The impact that blogs have on sports and the greater media landscape was brought into sharp focus over the past couple days after an article written by Jerod Morris of the blog Midwest Sports Fans speculated about whether or not Phillies’ outfielder Raul Ibanez was using performance enhancing drugs.

Morris’ article garnered serious national attention when it was discussed in an article by Philadelphia Inquirer Page 2 columnist John Gonzalez. In reaction to Gonzalez’s article, the Inquirer’s Phil Sheridan pressed Ibanez for a reaction to the speculation over whether he was using steroids or not. As most people have read or heard by now, Ibanez was livid and went off on the then undisclosed blogger.

“I’ll come after people who defame or slander me,” he said before last night’s game against the New York Mets. “It’s pathetic and disgusting. There should be some accountability for people who put that out there.”

Ibanez’s reaction then brought the article to the attention of the national “main stream media.” It was discussed on ESPN Radio’s morning drive show Mike and Mike In The Morning, the afternoon ESPN show Around The Horn, and the more heavy subject matter oriented show Outside The Lines (on which Morris, Gonzalez, and Foxsports.com’s Ken Rosenthal were guests).

Ibanez has since said that he would not rule out legal action against Morris, and is clearly taking this very seriously. To be fair to Morris, his article was not presented in the fairest light by the Gonzalez article (who I actually like very much), and I imagine was not presented in full context to Ibanez either.

The Gonzalez column did not depict Morris’ article entirely accurately. Gonazlez explains that Morris discusses the possible causes behind Ibanez’s torrid start to the 2009 season with an examination of the different ballparks he has hit homeruns in, as well as the different pitchers that those homeruns have come off of. Then, Gonzales says “JRod dismissed all the evidence of opportunism, pivoted like a second baseman turning a double play, and fired his conclusion into the mitts of conspiracy theorists and amateur drug testers everywhere.”

Well that’s not actually true. [I highly recommend that you read both Morris' original post, Gonzalez's article, the OTL video clip, and Morris' follow up articles, as these will give you the best understanding of what was said.] What Morris does is take a pretty well researched look at the different parks and pitchers that Ibanez has faced, as well as a historical look at Ibanez’s starts to the season. He then makes a few conclusions, which I will quote directly.

Now that we have gone ’round and ’round with all of these stats — my attempt to be an “objective man” in response to the message board comment from this morning — what can we conclude?

First off, we can conclude that I made one hell of a draft pick. Whatever the explanation for Ibanez’s great start, I’m just glad it’s happening on my roster and not on somebody else’s.

Secondly, we have to acknowledge the obvious caveat that 55 games is not a full season and is still a relatively small sample size. Ibanez could very easily slow down and finish with 30-35 HRs (which is actually my expectation for what will happen), which would still be an above average season based on his career stats, but certainly not as eye-popping and outside the mean as the pace he is on right now. The truth is that even I, the most ardent Ibanez supporter heading into 2009, do not expect him to maintain his current 600 AB pace and hit 52 home runs.

Thirdly, it’s time for me to begrudgingly acknowledge the elephant in the room: any aging hitter who puts up numbers this much better than his career averages is going to immediately generate suspicion that the numbers are not natural, that perhaps he is under the influence of some sort of performance enhancer. And since I was not able to draw any absolute parallels between his prodigously improved HR rate and his new ballpark’s hitter-friendliness, it would be foolish to dismiss the possibility that “other” performance enhancers could be part of the equation.

Sorry Raul Ibanez and Major League Baseball, that’s just the era that we are in — testing or no testing.

Personally, I am withholding judgment until we see a full seasons’ worth of stats. Many players put together terrific runs of 150-250 ABs in the midst of otherwise normal or just slightly above average (based on their career numbers) seasons. Ibanez’s terrific 219 AB run since Opening Day is just magnified right now because it came at the start of the season.

Morris never claims that he believes, or has proof, that Ibanez has taken any performance enhancing drugs. In fact, he says the opposite, that while he cannot fully trust any player in this day and age, he truly does not believe that Ibanez is cheating and actually admires and roots for him. Gonzalez interprates Morris’ comments a little symantically, and deduces that “when you put the words ‘under the influence’ in close proximity to ‘performance enhancer,’ that’s not really ‘unstated speculation.’” Gonzalez likens it to “an updated version of the old ‘Hey, pal, have you stopped beating your wife yet?’ trick.”

I don’t think that’s fair. Morris simply stated what many people have probably thought to themselves already, that you have to at least consider that a guy age 37 having the best start of his career might be getting some outside assistance, and unfortunately, if you want to be honest to yourself, you have to allow for that possibility.

Gonzalez’s true contention is that Morris brought it up at all. Gonzo is a self-proclaimed supporter of blogs and what they add to this new era of media and understands that Major League Baseball made its own bed and now has to sleep in it.

“MLB started the fire, but that doesn’t mean we have to keep it going by tossing players and their Louisville sluggers into the flames. At a time when anybody’s opinion can be quickly amplified and the weakest voices can suddenly make the loudest noise, I worry about fairness.”

I certainly cannot argue with that, and it’s unfortunate for a guy like Ibanez, who if he is clean has to defend himself against these kinds of discussions and speculation. It’s even more unfortunate that I have to say “if” he is clean, because we just cannot be sure anymore.

That being said, the fact of the matter is that we do live in a time where anything out of the ordinary is suspicious and warrants a discussion over whether performance enhancing substances are involved. I am torn over the issue of whether it is appropriate to write articles such as Morris’, essentially linking someone who has not been linked to cheating of any kind, but this speculation is certainly not reserved for us lowly members of the blogosphere. Morris sites two ESPN.com articles speculating over whether or not David Ortiz’s drop in production over the past couple seasons is a product of increased steroid testing in a follow up article on the Ibanez subject. One article is by the nationally reknowned Bill Simmons, the other by ESPN.com columnist Howard Bryant. And what about speculation over players like Barry Bonds and Mark Maguire? Neither one of them have ever tested positive for anything.

If you watch the OTL video, both Gonzalez and Ken Rosenthal made the argument that there should be standards for bloggers, that someone should not even speculate about such matters, because it tarnishes an otherwise good name without just cause. The difference between Gonzalez and Rosenthal, however, is that Rosenthal has clear disdain for the blogging community in general, while Gonzo is a supporter of blogs, he just thinks there is a code of standards that should be adhered to. I don’t recall Rosenthal rolling his eyes and telling Bill Simmons that he was being irresponsible. Gonzalez makes the argument that the lines between the main stream media and new media are so blurred nowadays that everyone has to be extra careful.

Morris consistently defends himself by stating that he never makes the claim that he believes Ibanez is cheating, but while I think Gonzalez’s metaphor is a little over the top, just by including Ibanez’s name in an article discussing illegal steroid use, he automatically tarnishes his reputation, whether he meant to or not, and I think that’s ultimately the core concern here. We, as bloggers, have much more of an affect on the subjects that we write about today then anyone could have dreamed of five or 10 years ago, and with that added influence comes added responsibility (boy that sounds cliche), but we also need to recognize the time that we live in. It would be naive to dismiss a situation like Ibanez’s simply because he has not been linked to steroids before. Neither was A-Rod. He was the squeeky clean superstar who was going to save us from Bonds. Neither was Manny. He was just too good of a hitter, with an uncanny ability to seemingly turn it on at will, to ever need an enhancement. I don’t think Ibanez is on anything, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t, and we all need to accept that reality.

* Ibanez image credit: Philadelphia Inquirer

* Rosenthal image credit: 215 Sports