A.J. Pierzynski and the Rumor Mill

I think by now the raised eyebrows have been lowered, the folks prone to panic have calmed and the “breakers” of the rumors have been sufficiently shamed. So let’s just take an extra 5 minutes to collectively breathe a sigh of relief and say aloud, “A.J. Pierzynski did not test positive for a banned substance.”

The rumor mill was working hard last night as folks were working hard to have us believe that A.J. Pierzynski had tested positive for a P.E.D. and was facing a 50 game suspension. No actual source was named, the most concrete that I personally saw was “somebody that I know with the team,” which coming from somebody I’d never really heard of in the first place didn’t mean a whole heck of a lot.

This morning we have multiple outlets, people with smiling faces that we recognize, making statements to the contrary:

Well that’s nice to see.

And there are more, of course. It’s not surprising that the allegations would be tossed around as the White Sox catcher is in the midst of a career year offensively. A.J. has 24 homeruns on the year, easily surpassing his previous career high of 18 which he achieved in 2005. This year’s HR total, achieved in his age 35 season is more than his 2010 and 2011 seasons combined. Baseball fans have spent the last handful of years learning of player after player that took advantage of banned substances to further their careers so suspicion spreads fast. There are, however, times when players just have big years. It happens. In fact it happened here in Chicago…to a catcher even. In 1985 Carlton Fisk’s age 37 season was a powerful one in which he swatted 37 homeruns. Prior to that he had never hit more than 26. For that matter he never hit more than 23 after. Point being, it happens. PEDs happen, big seasons happen, and they don’t necessarily have to happen together.

To folks pushing rumors for the sake of pushing them, as I firmly believe somebody did to get this one started: shame on you.