2.28.2005
A Ghost is Born
Jose Canseco revealed that the ghost writer for his tell-all Juiced is Steve Kettmann, former Chronicle sports reporter who covered the A's. Interesting. Kettmann recently wrote in San Francisco magazine about the Chronicle's pursuit of the steroids scandal. The long, rambling piece praises the Chron reporters who broke the BALCO story ("Pulitzer, anyone?") but also reads as a confession that back in his day, the Chron was a "velvet coffin" full of lazy hacks. He includes himself:
"Thinking about Giambi and the way steroids had transformed him, I had to admit that like all sportswriters, I was a big part of the problem. By 1998 at the latest, we all knew what was going on, and yet we never dug deeper, pushed for answers, or put warnings like Michel's out there where Giambi and McGwire would have to think about them. In short: we acquiesced. Worse, it seemed a safe bet that denial and unaccountability on steroids would continue to carry the day for the foreseeable future."
If you haven't read Kettmann's piece, and you're interested in the ongoing debate on this site and others about the role of journalists in the baseball/steroids story, I suggest you read it.
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"Thinking about Giambi and the way steroids had transformed him, I had to admit that like all sportswriters, I was a big part of the problem. By 1998 at the latest, we all knew what was going on, and yet we never dug deeper, pushed for answers, or put warnings like Michel's out there where Giambi and McGwire would have to think about them. In short: we acquiesced. Worse, it seemed a safe bet that denial and unaccountability on steroids would continue to carry the day for the foreseeable future."
If you haven't read Kettmann's piece, and you're interested in the ongoing debate on this site and others about the role of journalists in the baseball/steroids story, I suggest you read it.
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