Knowing truth, hard to get pumped up

Mike Lupica: Mark McGwire finally drew even with Babe Ruth, for one season, anyway, on a September Saturday in 1998, in the great home run season of 1998, when we still wanted to believe in giants in baseball, before we knew that the jug of androstenedione in McGwire's locker was just an appetizer, in all ways.

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Only a blind moron would have believed that androstenedione was merely an appetizer, but whenever anyone raised the questions of heavy-duty steroids, apologists such as Little Mikey Lupica rushed to the defense. ESPECIALLY when Sammy Sosa got into the act. Those questioning how a 170 pounder became a 250 pounder were told to hush because Super-Sizing was all the rage what with modern nutrition and exercise regimens.

"Men are bigger and stronger today than in Ruth's era, so learn to cope..." was the snail mail response I received from Lil Mikey way back when. Lots of us had used anabolics, knew the indications quite well, but were called bigots, racists, and worse when we tried to voice an opinion on the matter. Home runs put fannies in the seats. Fannies in the seats meant more newspapers sold, and now they've taken to re-writing history to perhaps assuage a bothersome conscience.