Damned Syringe

[DOUGHBOYS]

We baseball fans are strange creatures. We love baseball and we'll get our dander up when somebody utters a discouraging word about 'our' sport.At the same time, we're also strange when talking baseball with other baseball fans. Some of us want to only acknowledge steroids. Some of us want to be on the cusp of any steroid scandal. Some of us don't know what to think about steroids, still. And some of us want to disregard steroids altogether.
Each one of us could feel differently about the same subject.

I was called out by a poster, thinking me unfair for linking Chris Davis with steroids or steroid users. In our realm, it is fair to link Davis with guilty parties, and yet, also fair to call somebody else out for doing so.
It is baseball fandom in a bubble.
I don't know whether Chris Davis does PED's or steroids or some other artificial sweetener to help him hit those prodigious homers.
What I do know is that no other player is hitting as many, or is hitting them as far. Before the steroid era, we might have likened Davis to Ted Kluzewski, or Frank Thomas, or Dave Kingman. We can't do that now. Past steroid players have taken that away from us.
Now, the first thought is, artificial sweetener.

Davis is a strange case. He considers Roger Maris pre-steroid home run record of 61 as the 'real' home run record. He also turns his nose up at the names of Bonds, McGwire, and others. And his simple answer of 'No', when a tweet asked if he were taking PED's made headlines.
And with all this at his disposal, the Maris thing, the Bonds/McGwire opinion, and the simple 'No', he is still doubted by many.
Why? Because we saw Rafael Palmeiro deny usage even more emphatically to folks who lie for a living. Politicians.

So what is Davis to do?
If he keeps hitting moonshots, the scrutiny only becomes more obsessive for baseball fans.
And if he starts getting close to Maris record, it'll reach epic proportions for Davis.
A lot of folks don't believe their own eyes when it comes to Davis. He has more homers than anybody in baseball.
And, he is hitting .315.
Kluzewski had years that are close to Davis, although Davis is ahead of his pace in homers, and for that matter, ahead of most every player in baseball history in homers.
Before writing this, I looked at pictures of Davis five years ago to see if his body, or especially head looks disproportionate to now. I didn't notice much difference.
In looking though, I could hear a little syringe laughing at me, saying, "MADE YOU LOOK!"
And the little bastard is right. That syringe makes us all look.
We look, not because he's Chris Davis. There is no bias against Davis here. It is his statistics that arouse suspicion. If Darin Ruf has three months like Chris Davis, Ruf will also get tweets and have to talk about a sordid past.
The past plays no favorites.

We all have our opinions on Davis. But, we'd all share the opinion that, statistically, he has done more than any of us thought possible.
Some still can't believe it.
Take Buck Showalter, for instance.
If Chris Davis is one of the five best players in baseball this year, why in the world is he still hitting fifth?
That makes little sense.
Anybody?
Nick Markakis is an ok hitter, but he is not feared, and he's certainly not the best hitter on that team. Most Managers prefer their best hitter to hit third, or at the least, in the top four.
We can say that Buck does not want to change a good thing, but that's silly.
I can't think of an instance in baseball history when the fifth hitter in a lineup, has had twice as many homers as the clean-up hitter. Ever. Maybe somebody can prove me wrong.
In my mind, like us, Buck has not wrapped his mind around Davis being one of the best players in the game.
Davis name, still, does not come trippingly off the tongue when we think best hitters in the game, even to his own Manager.
And until that time comes, Davis will have to continue saying, "No".