Quote Originally Posted by John Bonnes View Post
It's hard to bring any data to this discussion, because I don't know how we would measure the level of attention this issue received. I can only speak from my experience. (And we may have a generation gap here - I don't know how old you are. I'm 45, so I was paying a lot of attention to the baseball media during the 90s.) That's the period of time we were talking about - Naulty was in Ft Myers in 94 and out of the majors by '00.

Caminiti's confessions was in October of 2004. Even then, it was viewed as an isolated incident. Canseco's book was in 2005. Steroids were certainly in the news in other sports before that - just look at how many references in the article above reference "body builders" - but they were not viewed as a problem or factor in baseball. That many not seem to be the case considering how huge a story they became, but nobody was talking about this in the 90s. I suppose that doesn't mean that inside baseball it wasn't recognized, but I take a look at the quotes from the other 3 prospects and conclude that was probably not the case.
You're probably right about the generation gap, John. I'm 15 yrs older than you. A bona fide product of the 60's. Good and bad. Baseball was my life until I discovered girls and recreational substances. Then, education/career/business. I got interested in baseball again about the time Johan caught fire. Between the early 70's and then baseball was only periphial in my universe. But even with the cursory look I gave baseball in particular, and sports in general, I could see the PED usage. Remember the SNL skit "Steroid Olympics"? That was late 80's. I don't consider myself particularly wise, but someone who experienced competitive sports, and understood the competitive dynamic, and witnessed PED use in "other sports", and saw the societal acceptance of drugs in general, and could add 2+2+2, well, that person likely would see what I saw too. (I think I approached the record for commas with that there sentence.)

I guess I don't find it too surprising that baseball insiders and the media satellites serving them were/are reluctant to acknowledge PED use. There are a lot of factors in play here. Emotionally not wanting to be guilty of, or seen guilty of, a connivace or a crime or cheating. Not "ratting out" your buddies. Not admitting because of the PR hit on yourself. The actual legal liability up the management chain. The finacial rewards for showcasing record breaking.

Anyhoo, I didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. You're one of the good guys.