Way back in April and May, when the Orioles were dominating the AL East, the morons on ESPN and Fox Sports were proclaiming that Baltimore was "the real thing." Meanwhile, fans in Boston and New York, who know what the real thing is, looked at Baltimore and anticipated a collapse. This moment has come. Baltimore has lost 6 straight, has fallen 3 games below .500 and is 8.5 games behind the Red Sox in the AL East. They're 7th for the AL Wild Card, 8 games behind Oakland.
So what went wrong in Baltimore? This isn't the right question. The right question is, what stopped going right in Baltimore? Their lack of pitching was exposed. Their best player in April returned to his mediocre ways. Their lack of bullpen depth was exposed. Sammy Sosa has sucked since steroid testing was introduced. Palmeiro hasn't sucked, but that's because he's juiced.
A few weeks ago, Palmeiro was on top of the baseball world for perhaps the first time in his career. He had been quietly amassing statistics in Texas then in Baltimore. He was a member of the exclusive 500 HR/3,000 Hit club. He looked to be on his way to 600 HRs before he retired. Instead, he's tested positive for steroids. I must say, I kind of saw it coming.
It was really a matter of time before one of the big sluggers tested positive. Sosa, Bonds, Palmeiro. One of them has got to still be on it. It just happens to be the guy who lied to Congress about it. For as much crap as McGwire got for his BS, he was blatantly avoiding the truth. Palmeiro, on the other hand, flat out lied. In my opinion, he should be banned from baseball and is lucky to be getting only a 10 "Day" suspension, not even 10 games.
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