I guess Joe Hardy and Roy Hobbs already proved the case, but Sammy Sosa's looming retirement-- due in no small part to the fact that he is unwanted in MLB-- got me thinking.

As a group-- the power hitters of this generation-- which will probabkly be known forever more as the Steroids Era-- have fallen on unbelievably bad times. Some related to performance enhancing drugs; some not, though i suspect that we'd all bet that most of these guys did juice in one form or another. But the wreckage is near-total.

1. The greatest power hitter of them all sits in his BarcaLounger as a symbol of what's wrong with his sport. Unloved--- even reviled by most-- he is about to challenge perhaps the greatest record of them all with virtually no one outside of the 415 area code rooting for him;
2. His East Bay partner in crime now rarely emerges from his SoCal abode-- disgraced by his inability to tell the full truth when the cameras shone most brightly. Popeye had a brief run of all that was good in sport from 1998-2000 or so-- now he will almost certainly be denied a spot in Cooperstown next year and perhaps for several years beyond that. He's become a national joke "Let's not talk about the past";
3. And his partner in crime-- the universally loved foil who would tap his chest and sprint to the outfield each night-- is out of work and perhaps about to call it a day. he went from Chicago Rock Star-- enjoying popularity that eclipsed Mr. Cub himself-- Ernie Banks-- to Windy City pariah in about three years. In that time his image of selfless superstar crashed upon the rocks of an overly loud boom box, a corked bat, and a seeming sudden unfamiliarity with the English language before Congress. Cubs management basically booted him out of town before millions of fans could do the same;
4. And speaking of the Cubs, the smooth swinging punch and Judy hitter from Mississippi State that began his career on the North Side and then somehow transformed himself at or around the time he met Jose Canseco into the most consistent HR hitter in the land now sits out of baseball, branded as both liar and cheat. His own ticket to Cooperstown-- hotly contested when he was thought to be clean-- now seems but a faded memory;
5. And speaking of that other Brother Bash, you know an extraordinary talent has been reduced when his only redeeming quality is the fact that in ratting out his teammates he may have helped bring reform to his sport. A sport that he mocked with selfishness, boorish behavior involving cars, guns, women and about every other sin know to man; where he disdained hard work in favor of the easy way out and became a joke for a ball hit off his head and over the fence and a pitching performance turned into arm injury-- Jose Canseco is a classic case of an incredible potential gone sour. But maybe the sin was original, for how did he get so much bigger than his identical twin?
6. And speaking of raw talent gone astray, is there a sadder case than the kid from Crenshaw who would be the Mets' great savior-- tall and lean and with a pure power swing-- wrecking his career with a different kind of drug? Home arrest, crack addiction, cancer-- it's a wonder that the Straw Man still lives;
7. What about the original 50 homerun man of this generation-- whose great bulk indicated that it was almost certainly natural talent, not artificial? the career went early as most massive types do, but the life went even more afoul. His son has made the big leagues, but the King lives a life of lying, cheating and near-destitution-- embarrassing the Prince who would be King;

and we've only begun:

8. Albert "don't call me Joey" Belle-- a career cut short. A proud and misunderstood man who was also somewhat of a misanthrope. Gunning a ball into a fan's chest; doing the same to photographers; chasing down a trick-or-treater in his SUV; and, oh yeah, wasn;t there a corking incident with him, too?
9. the Big Hurt-- Ted Williams one decade-- total Hurt the next. A career on the rocks, just short of the milestones needed for HOF status, hoping to finish strong in our fair city. but he hasn't really been right in a half-dozen years;
10. the kid. the original threat to bad henry and the Babe; the great loved player of this time, exposed in his seeming honest desire to go home again as just another selfish and brittle multi-millionaire-- a shadow of the player who dominated the AL in the 1990s;
11. igor. The name says it all about his physique, his intelligence, and, ultimately, his fate. Has a superstar who collected RBi by the bushelful ever fallen so far, so fast? He's but a ghost now-- Juan Truly Gone. We can only speculate as to the reasons.
12. Mo Vaughn came, grew and went-- a 5 or 6 year career that evaporated almost overnight;

Then there were the one-year wonders-- Brady and Luis and greg who were all able to hit 50 once-- somehow-- and never come close again. What do their accomplishments and then lack thereof say about this sport??

Have I forgotten someone?

Well, yes-- he lived here for quite some time. Thrilled us. left us. Betrayed us. And then betrayed himself and his talent. 17 million smackers a year for a shell of his past self and an admission of guilt.

And now we're left with a cold Superstar who has gravitated to the brightest lights and seems destined to break all the records and never break, or even touch, our hearts.

And Pujols and teixeira and a few others who might bring pride and not shame to our beloved sport in the future.

But collectively the 1980s-90s Power Guys are a disgrace-- perhaps equal to the hal Chases and Eddie Cicottes of the world who disgraced their sport 70 years previous. Except those guys never had riches-- the current batch had it all.

And blew it.