Ankiel and HGH is why we need to lay off of Bonds, McGwire

As most of you know by now, Rick Ankiel reportedly recieved a 12-month supply of HGH back in 2004.

I still consider the Rick Ankiel comeback story a great one and will still continue to root for his success. Ankiel’s biggest fan, Will Leitch, admits that while the HGH in 2004 probably isn’t why Ankiel is playing so well now, we would be all over other players who were accused of this.

This Ankiel report helps me prove something I’ve been saying for a while — we can’t pick out specific players like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire and punish them for allegedly taking steroids or HGH while ignoring the other players.

We can’t continue to try to put asterisks on Barry Bonds’ records or keep Mark McGwire out of the Hall of Fame. This whole era is tainted. Either no one gets a pass or everyone gets a pass. Bonds, McGwire, Ankiel and all of the other alleged steroid/HGH users probably played against dozens of players who took either HGH or steroids. They just haven’t been caught yet, and a lot more names will come out as time goes on.

We still haven’t seen Sen. George Mitchell’s report, or seen all of the details from the Jason Grimsley investigation. Who knows what other likeable players could be found using steroids or HGH.

In the mean time, Sooze from Babes Love Baseball said it best, and I agree with her: We suppose that if we stopped loving everyone who took HGH before it was banned, we would have few players left to love.