Nostalgia for baseball's "golden age"

Before the season started, I don't think I envisioned a time when the Yankees making it to .500 in May would be cause for celebration.

Speaking of baseball, King Kaufman discusses "The Juice" with the book's author, Will Carroll, and what effect -- if any -- such things as steroids have on baseball players. One of the more curious aspects of the public "outrage" over steroid use, is the almost complete lack of scrutiny amphetamine use in baseball has had. In a 162-game season of day games after night games, cross-continent travel, and Gary Sheffield line drives, amphetamines are performance enhancing drugs which, unlike steroids, have an observable positive effect on performance. Yet they are rarely mentioned when Jim Bunning wants to burn a few modern day baseball witches.

Could it be that amphetimines have been such a big part of the game for so long that to shine a spotlight on their use would darken the rosy glow of baseball's golden age in the 1950s and early 1960s? After all, it's fine to demand that Barry Bonds's records be expunged, but what of his godfather's?