Sports stuff, from non-sports sources

Extracting sports from non-traditional sports sources, so you don't have to:

== From the April issue of Men's Journal, a piece by Matt Taibbi called "8 Ways to Save Baseball," which include ideas about adding a salary cap, expanding rosters and use instant replay and time controls:

"Save the Whales: Now that the steroid era is supposedly over and second basemen no longer have to look like Siberian cage fighters, can we please bring back really gross fat guys with bad facial hair? The best we've got now are Prince Fielder, Boof Bonser and maybe Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton (whose biggest competitive advantage is that he looks like he's carrying a humongous dump in his pants). . . . That's why blossoming fan favorite Pablo Sandoval is so important to the sport - not only is he the only hitter on the Giants who can reach the warning track, but he might be the only guy left in the league who's at risk of having a meatball fall out of his glove during play."

== From the April issue of Penthouse, a piece by Ed Condran called "Glory Days?" which, in addition to examining nicknames, style and money, wonders if baseball was better with drugs back in the day or not:

Yesteryear: Amphetamines and cocaine were the drugs of choice in the dugouts during the 70s and 80s. . . . Even the Pirate Parrot mascot, for crying out loud, was implicated for buying cocaine and introducing the players to the drug dealer. Who says mascots are no fun?
Today: It's well documented that 'roids were the rage during the '90s and early aughts. . . . The upshot is that an entire era's statistics and Hall of Fame credentials have been thrown into doubt.
Advantage: Yesteryear. Not to promote or glamorize amphetamines or cocaine, but, hey, steroids diminish ability in the bedroom. Penthouse could never be onboard with something like that.

More, in Sunday's newspaper edition... (linked here)