no sport's fans are as attached to its history and tradition and the myth of its own purity quite like baseball's.

Eddo Posted: January 13, 2010 at 01:57 AM (#3436122)

You know, I think partly we romanticize baseball records to a degree we don't in other sports, but I also suspect it has something to do with the fact that since baseball players look more like us than do players in other sports (e.g. than 7-foot basketball acrobats or 6-5, 250 lb. football players that run a 4.5), we think those stars could be us if only we had worked harder or had better coaching or whatever. The use of PEDs seems to violate the illusion.

I've held the same belief for quite some time, with a little more elaboration:

When we think of the best baseball players, they do something physically better than anyone else. Albert Pujols hits the ball harder than anyone else; Ichiro Suzuki runs faster than anyone else; Ken Griffey, Jr., covers more ground in center field than anyone else; Mickey Mantle hit the ball farther than anyone else.

However, when we think of the best football players, they do something mentally better than anyone else. Plenty of quarterbacks throw the ball harder than Peyton Manning, but Manning is the best because he knows to whom and when to throw the ball in a way no one else does. Plenty of quarterbacks were more physically gifted than Joe Montana, but he always managed to keep his wits under pressure better than anyone else did.

(I don't necessarily agree completely with the assessments of these specific players, but this is the way they've been perceived by the general public over the course of their careers.)

The point is, we believe that physical gifts separate the greatest baseball players from the very good, while mental or emotional attributes do the same for football players.

In 2006, Shawne Merriman made the Pro Bowl after testing positive for steroids. In 2010, Brian Cushing won a re-vote for AP Defensive Rookie of the Year despite having tested positive for banned substances. And so on.

Are you serious with this?

For the record, as a baseball fan, I consider the fact that we care about our baseball players and not about our gridiron ones to be, ultimately, a good thing.

But it's therefore a good thing that we "not care about our gridiron ones"?

"Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial 'we'."

-Mark Twain

YOU ONLY NEED TO PAY ATTENTION 1.5 DAYS A WEEK

Other than Merriman and Cushing, who else has tested positive?

Julius Peppers, and a large number of his teammates including the punter, did at one point.

To pick football players that I really liked in college that are now in the pros, I have no idea what Robert Sands face looks like. Or Bruce Irvin. Or even Noel Devine, who was a four year star at WVU. Then again, it could just be me.

So permit me to rephrase the question: Five MLB players have tested positive for PEDs in 2011 alone. How many NFL players have tested positive since Merriman did in '06? Cushing in '10 and who else?

Lance Armstrong will be banned from cycling for life and stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles after he decided to stop challenging the USADA's allegations that he took PEDs

I think a factor is that football players wear helmets, so you never see their faces unless they are famous, or at least important enough to get sideline close ups. I know what Nick Punto, Jayson Nix, John McDonald, Sam Fuld and a bunch of other scrubs look like and I'm not even sure I spelled all their names right. It humanizes them.

you still really only see the FACES of the QBs and some of the charismatic guys (primarily wide receivers, running backs, and Linebackers like Ray Lewis

And baseball players all, more or less, look like average Joes, while all of the padding and helmets makes even the most average Joe of NFL players look superhuman.