This Week's Idiot: Jeff Passan

Raise your hand if you're an idiot.

Hmmm... why is Jeff Passan the only one raising his hand? Surely there's more idiots in the crowd.

However, it seems this week's candidate is the first fool to shove his hand up Rick Ankiel's ass and blow this nonsense right out of proportion.

Passan says, in his yahoo.com article on Friday, "the author of baseball's greatest story this season – the one guy in whom everyone, Cardinals fans or otherwise, wanted to believe – was allegedly just like Barry Bonds: seeking glory through needles."

What? What? What? Let's get one thing clear, I've been extremely vocal and a big advocate of ridding the game of illegal substances, whether it be steroids or some small pill that big leaguers are poppin. If it's illegal, ban it. And ban the player.

That said, there is a fine line, and I mean a FINE line between Rick Ankiel and Barry Bonds. There is a fine line between Rick Ankiel and Mark McGwire.

What is that line?

Well, for starters, what Ankiel did and took was not illegal. It is now. But it wasn't then. Secondly, for anybody who is able to read, comprehend, and understand the basics of a story without feeling the urge to get your name on the front page of a multi-million dollar, yet sub-par sports URL, would clearly see Ankiel's history and quietly, and respectfully, take into consideration the HUGE possibility that what Ankiel took was a substance, recommended by doctors, to help him overcome an injury.

The Comeback Kid was injured. The 'Natural' took a legal substance, recommended by his physicians, to help overcome a serious injury. Would we not do the same? If your family doctor told you that in order to heal properly and efficiently you needed to take a certain medicine, would you look at him and say "no."

"Um, sir, in my own non-professional, non-medical opinion I think you're out of line by suggesting that I get healthy."

Is that what idiot Passan would say? No, he wouldn't. He would nod his head and say yes, then go home and ask his wife to help him swallow the horse pills because he's too big of a pansy to do it himself.

He goes on in his column:

"So expect more names to emerge, more legacies to fall, more stories on pharmaceuticals instead of far home runs. Busch Stadium crackled with life as Ankiel smacked his eighth and ninth homers Thursday, and after the Cardinals' 16-4 victory, La Russa started to wax on how Ankiel was a "marvel."

"It is kind of amazing," he said, "isn't it?"

Actually, no. Not anymore.

Not in the least.

So, less than two hours after the premature and ill-informed news was leaked about Ankiel, Passan and his yahoo buddies gathered around their water cooler and all must have openly agreed that Rick Ankiel is trash and everything he's done in the last month is worth nothing. Of course, they didn't consider the fact that they knew absolutely no facts, they had heard not a single person's story - neither Ankiel's nor Major League Baseballs, nor had they taken the time to consider a reasonable, yet less interesting storyline.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we've found a bigger idiot than Gary Pinkel.

Of course, Pinkel has a chance to regain his throne tomorrow, as he usually does every Saturday during football season.

Until then, take this bullshit media hype about Ankiel with a grain of salt. And until we know at least one truth, sit back and enjoy the Cardinals run into the postseason.

***Disclaimer: this blog was written at a time when the only fact about the Ankiel case that was known is that what he took wasn't illegal when he took it. If it turns out that Ankiel is a lying cheat and a doper, then I'll be sure to blast him as well. But no matter how the case turns out, Passan - as a "professional" journalist -is absolutely and completely out of line, and his horsecrap opinion is rooted in absolutely nothing of relevant importance.