LOL @ MLB

After America's darling Rick Ankiel clubbed his 8th and 9th home runs last night along with 7 RBIs, I was going to talk about hoe he's on pace for 63 home runs and 204 RBIs over 162 games, and how it's really not that surprising, because when he came up he and Mike Hampton were 1 and 1A as far as the best hitting pitchers. But it's still a great comeback after the postseason meltdown that was reminiscent of Luke Wilson's character's meltdown in The Royal Tenenbaums.

Now, he's just another cheater.

The New York Daily News (don't worry, not The Post) has found evidence revealing Ankiel took HGH for a year before it was banned by MLB. Keep in mind, this isn't like banning Sudafed; technically baseball didn't ban straight anabolic steroids until recently. This is yet another example of how a potentially positive story for baseball gets ruined, usually because for years the MLBPA insisted on using steroids testing as a bargaining chip - i.e. we'll allow steroid testing if the minimum salary is raised 20%.

I guarantee some talking head on ESPN, probably John Kruk, says something like "This doesn't take away from what this kid has done," which is almost as ridiculous as suggesting that human growth hormone doesn't help you hit. My hope is that every story like this, every time steroids ruin a comeback story or the home run record or a nine figure contract, is that this crooked sport gets little closer to cleaning itself up. Finding a commissioner who isn't an owner and an MLBPA director with more interest in the health of his constituents. Until then I'll just laugh at this shit.