SocraticGadfly: Peralta, La Russa, and steroids

December 22, 2013

Peralta, La Russa, and steroids

Wrapping up a few thoughts here based on two polls, both now closed.

Half of voters, on the St. Louis Cardinals' free-agent signing of shortstop Jhonny Peralta, liked it a lot. Approximately 20 percent disliked it a lot, 20 percent weren't sure, and 10 percent liked it a little.

Only among those with a preference, just over 60 percent liked it a lot, and 78 percent liked it either a lot or a little.

Around baseball fandom in general, and with a few players, the fact that Peralta had gotten a new contract just after a 50-game suspension for performance-enhancing drug use caused a bit of a stir.

And that leads to the other half of this post ...

On whether the Hall of Fame's Veterans Committee should have given just-elected managers Tony LaRussa and Joe Torre extra scrutiny due to the number of alleged steroid-using players they managed and wondered about how much they knew about this, 37 percent agreed with me on wanting some tough scrutiny, 52 percent said no, and 11 percent had no opinion. Just among those with an opinion, the split was 45-55 against no strict scrutiny.

Regular readers here know how I feel about La Russa in particular. I can't believe that he had no knowledge of what might have been helping the Bash Brothers A's, particularly Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco of Canseco Milkshake fame, do the bashing they did.

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And, I'll have another, somewhat related, post up tomorrow.


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