Links of the Day for 4/14/06

by Intern Sharkey

With a couple of suspicious suspects in town for the weekend, I’ve got steroids on my mind. And I’m not the only one.

Baseball’s ambassador, the Honorable Mister Barry Bonds, is in a spot of trouble. The Feds are coming after him for perjury, based on his grand jury testimony that he never “knowingly” used steroids.

So what do we do with his 700 home runs (and his 73, and Sosa’s run of 60s, and Big Mac’s 70)? Blink and Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell has an answer: unleash the forensic economists. The reader comments are worth a read, as is Gladwell’s follow-up.

If that doesn’t suit your tastes, maybe a teaspoon of democracy mixed with a pinch of mob rule will suit your palate. The good people at Juiced? Or Not? are putting it to a vote. Making the not-so-surprising Top Ten (at numbers 3 and 10) are our pinstriped guests of dishonor.

Of course, getting the feds involved doesn’t mean things will automatically clean up; their own track record is far from sparkling. But there are other mixes of baseball and politics as well. This Washington Post column about the fall of Tom DeLay contains another:

“In the meantime, Buckham had become DeLay's chief of staff. He eventually hired me as Tom's communications director and Tony Rudy as press secretary. But he was brutal in firing some of DeLay's previous staffers. His win-at-all-costs attitude played out in strange ways around the office. He ran a fantasy baseball league that he always seemed to win, even if it meant browbeating young staffers into trading their best players to him. He was also forceful in promoting the evangelical beliefs he shared with DeLay. There were times when he would gather the staff for prayer. And I must admit, at times we needed those prayers just to get through the grueling pace of the Contract With America.”

I can see it now: “Sure boss! A Pujols-for-Batista deal sounds great!”

And it wouldn’t be a Yankee-themed Links without an A-Rod contract reference, so here it is. Mr. March is making about $26 million this year, which happens to be nearly double the Marlins’ entire payroll.

But, $200 million is no match for league-minimum Scott Baker. The President is on the hill next; enjoy the game.