Baker not concerned by steroids

Dusty Baker believes the reaction to the steroids situation in the game has been a case of paranoia.

Updated: February 25, 2004, 9:18 AM ET
By Jim Baker | MLB Insider
  • There were two well-known men named Joe McCarthy in the middle of the 20th century. One was a rogue senator who imagined that there were Communists in every walk of American life and the other was a Hall of Fame baseball manager who won seven World Series and two pennants. Guess which one Dusty Baker referenced yesterday? Mike Kiley of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that Baker, who, like the baseball McCarthy, helms the Cubs, believes the reaction to the steroids situation in the game is very much reminiscent of the paranoia engendered by the witch hunts of the non-baseball McCarthy.

  • If you want to contemplate mortality, consider how few of the Whiz Kids are left these days. With the passing of catcher Andy Seminick (who, at 29 in 1950 was not actually a kid) on Sunday, none of the starting eight are still with us. Pitching ace Robin Roberts and number two man Curt Simmons are about all that's left of that famous '50 Phils team. Bill Conlin remembers Seminick fondly in today's Philadelphia Daily News.

  • Believe it or not, 29 teams other than the Yankees are having spring training right now too. There are also going to be 749 roster spots filled by people other than Alex Rodriguez. Kevin Kernan of the New York Post writes that Al Leiter of the Mets, for one, has had his fill of the non-stop A-Rod watch.

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    Jim Baker is an author at Baseball Prospectus and a frequent contributor to Page 2. You can e-mail Jim at bottlebat@gmail.com.

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