Do we know whether or not Raul Ibanez has ever taken a performance enhancing drug? No. And I'll let my bias out there known that I am a Philadelphia Phillies fan.
That said, what was written on a sports blog about Ibanez and his fantastic season at the age of 37 was absolutely correct.
Jerod Morris runs the Midwest Sports Fan Web site. He never said he thought Ibanez took drugs, let alone that he had evidence of him doing so. However, Morris actually defended Ibanez with his post.
And while we think Ibanez has a right to be angry, we think he's being very ignorant if he's pushing his anger toward Morris.
The slugger, if he's innocent, should be putting all of his resentment at the feet of Major League Baseball, the Commissioner's office, and the Players' Union.
If it wasn't for their 20 years willful, near criminal negligence, this wouldn't be an issue.
However, because steroids and performance enhancers were never addressed when they should have been, none of us should trust any player who stepped on a field in the past 25 years.
Not a one.
That's hard for us to say.
And we watched with interest this exchange on ESPN.com but think Ken Rosenthal is dead wrong.
And here's why.
Here comes another admission of bias: While I blog, I tend to side with the more conservative take on reporting. Don't name names unless someone is talking on the record. Don't name names unless you have even more information.
But Morris was asking an intelligent question - isn't it sad that we have to question guys like Ibanez, who have strong reputations.
Rosenthal is acting as if it's wrong to wonder aloud or in print if a Major League player could have used drugs.
At this point, it's not.
If more writers had been doing that in the 90s, really pushing this issue, we wouldn't have this problem.
But they didn't. They failed at their jobs. Whether or not it was that they were too close to the celebrity athletes, or not good enough reporters, they didn't work this story.
Teenagers were walking around making jokes about Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and players who were putting up astronomical numbers. But reporters weren't digging deep.
Which is sad, because there are a ton of great sports reporters and columnists out there. Bill Plaschke. Mitch Albom. Joe Posnanski. Rick Reilly. Tom Verducci. Jayson Stark. Peter Gammons. Sure, some of these guys broke steroid stories. And even Reilly challenged Sosa to a drug test. But was that about Reilly's ego or digging for the truth? It's hard to say.
All we know is baseball reporters, in general, failed. They failed their readers. They failed their sport. They failed themselves.
And now, "guys typing in their parents' basement" are actually doing those reporters' jobs.
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