Melky Cabrera, that giant fraud who won the All-Star game MVP and told the media it was all due to hard work and God, failed a drug test recently and was suspended by MLB 50 games. In his apology, he fessed up. But Cabrera was grilled less than three weeks ago by Andrew Baggarly, a sportswriter for CSN-Bay Area, about PED rumors that were swirling in the Bay Area. Here’s what Baggarly wrote:

I thought I was doing that Friday when I chose to ask Melky Cabrera about rumors that I had heard from several different readers who had contacted me via email and my Twitter account over the past few days. I had no idea where these rumors started, but the questions were starting to mushroom about whether Cabrera flunked a drug test and would face a 50-game suspension … The rumor, to my knowledge, is a red herring. Cabrera even suggested to me that Dodgers fans could have made it up as a distraction.

I’ll link the column now, because doing so earlier would have ruined the surprise: Baggarly actually apologized to Cabrera for asking the questions about PEDs.

In retrospect, I made the wrong decision to address these rumors on my Twitter account and disseminate it to my 30,000-plus followers.

So I feel it’s important that I issue a public apology to Melky Cabrera for giving greater voice to a rumor that, to the best of my knowledge and on his word, has absolutely no basis in fact.

Lovely. Should Baggarly expect an apology now from Cabrera?

As a fan of Mike Wilbon’s work for over 20 years, I think one of my favorite lines he’s ever used is “baseball’s cheating culture.” Of the major sports – track and field and cycling do not count – the culture of cheating in MLB is by far the greatest. From stealing signs to scuffing balls to corking bats, everyone is consistently looking for an advantage. In the last 20 years, many of the greatest players in the sport have been exposed as cheaters in one way or another – Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Ryan Braun, Sammy Sosa, MVP Ken Caminti, Jason Giambi, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield, Wally Joyner, Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada, Jose Canseco and Andy Pettitte and I could keep going for hours.

Why doesn’t baseball just permit the use of PEDs? [CSN Bay Area]

* Yes, Wally Joyner was great, dammit! I have like four copies of this rookie card.