David Barron's Wednesday blog post, he cites a recent HBO Real Sports program, hosted by Bryant Gumbel. It's an open letter to steroid users and closes with this (note: Barron did not write this, it's a transcript of Real Sports):
But even Bud's selling absolution these days. He's cheering any and all mea culpas, even half-assed ones. If you don't believe me, just ask A-Rod, Manny, Papi, Jason and the others who've come forward because they had to. There may be no crying in baseball, but there is forgiveness, maybe even enough to get you to Cooperstown.
In closing, guys, please feel free to share this letter with Bagwell, Nomar, Pudge and all those others who went from hitting homers to power outages overnight. Tell 'em fans are ready to accept what happened. Tell 'em we're ready to move on. Tell 'em that most of us get it...even if they, like you, still don't.
Hm. This seems...irresponsible. I don't think there's an Astros fan over the age of ten who isn't half-sitting on the edge of their proverbial seat worried that Bagwell's name will become tarnished like so many hitters of his era. Maybe it even feels inevitable, but to go on a respected sports talk show and throw names out (as plausible as they may seem on the surface) just seems off. Unless you're Jose Canseco. Then you're pretty much telling the truth.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
