Here's some information that you won't get from any of the so-called mainstream media outlets, the networks, ESPN, Sports Illustrated or any of the big media market newspapers.

I am going to connect the dots and show you how baseball got messed up with - and on - steroids.

This "family tree of steroids" is remarkable because it provides us with a "plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face" path from the past to the present. I promise that once you look at this info, you will find the protestations of those who say they "didn't know" to be preposterous.

And the last teaser before I lay this out is that many of the same people have been at the scenes of the crime for the past 20 years. So without further ado....

To get the perfect picture of the genealogy of this scandal, I'm going to start with what happened during the Congressional Hearings and then jump back in time to where it all begins.

This past Thursday, the "St. Patrick's Day Massacre" for baseball, we heard testimony from Sandy Alderson who has been the executive vice president of baseball operations for major league baseball since 1998. Mr. Alderson is an important figure in this whole mess not because of his current position, but because he was the General Manager of the Oakland A's from 1984-1997, the team where, and the period when, the steroid scandal took root in baseball.

During his statement Thursday Alderson said,
"In the early and mid-1980s, the Oakland Athletics embarked on many innovative programs. We were the first to embrace quantitative analysis for the evaluation of players...We may have been the first team to promote strength training and to configure a team weight room at the ballpark. At the Major League level, a former Major League player already on the coaching staff was assigned additional responsibility as the strength coach." (My emphasis.)

Let us now jump to the past.

This former player turned strength coach was Dave McKay. In 1990 Dave McKay co-authored a book titled Strength Training for Baseball with none other than Jose Canseco.

Now we're going go to another part of Alderson's statement from the hearings,
"There did come a time, however, when I did wonder whether Jose Canseco might be using steroids. There was a column written in late 1988 that speculated about his steroid use and led to a brief fan reaction in Boston during the 1988 playoffs. But his reaction to the speculation was a vehement denial, a much different response than the recent admissions in his book. Also, probably in 1989, Canseco reported to spring training markedly bigger and more physically developed than he had been the year before." (My emphasis, again!)

So, the A's had a strength coach who worked intimately with Canseco, and even wrote a book with him about his training methods, at exactly the same time the team "wondered" if Canseco was using steroids. Did it cross Mr. Alderson's mind to consult with the team employee who's responsibility it was to handle this issue and who was obviously close to Canseco?