Lessons learned

There's now reason why we should be surprised by steroid allegations anymore.

Yet, we are.

There is no sport — aside from the painful "sport" of professional wrestling — that has endured more scrutiny about its lack of cleanliness than baseball. While we all sat back and watched brutes bang bombs out of parks throughout the major leagues and unknowingly idolized brutes who couldn't hit .250 but could pound 30 jackbombs a season, we turned yet another blind eye.

How so aware we were of the transgressions of countless ball players of past, and how quick we were to condemn those currently in the game who sought an edge. Bonds is villified to the point where you wouldn't want to offer to start his car in the morning; Giambi is a flat-out admitted cheater and yet back in the game, and Canseco dimed everyone out to make a few coins of his own.

We're more than exposed to cheaters in baseball.

So why do we still continue to follow the game that has such a closed mind?

A story released Thursday alleged that the new Crown Prince of MLB, Rick Ankiel, was juicing.

But, in a sport that has so repeatedly hurt followers who made the grave error of actually believing in its competitors, it's stunning that we were all so taken by storm by yet another cheater, a guy who has only been following the unwritten illegal rule that has been the back bone of this beleaguered sport.

Yet, when the headline appears, we're stil surprised? Was it that big of a stretch that Ankiel, who failed miserably as a pitcher in the bigs, was so desperate to get back to the MLB? Here's a guy who had probably the most public meltdowns in the history of sports, He was demoted to the minors, but yet when he returned to the bigs and started hitting home runs at an alarming rate, the most consensus response was: Wow, Rick Ankiel is unreal.

But never: Can someone check to see if Rick-Anks is juicin' a bit?

Well he's alleged to have used HGH, and while many hope Anks gets his act together,the fact is that we're so utterly willing to drop our opinions on cheating when it comes to sports.

Ankiel went lights out the past few days on the mound. But we're all the ones who remain oblivious to the cheaters in the most obvious sport.