HGH

JC Bradbury, author of "The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed" and blogger, recently posted that "I Don't Worry about HGH in Baseball, and Neither Should You".

In the post, Bradbury cites a Slate article by Daniel Engber that states Human Growth Hormone has little to no performance enhancing-benefits. The comments to Bradbury's post are also quite good.

At ESPN, Jayson Stark has an superb take on the many double standards we are all guilty of applying:

But at times like this ... we often find the perception of these stories as fascinating as the stories themselves.

That's because we live in a world ablaze in double standards. And we're never more aware of those double standards than we are when stories like these break. ...

Is this a player we like or a player we don't like?

Is this a player we root for or a player we root against?

Is this a player slugging his way to "history," or is he "just a pitcher"?

Is this player a star trying to "cheat" his way to glory, or is he just some poor underdog trying to keep up with the drug-popping masses?

And then there's the double standard that really inflates our blood pressure:

Is this guy one of those cheating baseball players, or is he a football player just doing his selfless best to get healthy and help his team get to the big game?

If we're looking for the perfect test case for all those double standards, you can't beat this Rick Ankiel tale. It overlaps just about every one of them.

(A few Red Sox players reacted to the news about Troy Glaus and Rick Ankiel.)