Okay, I'll Bite

Part of me wants to let it go, but apparently I can't resist...

Mark McGwire admitted steroid use. And man, former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer earned the shit out of his crisis management fee.

Yes, it was a good strategy well-executed by all parties involved, even tears and (perhaps) genuine emotion from McGwire himself, all orchestrated to repair his image and give him a shot at becoming a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, after yet another year of receiving "yes" votes on only 25% of the ballots, when 75% is needed.

Anyway, the whole theater of the mea culpa makes me want to fucking puke.

Still, I'm giving Mark McGwire a pass on steroid use. Not only that, but I'm also giving a pass to anyone who used steroids before 2003. Shit, baseball didn't even ban them until 2003, so no one was breaking rules.

Laws are a different matter, I suppose, and if there are prosecutors who want to waste time tracking down steroid users and their dealers, go ahead. It seems like a fucking waste of resources, but whatever. I don't care.

No, I'm dropping the steroid problem onto the heads of Major League Baseball executives and team owners and management. Fuck those guys. They were the true beneficiaries of steroid use throughout baseball. At best, they looked away. But they were lining their pockets with oodles of cash as baseball hit new heights of popularity, thanks to the very steroid users/home run hitters who saved baseball after the '94 players' strike. That the players are now the fall guys for this steroid "scandal" is fucking bullshit, B&E readers.

I have less sympathy for the players who used steroids in 2003 or later. They were officially breaking the rules then.

Anyway, baseball... Ain't it great?

And for my non-baseball readers, I offer this image of one of Egypt's hunkiest soccer (that's football in Egypt) players, courtesy of blondandeffective, who describes him as a "halal beefcake specimen." Who can't agree with that?