Legendary announcer Mel Allen would be shaking his head right now because this past week in baseball can best be described as sad and sadder.

The week began with the passing away of Kirby Puckett, one of the best players of his generation.  Puckett was a player that always looked like he was having fun, playing with a joy that reminded everyone how Little League felt.  Standing at five foot nine and weighing over 200 pounds, Puckett did not win any genetic lotteries, but he worked enthusiastically to become a Hall of Fame player.

Perhaps it was Puckett’s appearance that made him closer to the fans.  After all, he was more physically similar to fans in the stands than most other players.  But size and shape is where the comparisons end, because Puckett had more heart in one finger than most people do in their entire bodies.

Even after Dennis Martinez hit him in the eye during spring training, abruptly ending his career, Puckett never said anything bad about him.  He still had plenty of baseball left, but he was happy enough thinking about the career he had, not what could have been.

And what a career it was.  When he retired in 1995, his career average of .318, was the highest for a right hander since Joe DiMaggio.  He made 10 All Star teams and won six gold gloves in his 12 seasons.  Not to mention the postseason heroics – including the legendary home run robbing catch and walk-off dinger to force a game seven in the 1991 World Series.

While, Puckett was a first ballot Hall of Famer, he never won a MVP award.  He probably came the closest in 1988 when his .356 batting average and 121 RBI were second in both categories.  Unfortunately, an admitted cheater put together the first ever 40/40 season and ran away with the award.

Jose Canseco seemed to be the opposite of everything Puckett was.  He was not friendly with the fans like Puckett, and he had a body that looked like it was chiseled out of stone.  As we now know, that was because Jose Canseco was using steroids, tainting everything he had accomplished.

Now, almost two decades after Canseco’s historic season, the steroids are really about to hit the fan.  According to an upcoming book, Game of Shadows, Barry Bonds – the best player of his generation – has been using steroids since 1999.

Not satisfied with his already impressive accomplishments, Barry Bonds was jealous of the attention Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa received in breaking Roger Maris’ record in the summer of ’98.  To get revenge – and the recognition he thought due – he decided to cut some corners. 

Of course all these players deny ever using steroids, but Canseco believes otherwise.

He was right about Rafael Palmeiro, who despite a convincing waving finger, tested positive for steroids last summer.  McGwire pretty much admitted his guilt to congress by nearly pleading the Fifth, and Sammy Sosa’s sudden failure to comprehend English did not make him sound too innocent of cheating.  Which begs the question: should we start listening to Canseco?

The man did suspect Barry Bonds of steroids, and after this week he looks correct.  Think, too, about some of the other players Canseco has mentioned.  Take Bret Boone, for instance.  How does a gold glove second baseman hit 37, 24, 35, and 24 home runs in successive seasons and then cannot even stay on a major league roster the next year? 

A fate, incidentally, shared by the aforementioned Sosa.  Finally, Roger Clemens, one of the best pitchers ever, having arguably his greatest season at the age of 43, causes additional concerns.

Maybe Canseco is wrong about Clemens and Boone, but then again no one wanted to believe him before.  Sadly – and with deep irony – Canseco may be the most qualified (and willing) player to tell fans whether Bonds is more like himself or more like Puckett.