Palmer fingers Anderson

Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer suggests that Brady Anderson may have been on steroids the year Anderson hit 50 HR. Anderson's two next highest HR totals are only 21 in 1992 and 24 in 1999. This makes Anderson's 50 HR season in 1996 stick out like a sore thumb. Rumors about Anderson have been floated on the Internet for years but this is the first time I can recall seeing the accusations made in print.

I can clearly remember that at the time Anderson hit 50 - everybody was up in arms about the ball not the player being juiced. Now the controversy about the ball being juiced seems to be forgotten.

You also have to wonder if this sort of subtle innuendo will also haunt other players. For instance in 1979 Freddie Lynn hit 39 HR but his next highest season HR total was only 25. In 1979 all the Boston beat writers did features on Lynn's "new body" that was attributed to a near religious devotion to Nautilus equipment work outs.

Another player who could have questions raised is Wade Boggs. In 1987 Boggs hit 24 HR. His next highest total was 11 in 1994 (that was the only other time in 18 seasons that Boggs broke double figures in HR). Boggs ascribed his power surge to just "proving he could do it." The next year Boggs went back to his line-drive weak singles swing.

Last year Bill Mueller hit 19 HR with the Red Sox but his previous high was only 10 in 2000 (the only other season Mueller has hit double figures in HR). Mueller's success was credited to both playing half his games in Fenway and also to an adjustment Ron Jackson made in his stance that allowed for more power.

Now I bring up these three Red Sox players not because I believe that they used steroids in the years in question but because I fervently don't believe that they did. The aberration in HR for the individual years is explainable. I believe that Lynn sculpted his body using just Nautilus (he used to win HR derbies in college and he did have 7 straight seasons with 20+ HR's). Trying for power is something Boggs would do on occasion but the year he hit 24 HR he also just squeaked over his cherished 200 hit plateau so his "power" swing was abandoned. Mueller should be able to prove that last year was no fluke as far as power is concerned and anyone who follows the Red Sox knows that Mueller is the last guy you would think was using steroids.

I mention the above because of the realization that what is so insidious is the fact that while I believe that "my guys" are innocent - in my mind I believed the accusations against Brady Anderson. "Just look at the numbers" I thought.

If you do look at the numbers though you'll see that in 1996 - 16 guys hit 40 or more HR vs. just 4 players the year before. Maybe it was the ball that was juiced - not Brady.

If I'm so willing to give "my guys" the benefit of the doubt - shouldn't I also extend that same benefit of the doubt to other players like Brady Anderson?

This steroids scandal has me angry and confused at the same time. I have the feeling that many other baseball fans are in the same boat. I also am starting to believe that we'll never really know the truth.