James brouhaha

by Dave Studeman
April 05, 2008

There's a baseball brouhaha on the Internet, stoked by Bugs and Cranks' contention that Bill James "thinks steroids fueled the Twins' two championship." James didn't say that... What he said, in the Bill James Gold Mine, was that Kirby Puckett's and Gary Gaetti's years in 1984 were two of the greatest "underproducers" relative to their careers. He then went on, "Suggesting the possibility that the Twins' two World Championships may have been aided by their team being among the first to discover ... well, I'd better not go there. Nor will I point out that Gaetti was bald and had acne and Puckett died young."

This may seem technical to some, but James didn't say that "he thought" the Twins took steroids. He threw the "suggesting..." comment in there. It is irresponsible of Bugs and Cranks to post a headline that says he did. Further, you can easily interpret James' remarks to be ironic and poking fun at those who see steroids in every quirky year.

Irresponsible headlines like that give blogs a bad name.