John Royal takes Jeff Pearlman, everybody's favorite SI writer, to task in a post today at the Houston Press.
It's a good read on how Pearlman doesn't have much to go on with his Biggio/Bagwell + PED allegations, but there's an interesting quote from former Chronicle Sports Editor Fred Faour (in Pearlman's Clemens book, "The Rocket That Fell to Earth.")
"I had [an Astros steroid probe] all planned. We all had suspicions about Roger and some other guys, and we did a lot of digging. But that kind of thing takes a lot of time and costs a lot of money. I had an investigative reporter I had planned on hiring just for the task, but I was not allowed to bring him in."
"There was no commitment from management to go after it. So we let it die. If the players wanted to live a lie, we wouldn't stand in their way."
Now, granted, had I read Pearlman's book - which I have not done, though not for any reason - this quote would have been the subject of a post far earlier.
Royal, with your money quote:
So because the Houston Chronicle was too cheap to do any investigative work, Pearlman had nothing to glom off of regarding Bagwell and Biggio. Thus he just makes allegations without backing up anything. And because the Chron was too cheap, the reputations of guys like Bagwell and Biggio can continue to be besmirched.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
