So about that Rick Ankiel being the savior of baseball, serving as a foil to Barry Bonds. That whole “feel-good story of the year” talk. Those Babe Ruth comparisons. Well, it might be time to scratch all that. I’m not really sure what to believe at this point. Ankiel was linked to an illegal drug distribution company. He received a whole year’s worth of HGH. This is back in 2004, before MLB had officially banned it. Ankiel says he got it prescribed to help come back from elbow surgery. I have no doubt that it helped heal that right up.

It’s just a shame that this has to come out now, in the middle of his glorious comeback. The guy has 9 home runs already in 24 games, and he’s hitting .353. That’s insane. Probably too insane. Even though he hasn’t been receiving shipments from that company, he’s probably been getting some of the good stuff through other avenues. I bet it’s something Scott Boras does for all his clients.

It’s pretty much impossible to think anyone is innocent at this point. Why wouldn’t a guy take HGH if there’s no test to detect it? Nevertheless, there’s always that smidgen of hope in everyone’s mind that their favorite players don’t take any sort of performance-enhancing drugs. And I’m no different. Right now, I want to believe that David Wright doesn’t take anything, I really do. And I’ll continue to give him and other players that I admire the benefit of the doubt. But with each passing day, it just gets tougher for any realistic person to believe that these guys aren’t juicing. Rick Ankiel (and Troy Glaus was also fingered) are just the guys that happened to be caught this time. Next time, it could be Alex Rodriguez or Albert Pujols. Ugh.