steroid cheat, but still can't generate any legitimate disdain.  He can only use it as an opportunity to slag on ARod:

"Kellen Winslow must have gone to the PED store because he thinks using PEDs is working out so well for everybody else."

A PED cheat just hit a game-tying grand slam in the playoffs.

In the same game, Peralta's fly ball died on the track ... I'm guessing it would have had a little more kick if he had hit it earlier in the season. Funny how the wind was blowing out earlier in the season.

Off the top of my head? ... Colon, Byrd, Cruz, Peralta played for their teams in the 2013 MLB playoffs ... McGwire has a good chance to get another ring in his role as Ironic Hitting Coach.

Who knows how many current playoff participants weren't caught?  We know the MLB tests are insufficient ... biogenesis proved that, as if we didn't already know.

So you take a couple of months off and rest up for the playoffs.  It works out fine for the player and for the team. 


Kellen Winslow will miss four games and no one will care.  The head coach of the Jets already said the backup tight end is an acceptable replacement.  Winslow will be back in a month ready to go.

Bill Madden and Mike Lupica won't even be able to feign outrage.  They're not repulsed by steroid use; they're repulsed by ARod.


"Well, if it turns out that the Yankees really are hot on the latest Japanese pitching phenom, it means they do have a farm system after all:

The Nippon League."

Right.

I don't understand why that is intended as an insult.


Look, the US draft is rigged. It is intentionally rigged -- that is the whole point.

The Yankees are at a big disadvantage because they made the playoffs for 2 straight decades, give or take.

The Yankees would be better served to eliminate their entire minor league system and buy the entire island. Spend $100 million on 1,000 17-year-olds and hope 3 of them become Bernie Williams.