Would Ken Rosenthal Like To Yell At Jerry Crowe Now?

Since Ken Rosenthal (among many others) is the mortal enemy of unfounded speculation, everyone is eagerly awaiting his takedown of L.A. Times columnist's Jerry Crowe's suspicious wonderings over Albert Pujols' power. It should be arriving any minute now.

Remember when that blogger said that thing about Raul Ibanez and then all those non-bloggers got so worked up about it and then they brought the blogger on TV and made him look pasty white and we all had a big laugh about it? It had something do with the irresponsibility of suggesting something that may or may not be true about a baseball player when you don't have proper evidence. This is, of course, something that a serious mainstream journalist would never never ever do.

Hey, isn't the Los Angeles Times a "mainstream" newspaper? Would that make columnist Jerry Crowe a real mainstream journalist? Let's check his latest "column" and find out.

Thanks to Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, etc., fans outside St. Louis must wonder, 'Do we celebrate Albert Pujols or suspect him?' . . .

Pujols has batted four times with the bases loaded this season and three times has hit grand slams. . . .

In his only other at-bat with the bases loaded, the St. Louis Cardinals slugger delivered only a two-run single. . . .

Sadly, it makes you wonder. . . .

Yeah, those four at-bats really make you wonder. You know what else makes me wonder ... wasn't it "wondering" that got Jerod Morris in so much trouble? I thought we weren't allowed to wonder anymore. Can Outside The Lines please host another round-table discussion so that I can figure this out?

I've got no beef against Jerry Crowe, except for maybe that his column format is less rigid than Larry King's old USA Today ramblings. (That was the entirety of what he wrote about Pujols. Not exactly an in-depth investigation.) But the bottom line is that Jerod and Jerry are the not the first, nor will they be the last people, to speculate about a player's off-the-field actions in print. Like Rick Telander, who basically did the exact same thing, just a couple weeks before Morris wrote his post. So will we ever stop pretending that having an opinion column in a newspaper is different than having a blog?

BE RESPONSIBLE! THE WRITTEN WORD IS POWERFUL!

Los Angeles Times Writer Wonders Where Albert Pujols Gets His Talent [MLB Fanhouse] Dodgers' Manny Ramirez eventually will have to be in hostile environment [Jerry Crowe] Fehr leaves strong legacy ... except for one thing [Ken Rosenthal] The Unfortunate Ambushing Of Jerod Morris' Raul Ibanez Post [Deadspin] Rick Telander Defends Ryan Theriot Against Rick Telander's Steroid Accusations, All Hell Breaks Loose [Deadspin]