More Needles, Fewer Pins

The steriod issues in baseball are going to get interesting again, perhaps within a few weeks. A federal appeals court ruled that federal prosecutors (the BALCO investigators) could have access to the list of names of those MLB players who tested positive for steroids in 2003. You'll recall that under the testing agreement, those names were to be kept secret, but if enough of them were positive (I believe at least 5%), then the league would proceed with the full-blown testing-and-penalty regime.

Using the baseline 5% number, there could be 90-100 players on that list that is only a leak away from becoming public. If we were shocked by Jason Grimsley, Jason Giambi, Barry Bonds, and...um...Guillermo Mota, just imagine what we'll think when 2-5 players from EVERY TEAM show up on this list. It would be the epitome of homer-ism to believe that the Red Sox (at least their 2003 team) will emerge from this budding scandal unscathed. Of course everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but knowing that those names are out there casts into question everyone on that team- or heck, everyone in the league in 2003. Just take a look at the Sox roster from 2003. Sure, we could be talking about someone like Jeremy Giambi, Lou Collier, or Lou Merloni, but there are bigger names there, too- Nomar, Todd Walker, Manny, Ortiz, Kevin Millar, Johnny Damon- a leak of this type could severely damage a career. Jason Giambi has done a surprising job of retaining his public image and remaining productive, but I don't see Boston being quite as forgiving.

I'm very curious to see how this one is going to play out. There's some schadenfreude involved, I'm sure. Who would you most like to see show up on that list? I could name about 15 Yankees, but who among the Sox? Ramiro Mendoza? Casey Fossum (tee hee)? Shea Hillenbrand? I have a tough time wishing this on any player. Obviously they bring it on themselves, but it's still tough. Maybe the holiday season has made me soft.