Spring Break
Raul Ibanez and the blogger
Mike Northup
Issue date: 6/15/09 Section: Sports
It's a pretty easy recipe to follow.
Take one late-blooming slugger who is putting up the best statistics of his career at age 37. Add a blogger who is determined to figure out where such a jump in production could come from. Mix in a little speculation over whether performance-enhancing drugs could have been involved and - voila! - you have instant controversy.
Congratulations, Raul Ibanez of the Philadelphia Phillies. You're the latest addition to Major League Baseball's never-ending steroids scandal.
Ibanez made headlines Wednesday when he responded to a post made on the MidwestSportsFans blog by the site's managing editor Jerod Morris (under the handle JRod).
Morris included a detailed statistical analysis of a number of different factors in Ibanez's improvement, ranging from his move to the hitter-friendly Citizen's Bank Park in Phladelphia to the pitching opposition he has faced. But as "unstated speculation" he alluded to the possibility of steroids, and that was the spark that lit off this latest controversial powderkeg.
Ibanez's response essentially boiled down to two things:
1. Test him any way you want (including hair, blood, urine, stool and pretty much any other bodily fluid you can get out of him) and he'll prove he's clean.
2. He doesn't take kindly to libel, especially the kind that comes from JRod's blog.
Ibanez, by most accounts from those who know him, is as hard-working a player as you will find in the major leagues and there's every bit as much reason to believe that he's earning his numbers the honest way. With no indication other than numbers to go on, it's tough to drop a suggestion like steroids without expecting some sort of backlash.
In Morris' defense, he said he is rooting for Ibanez to do well this year, but you can't really blame Ibanez for being royally ticked off over what was said about him.
Unfortunately for Ibanez, it's not the summer of 1998 anymore. These days, baseball fans are looking at statistics with a much more discerning eye - and who can blame them? Since the MLB began looking into the steroids issue, some of the biggest names in baseball have been tied to performance-enhancing drugs.
Take one late-blooming slugger who is putting up the best statistics of his career at age 37. Add a blogger who is determined to figure out where such a jump in production could come from. Mix in a little speculation over whether performance-enhancing drugs could have been involved and - voila! - you have instant controversy.
Congratulations, Raul Ibanez of the Philadelphia Phillies. You're the latest addition to Major League Baseball's never-ending steroids scandal.
Ibanez made headlines Wednesday when he responded to a post made on the MidwestSportsFans blog by the site's managing editor Jerod Morris (under the handle JRod).
Morris included a detailed statistical analysis of a number of different factors in Ibanez's improvement, ranging from his move to the hitter-friendly Citizen's Bank Park in Phladelphia to the pitching opposition he has faced. But as "unstated speculation" he alluded to the possibility of steroids, and that was the spark that lit off this latest controversial powderkeg.
Ibanez's response essentially boiled down to two things:
1. Test him any way you want (including hair, blood, urine, stool and pretty much any other bodily fluid you can get out of him) and he'll prove he's clean.
2. He doesn't take kindly to libel, especially the kind that comes from JRod's blog.
Ibanez, by most accounts from those who know him, is as hard-working a player as you will find in the major leagues and there's every bit as much reason to believe that he's earning his numbers the honest way. With no indication other than numbers to go on, it's tough to drop a suggestion like steroids without expecting some sort of backlash.
In Morris' defense, he said he is rooting for Ibanez to do well this year, but you can't really blame Ibanez for being royally ticked off over what was said about him.
Unfortunately for Ibanez, it's not the summer of 1998 anymore. These days, baseball fans are looking at statistics with a much more discerning eye - and who can blame them? Since the MLB began looking into the steroids issue, some of the biggest names in baseball have been tied to performance-enhancing drugs.
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