i don’t think you’re dumb. i am generally and thoroughly distraught with the red-herring-argument of steroids, which you are thankfully avoiding. you raise legit points. I’m also confident you are handsome.

for whom are you an exec?

A couple extra hours in the weight or video room, nor a couple of expansion teams can explain Brady Anderson’s 50 homerun season, Sosa hitting 60+ homeruns in 3 of 4 years (and not leading the league in any of those 3!), Bret Boone becoming a star power hitter and then getting cut next thing you know.

Nothing impacted a sport more heavily than steroids changed baseball. But I shouldn’t fault you for your argument – what else would I expect from a Giants fan.

I’m surprised that you let this Giants apologist write for your website.

On to the article…The question here is, WWRBD? Or for you non-believers, What Would Rich Brooks Do? I don’t believe he would do steroids. But I also don’t think he would throw a spitball, cork a bat, accept medical/nutrional advice from so called “medical experts,” and he certainly doesn’t need to see the inside of a gym (see: http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/2004projects/making_grade/stories/brooks.jpg). I mean, that is one good-looking man.

Would Rich Brooks ever cheat? Mr. Ramey, I think not. Nay, I know not…just ask Hal.

Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth’s home run record, won back to back MVP’s, played on two World Series champs, and was a marvelous right fielder, and he isn’t in the Hall of Fame. Why should Big Mac get in on the first ballot just because he set a single season home run record? It took Joe Di Maggio several tries to make it into the HOF. He certainly was a more credentialed candidate than Big Mac. We know that writers have many asinine reasons for leaving candidates off of their ballots. Maybe a lot of them left Mac off this time as a protest of some sort and will have a change of heart next time. In any case, MLB has given writers the ability to determine membership in the Hall.

As a purist, I, like you, do not like wild card teams being champs in any sports, but if the rules provide for it, then I have to recognize the Steelers as last year’s Super Bowl champs and Arizona as the NCAA basketball champs in the ’90’s, when they finished fifth in the Pac 10. In our opinions, they didn’t deserve it, but they won it by the rules.

MLB is in this dilemma primarily because of Fehr and Orza and their bullshit right of privacy argument. The owners were willing to go along with a lax drug policy because home runs helped line their pockets.

Unfortunately, as an executive in the entertainment industry, I have seen too many people look the other way too often when it comes to morals and ethics, because the alternative would be to make less money. Sports, as a form of entertainment, certainly falls into that category. We will certainly fall apart as a civilization if we continue to ignore laws, morals, and ethics in the interest of more profits. Look at Bonds’ before and after pictures and tell me he wasn’t on steroids. Then, he has the nerve to compound the problem by lying and getting his trainer to take a fall so that he doesn’t have to spill the beans. If you truly believe we should celebrate this, then you are the one of dubious intelligence.

Incidentally, Henry Aaron, a black man, holds the career home run record. He did it in a time when the baseball pool was loaded with talent. For much of his career, while there were few foreign players, every good athlete in America looked at baseball as their first option. Pro football didn’t really become a big money sport for players until well after the 1960’s. When Aaron broke in, the NFL Championship game wasn’t even televised nationally. Pro basketball took even longer. There was no pro track or tennis. Baseball was the sole sport at which an athlete could make a good living, while today the larger pool you refer to gets divided up many more ways.

Incidentally, do not call me dumb because I do not want to honor Mac, Sosa or Bonds. I don’t think you would want to face off against me in a general intelligence or IQ test.