THE WATERCOOLER

QUESTION: News came out Thursday that the names of Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were on the list of 104 Major League Baseball players who tested positive in a 2003 test for performance-enhancing drugs. While the names of baseball players continue to leak out and those caught are held up for scorn and derision, it seems that NFL players caught using banned substances receive much less criticism. Do you believe that is the case, and if so, why?

JOE STRAUSS
It’s absolutely the case. The NFL reigns supreme in its relationship with and control of media. The hypocrisy of the Shawne Merriman example versus anything within baseball is striking. The guy tests positive, receives the requisite wrist slap and returns to get the third most votes for NFL Defensive Player of the Year. The perception is that NFL media are along for the ride, much as MLB media stand accused of during the 90’s. Why doesn’t the NFL require at least the same testing threshold as MLB? It’s not meant as a rhetorical question. Why does the NFL as an institution so tightly limit access to its players? It’s a fascinating question no one seems interested in answering.

JIM THOMAS
Many of the same media members who are railing against Ramirez and Ortiz were the same ones fawning over Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire 10 years ago. There is less romanticizing and moralizing in football. In football, you test positive, you get suspended, you do your time, and you get on with it. For all the talk about steroids in baseball, how many big name players actually have been suspended? In addition, the biggest stars in football — quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers — don’t necessarily play positions where steroids might help performance. You don’t need to be a mass of muscle to throw a football (See: Joe Montana), make a defensive lineman miss (See: Barry Sanders), or get separation from a defensive back (See: Isaac Bruce).

RICK HUMMEL
A very interesting question and one which baffles me. All I can surmise is that baseball has a much longer tradition than pro football and individual statistics and records mean so much more for fans in baseball than in pro football. But, it is interesting that a four-game drug suspension in football is treated like a hamstring pull while a similar penalty in baseball is treated like a major felony has been committed.

DERRICK GOOLD
Much less criticism? Less criticism and coverage is only the start. Mark McGwire, for example, cannot crack 25 percent on the Hall of Fame ballot because he is suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs due to his famously uncomfortable appearance before Congress and because a report in The New York Daily News linked him to possession of PEDs. There’s no positive test to hang the vote on. By contrast, San Diego linebacker Shawne Merriman was suspended for four games for a positive test in 2006. There was proof. There was punishment. He missed four games. And he still finished third that season for the voting for the Defensive Player of the Year. Merriman was part of the promotion campaign for Madden ’09. Think Alex Rodriguez will be the face on Topps baseball cards next season? Those are anecdotal examples of what has become a confounding part of our sports culture. Steroids are a societal problem, not a baseball problem. Yet, steroid news gravitates toward baseball. Perhaps it’s because the NFL is the gladiator sport, the physical, rough-and-tumble show. Perhaps it’s baseball’s roots, its devotion to its history, the value it places on its numbers. Perhaps it’s the culture of the sport, of the coverage, of the fanbase. Or, perhaps the NFL is on deck, awaiting its turn to face the heat.

BILL COATS
That does seem to be the case, although the situation with the Carolina Panthers a few years ago caused a pretty good stir. I’m not sure why football is less criticized. Maybe because it’s a much more physical sport played by much bigger people who must spend many, many hours in the weight room to be able to perform in their game. Less suspicion because of that, perhaps?

JEFF GORDON
Excellent question. Performance-enhancing drugs play a big role in sports. It has been a massive issue in Olympic sports like track and field and weightlifting. It has been a massive issue in cycling. It has been on the football scene forever, from high schools on up. And yet revelations of steroid/HGH in baseball causes outrage — as if Our National Pastime is supposed to be above it all. Fans act like the Hall of Fame is some sacred place when, in fact, it is loaded with scoundrels. I guess baseball is the most romantic of all the major sports and that stirs feelings of betrayal. It shouldn’t. Ballplayers push boundaries in competition, just as all athletes do.

LUKE THOMPSON
Unfortunately, I think this is true, due to the way we perceive the two sports. Even though football is more popular, baseball remains America’s pastime, with a much more sacred history. Old records matter more, and we tend to relate better to our favorite players because they’re out there for 162 games for everyone to see. Meanwhile, football players seem less like everyday people, maybe because they only play 16 games and they’re all wearing helmets and pads that make them look even larger than they actually are. That makes it a lot easier to look the other way when these freakish athletes are caught with steroids or the average weight of offensive linemen increases by ridiculously unhealthy amounts in a fairly short period of time.

THE WATERCOOLER

QUESTION: Besides Albert Pujols, which sluggers would you most like to see perform in the year’s Home Run Derby?

BERNIE MIKLASZ
Let’s back up a moment. Actually, I DON’T want to see Albert Pujols in the HR Derby. He’s The Franchise. He has a partially torn elbow ligament. I don’t see how it makes sense whatsoever to put Pujols at risk by having him take multiple sets of maximum-intensity swings, just to give Chris Berman something to scream about on ESPN. Cardinals fans may want to see Pujols in the HR Derby; I’d rather see him play first base for the Cardinals for the remaining games on the schedule. Because if he snaps the elbow ligament, the Cardinals are doomed. Done. Finished. If the public has such an insatiable desire for homers, then give ’em what they want. MLB should turn the Home Run Derby into a showcase for the juicers. Invite Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Palmeiro, A-Rod, Ramirez, Sheffield and let’s have a freak show.

JOE STRAUSS
Aaron Miles, Cesar Izturis, David Eckstein, Brendan Ryan and Ryan Freel. Perhaps then the longest, most sponsor-driven night in American sport would take less time than the Game itself. This year’s selection process suggests that at least one player, Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, was named to the NL All-Star team to ensure his participation in the Derby. Sounds like the tail wagging the dog to me.

JEFF GORDON
Start with the hometown kid, Ryan Howard. He would want to put on a big show, right? A pure hitter like Justin Morneau is fun to watch in an event like this, too. Josh Hamilton is a freak show. If he is healthy enough to answer the bell, that would be great fun. Evan Longoria and Adrian Gonzalez are on my fantasy baseball team, so I would rather they skip the event and save themselves for second-half statistical glory.

DERRICK GOOLD
Chiefly, Ryan Howard. It is, after all, the biggest reason he’s coming here as an All-Star — because he can flat crank with light-tower power. Howard was a manager’s pick for the National League team, a favor pick, if you will. There are more deserving bats in the NL (read: Pablo Sandoval) but there aren’t any more fitting bats for an All-Star Game than the slugger back home to hit homers in St. Louis. A duel between him and Pujols would be the Must-See TV that ESPN is certainly salivating over. You could argue that the derby should be exclusively first basemen, but others who should be in the derby, taking aim at “BIG MAC LAND” are: Ryan Braun (one of the best righthanded hitters in the league), Evan Longoria (young star on the rise), Mark Teixeira (see how he does outside of new Yankee Stadium) and … Ichiro Suzuki. Word is he can put on a show during batting practice with his pop. Time to flash that 5 o’clock power under the lights of the 7 o’clock derby.

DAN O’NEILL
Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, Harmon Killebrew, Ted Williams, Joe Adcock, Frank Howard, Ralph Kiner, Ernie Banks, Dick Stuart, Dick Allen, Frank Robinson, Mickey Mantle, Willie McCovey, Willie Stargell, Jimmie Foxx, Reggie Jackson, Rocky Colavito, Yogi Berra, Duke Snider, Stan Musial and Johnny Mize.

Because with today’s bats and today’s balls, they would put on one heckuva show. And best of all, none of it would be chemically enhanced.

THE WATERCOOLER

QUESTION: With the New York Times reporting that Sammy Sosa’s name is on the list of 104 players who tested positive in 2003 for using a performance-enhancing drug, the question becomes: When will it end? If and when the entire list is released, do you believe baseball will finally start to cleanse itself of the stain brought on by PEDs or will the topic continue to rear its head for years to come?

RICK HUMMEL
This will be a topic for as long as baseball is played. Not that baseball can’t learn a lesson from this, but what we have here is an era — and baseball is nothing but a collection of eras.

JEFF GORDON
Even releasing the whole list wouldn’t shed complete light on the situation. By now, we know that PED abuse was rampant. The Commissioner looked the other way, owners looked the other way and so did general managers and managers. We know now not to be surprised by any name that emerges in this ongoing story. What happened happened. All baseball can do is remain vigilant, improve its testing program on the fly and nab some additional big-name cheats to discourage wholesale abuse. The players association could help by aggressively educating its members on this issue and former abusers could help by stepping up to discuss the matter.

GERRY FRALEY
Major League Baseball faces a true dilemma here. Release the list, and MLB sets back what has been an improving relationship with the Major League Baseball Players Association. Test results were to be kept secret, but the players for generations have never trusted the owners to keep their word. Players had nothing to gain from leaking names, but ownership did. Hold back the list, and everyone in the game during the 2003 season falls under suspicion, keeping the issue alive. Better to do that than publish the names.

In moving forward, it is more important to keep a good working relationship between management and the players’ union than it is to revisit the past. Baseball has not had a work stoppage since 1994-95, but that could change if distrust and suspicion return as the sides get ready to work on a new basic agreement. The current deal expires in December, 2011.

Most in the industry believe only a handful of players still in the game would be on a list of those who tested positive.

TOM TIMMERMANN
If names keep trickling out, this topic will keep popping up, though at some point, all the famous names will be out and the remaining players will be people most fans don’t care about. The stain won’t go away for a long time. Even those who never failed a drug test will be suspect because they played at the same time. They may have just been lucky not to have been caught. And as the Olympics show, even having tight drug testing doesn’t mean people will stop using drugs. They’ll just use different drugs and hope to be one step ahead of the law. I don’t think baseball will ever by free of the stain of performance enhancing drugs. You’re looking at a 20-year swath of baseball history where the records set can’t be trusted, and everyone else will play under a cloud. But baseball fans also have shown that, at a certain level, they don’t care about steroids and keep rooting for the home team. Baseball has shown itself to be pretty hard to kill.