Baseball still intrigues, just more sordidly

Performance enhancers were big news in baseball last week for the wrong reasons.

Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez, two of the game's best players, played prominent roles as villains.

Ramirez was suspended for using a banned substance. A new book accused Rodriguez of lying about his drug use.

Welcome to the latest chapter in this year's summer novel that is major-league baseball.

You'll have to get used to these plot twists - sort of like getting used to a blond James Bond - because performance enhancers have become as much a part of baseball as runs, hits and errors are.

White Sox general manager Kenny Williams referred to a player who uses banned substances as a fraud.

Yes, Ramirez and Rodriguez indeed are frauds, but cheaters, druggies and enablers provide engaging plot twists.

Sometimes creative writers need bad guys to place good guys into context. Baseball has plenty of both, and the trick is figuring out which are which.

Some of the most recent best bets to be clean are Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey Jr. But can we be sure they didn't experiment at least once with performance enhancers, maybe to play hurt or to return faster from injury?

Listen, baseball still is the national pastime. It just isn't a fairy tale or children's book anymore. It's more of a walk on the darker side of sports.

Management and labor were dumb enough for decades to create a cheating culture that pollutes the game.

Little has changed since drug testing was instituted. Players still try to beat the game with designer drugs, masking agents and whatever else shady chemists concoct.

The good news last week was that Ramirez, one of the game's cartoon characters, was caught and punished. The bad news was that some Yankees fans traveled to Baltimore to welcome Alex Rodriguez back from the disabled list.

Baseball's drama - so gripping on a daily basis due to remarkable athletic performances - now periodically includes some suspicions being confirmed and others remaining inconclusive.

Manny was caught? Performance enhancers must be how he became one of the game's best right-handed hitters.

A-Rod says he used performance enhancers for only three years of his career? Sure, and I must have been short only three years of my life.

Aramis Ramirez was injured twice in a month? His entire body must be breaking down from past transgressions.

Albert Pujols' statistics are among history's best? Well, so are those of Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire.

All doubts are justified, or some are, or none are. Until proven one way or the other, they're subject to the varied perceptions of baseball fans and mystery writers.

The suspense over banned substances is just another aspect of the game now.

Like, can the pitcher get the hitter out? Will the hitter win the battle? Is one cheating, or are both, or is neither?

That's what the game has come to, more questions than answers concerning who's doing what, and when, and in what quantities.

This summer's baseball novel is as intriguing as ever but just a little more sordid than previous editions were.

Better get used to it because the game has yet to turn the page on this page-turner.