No Winners

I've seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone- Neil Young

With the revelation that Big Papi & Manny tested positive for steroids in 2003, there are officially no surprises or revelations about baseball anymore.

You can tell me that Ralph Kiner and Bob Murphy used to snort crystal meth in between innings, and I would not argue with you. That the real reason that Phil Rizzuto used to leave Yankee games early was to get to an opium den before it closed and I would not bat an eye.

I am officially jaded.

Sammy Sosa has to be the worst, though. The man got caught using steroids and corking his bat. In his case two strikes should mean you are out-for good.

There are no winners in this story. That list of 103 players hangs over the game like eternal storm clouds. Even the Bob Woodward of this story, Jose Canseco, is an unlikeable rat.

What's the solution? The union has to come to grips with the reality that the whole list is going to come out eventually; this drip by drip approach is hurting everybody. Put the whole list out and get it over with.

Oh yeah, someone has given me what they purport to be the full list and a whole lot of Red Sox are on it. (I will not publish the list until it is confirmed.)

All I'm saying is that Don Zimmer is a lucky man. Remember that brawl he started in the 2003 playoffs with the Red Sox? That team was full of steroid users. Zimmer is fortunate that the Red Sox did not exhibit roid range and stomp that old f**k into oblivion like they were Hell's Angels and Zimmer was a hippie at Altamont.