Jonah Keri rounds up the sportswriting reaction, and mostly overreaction, on Manny.
Blogger Curt Schilling (well, OK, yeah, yeah) doesn’t buy the I-didn’t-know defenses:
I was never a fitness freak or gym rat – those are the guys that measured every milligram, count every tablet in their regimen. Yet somehow we’re hearing these same people talk about being struck momentarily stupid when West African bullfrog semen is found in their blood. “What? How’d that get there????” Their routines, from reps to nutrition are as mapped out as scouting reports. They eat a certain way, train a certain way, and they play a certain way. There is no ‘black hole’ or ‘hidden formula’ happening in these instances.
Throughout the entire course of the steroids issue, no one anywhere in baseball has ever been willing to rat out a teammate, or even any other player, for doing it, including Schilling. Which I think makes it hard for anyone within the game to actually get self-righteous about it with any kind of moral authority.
I know zero baseball fans who care about steroids. The only people who care are non-fans (gives them something to talk to baseball about) and self-righteous writers like Lupica. Is that a redundant statement?
Now leave Bonds alone, and just remember him as the greatest non-pitcher of your lifetime (unless you’re 80+ years old).