Kannengieser: Jeff Pearlman Vs. Mark McGwire

Kannengieser reacts to a piece…that even I drew a line on! (not really…I just missed it due to a prior commitment with a deggy Turbo Fruits download)

If I had to name the most pompous, self-righteous and judgmental mainstream sportswriter around it would probably be Jeff Pearlman.  At the same time, Pearlman is also one of the most talented sportswriters around.  His pieces at Sports Illustrated and his personal blog are daily must-reads, no matter how much I disagree and am annoyed with what he is writing.  Yesterday’s Pearlman article at SI.com about Mark McGwire being hired as the St. Louis Cardinals hitting coach falls into the “extremely annoying” category.  He gripes about the hiring, on the grounds that McGwire is a dirty cheater who screwed over Roger Maris and the Maris family.

...We’ve read/heard stories like this a hundred times before from high priest moralizers like Bill Plaschke, Joel Sherman and Jayson Stark.  Interchange McGwire with Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens and we get the same tale: “The PED users of the last 20 years ruined the game, a game so pure and so innocent until the juiced era.”  The mainstream media led the prosecution of the PED users.  Unfortunately the average baseball fan is too dumb to form his/her own opinion on most topics and takes cues from these writers.  That’s why we hear “you did steroids!” chants at baseball games when Manny Ramirez bats.

I’m pretty sure one day the general public will wake up and realize the ruse that was pulled by the steroid era sportswriters.  Until that day, I’ll be thankful we have the likes of Bill James, Rob Neyer and Tom Tango to provide some relevant, non-Pearlman type insight on the PED topic.  Good luck, Mark McGwire.  Hopefully you can do your job without being hassled by athlete-hating jock sniffers still demanding “hard answers” about your Andro usage 11 years ago.