Steroid Cloud Hovers Over Baseball’s Feel-Good StoriesIrvin Muchnickbyline‚ Jun. 15‚ 2009Anyone who cares about good government must scour the Washington coverage critically. Similarly, if the public-health implications of sports’ steroid scandals matter, you need to read the sports pages with equal skepticism. The feel-good comeback narratives of two baseball players – Rick Ankiel of the St. Louis Cardinals and Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers – illustrate the latter point. Both Ankiel and Hamilton were on the list of athletes and entertainers, compiled in 2007 by the Albany, New York, district attorney’s office, who received shipments of steroids or human growth hormone from the gray-market Internet dealer Signature Pharmacy. |