Following the crowd

Sometimes following the crowd can be a good thing. There is a lot of good insight in the book called The Wisdom of Crowds. However, when it comes to athletes...following the crowd is a bad thing. Take the newest num-nuts out of the gate: Floyd Landis. He has made every excuse up in the book that he didn't take steriods even when two tests confirmed it. (Except maybe that his dog ate his vitamins and replaced them with steroids).

In this day and age of steriod accusations, I would for once like to see an athlete accussed say, "Okay, you have accused me. Let's head down to the testing lab right now and take care of this rumor." Alas, no one has done this. NOT ONE!

So what does this say about the professional athlete? In my opinion, it makes all that are accused: GUILTY. I hate it but it's true. All of my childhood favorate baseball heroes have been accused. From Barry Bonds to Rafael Palmero to Lance Armstrong. I just hate to see that my all time grade school/high school hero (Mark McGuire) is on the list too. He refuses to cooperate with an investigation to take him down. I guess you could argue that those type of drugs were not illegal for baseball athletes when he was playing. There is a fine line. He might not get into the Hall of Fame because of the accusations. I just wish one "hero" would step up and squash the rumors. Only one has come close...my boy Albert Pujois of the 2006 World Series Champions St. Louis Cardinals! He has said for years that he is good ole' genetics. I believe him. He has taken test after test and has also remained steady since he joined the majors if you look at his stats.

Okay, the Cards are not champions yet, but I can still root for it!