Following a blog report that was brought to the attention of the Philadelphia area by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s John Gonzalez in a column yesterday that speculated whether or not Raul Ibanez was on some kind of performance enhacing substance, the Phillies’ outfielder fired back before Tuesday night’s game in New York.

“I’ll come after people who defame or slander me,” he said. “It’s pathetic and disgusting. There should be some accountability for people who put that out there.”

Early yesterday a blog called Midwest Sports Fans posted an article titled “The Curious Case of Raul Ibanez: Steroid Speculation Perhaps Unfair, but Great Start in 2009 Raising Eyebrows.”

The post speculated about whether Ibanez’s hot start to the season was a result of performance enhancing substances. The unnamed blogger presented both sides of the issue and actually presented a pretty objective, down the middle piece.

Not long after it was posted, the national baseball blog Hugging Harold Reynolds made reference to it, and that is when several readers brought it to the attention of Gonzalez, who then discussed it in his column.

While no one actually accused Ibanez of doping, he took deep offense to the very idea.

“Unfortunately, I understand the environment we’re in and the events that have led us to this era of speculation,” he said. “At the same time, you can’t just walk down the street and accuse somebody of being a thief because they didn’t have a nice car yesterday and they do today. You can’t say that guy is a thief.”

Ibanez, 37, is having by far the best season of his career. He entered last night’s game tied for first in the National League with 54 RBIs and second in homeruns with 19. Over his career, Ibanez’s 162-game averages for homers and RBIs are 23 and 95, respectively, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

“You can have my urine, my hair, my blood, my stool – anything you can test,” Ibanez said. “I’ll give you back every dime I’ve ever made” if the test is positive.

“I’ll put that up against the jobs of anyone who writes this stuff,” he said. “Make them accountable. There should be more credibility than some 42-year-old blogger typing in his mother’s basement. It demeans everything you’ve done with one stroke of the pen.

“Nobody is above the testing policy. We’ve seen that.”

Ibanez is known to be an incredibly hard worker, both in the batting cage and in the weight room, something that has impressed his new coaches and teammates.

“It’s unfair because this story should be about how hard work, determination, and desire trumps chemicals and shortcuts,” he said. “That should be the message: desire, character, work ethic. But some guy who doesn’t know me – one idiot – says something like this. They should be held accountable. It’s cowardly.”

While I certainly understand why Ibanez is upset, it is just a sign of the times that we live in. It is only natural for people to question a guy as old as Ibanez is having the best year of his career. That being said, I do not think Ibanez is doping. He has always been a good hitter, but he’s now playing in smaller stadiums against arguably weaker pitching.

In this age of steroids and cheating, everything out of the ordinary is going to questioned and, unfortunately, it should be. While I do not think Ibanez or Ryan Howard or Chase Utley are using performing ehancing substances, no one thought Alex Rodriguez or Manny Ramirez were using either.