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9/7/07
Bloggers' Reaction: Rick Ankiel Tied To HGH
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I had begun writing a post last night tabbing Rick Ankiel as the stud of the night and further basking in what a great story he has become (still is, really) and his deserving of some MVP consideration. Then this happened: Rick Ankiel and HGH. Yet another good sports story 

It just seems like with every great event we await the bad news. We'll probably find out Appalachian State fielded NFL players looking for revenge on Michigan from their college days.

As you can imagine, everyone in the blogosphere is a little shocked and saddened. Here's some of those reactions:

Rick Ankiel's biggest fan puts this into the proper perspective ...

Our fellow Cardinals fans will go through similar dissembling over the next few weeks -- because this isn't going away; Ankiel is going to be remembered for this much longer than Rodney Harrison ever will -- and, as Bernie Miklasz pointed out this morning, certain people will defend Ankiel no matter what, and others will think of him as a juicer until the end of time, and the truth will remain somewhere in the middle. (We certainly aren't going to stop wearing his jersey or anything.) And that, friends, is what this story is really about: It's not about HGH, it's not about the Cardinals, it's not even about Rick Ankiel. Fourteen hours ago, Rick Ankiel was what we loved about sports: His story existed in the black-white world we demand of our sports. His story was pure; it was impossible not to be happy for him.


But as much as we try to make it so -- and boy, do we try -- the sports world is gray. Ankiel is not a monster or The Bad Guy now that we know he accepted HGH in 2004. (And we But he's not the Guy In The White Hat Here To Save Our Games we all believed -- needed to believe-- he was either. His story is a human one. His story is gray. It always was.

Viva El Birdos hopes this isn't true, but than that just wishes people would stand up and answer the questions ...

walt jocketty told the daily news: "If it's true, obviously it would be very tragic, along with everything else we've had happen to us this year." i agree wth walt. the steroid-abuse saga has a million hypocrites and scoundrels, from the commissioner down through the general managers, the coaches and on-field managers, the beat writers and broadcasters, the trainers, the agents . . . . . all those guys have their fingerprints on the syringes. and now they're all running away from what they did; nobody wants to talk about it. why won't they talk? if they didn't do anything wrong, why would they choose to give the impression that they did?

i hope ankiel will bat these allegations out of the park as effortlessly as he has been swatting big-league pitches over the wall.

Dan Shanoff says this is worse than Barry Bonds ...

Why? Because everyone already thought Bonds was juicing. It was already built in to our definition of him. Bonds' pain for fans was a dull chronic one; Ankiel's is a shattering career-ender.

With Ankiel, it is truly heart-breaking: His comeback story was one of the best of the year/decade/era, in a year where we needed it. He was a restore-your-faith-in-the-game poster guy.

But yet his instant legend is as performance-enhanced as the rest of them. (Honestly? Damn you, Rick Ankiel, for obliterating what was left of my sincere faith in the sport.)

Babes Love Baseball says it all in one line ...
We suppose that if we stopped loving everyone who took HGH before it was banned, we would have few players left to love.
Instead of just downgrading Ankiel, I think we just go on assuming 95% of baseball has taken some form of HGH and call it even. That still doesn't make this any better.
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9/7/07
1

Nick Punto, Juan Pierre, Jason Kendall, and Tony Pena Jr. would like to remind everyone that they are all currently in the 5% who don't use HGH.

 


9/7/07
0
I suppose I'll be called a homer with this post but, what the hell.  I just cant see how a guy can be so evil over something he did 3 years ago, especially when everything he did or took was legal at the time.  Would this have happened now, or had Ankiel been suspended for failing a drug test, then I could see how people would call him a juicer or a cheater.  All we know is that he's linked to a shipment of HGH in 2004.  My question to everyone is how can taking HGH back in 2004 translate into a guy in 2007 driving in 19 runs in the last 7 games??  Does HGH stay in someone's body for that long??  Ankiel is still an amazing story IMO because he was able to make that transition from pitcher to outfielder and do it successfully....at least for now.  That story is definitely tarnished but to discredit everything he's accomplished since becoming a big league player is ridiculous. 

9/7/07
0
Scott wrote:
I suppose I'll be called a homer with this post but, what the hell.  I just cant see how a guy can be so evil over something he did 3 years ago, especially when everything he did or took was legal at the time.  Would this have happened now, or had Ankiel been suspended for failing a drug test, then I could see how people would call him a juicer or a cheater.  All we know is that he's linked to a shipment of HGH in 2004.  My question to everyone is how can taking HGH back in 2004 translate into a guy in 2007 driving in 19 runs in the last 7 games??  Does HGH stay in someone's body for that long??  Ankiel is still an amazing story IMO because he was able to make that transition from pitcher to outfielder and do it successfully....at least for now.  That story is definitely tarnished but to discredit everything he's accomplished since becoming a big league player is ridiculous. 
well Bonds reportedly stopped juicing around 2002 or 2003. So under your logic, people should just back off, right?

9/7/07
0
Is this the most awful thing I've ever heard? No.  Is it heart-breaking news for a sports fan with anything resembling a heart? Yes.  This news sucks.

 
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