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Nationals linked to steroid bust in Florida
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A suspected steroid dealer in Lakeland, Fla., claims he sold performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes, specifically members of the Nationals and Capitals. That's what we know right now. Full details on the case and the arrest can be found here.
Beyond that, it's pretty much all speculation. Nationals Journal has printed a list of Nationals players with known steroids links, only one of whom (Ron Villone) is still on the team. The suspect, Richard Thomas, hasn't named any names of players he sold to, and so far no one is making presumptions. But everyone on the team is surely under suspicion.
There are far too many unknowns in this story to make a judgment one way or another. How long was Thomas selling steroids? What are his connections to other big steroids distributors? The police aren't even sure if they can believe Thomas' statements about selling to athletes, which leads me to believe they either haven't been following him too long or don't have any evidence that supports his claims. So we don't have to make any wild speculations yet.
But this story is out there, and the Nationals are wrapped up in it closely all of a sudden. Frankly, I have a hard time believing an offense as woeful as the Nats in 2007-2008 featured any juicers. But I wouldn't rule it out.
One interesting aspect: Why did Thomas name the Nats and Caps specifically? It's actually a test case in a long-running debate on the nature of lying. Is Thomas' claim more believable because he was specific in a detail, and because the teams he named are fairly obscure choices? Or is it less believable because of those details, the idea being that only someone who is lying would feel the need to include such a specific, random, needless detail? Your take on the matter probably depends on your cynicism about sports and steroids.
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