* A lesson in logic

I may be mis-remembering my old classes, so bear with me.

Players who are over a “certain age” and are enjoying a good year probably take performance enhancing drugs.

The Phillies’ Raul Ibanez is over a “certain age” and is enjoying a good year.

Therefore, Raul Ibanez is probably taking PED.

This is what it’s come to.  Ibanez, the Phils’ 37-year-old leftfielder, is batting .327 and is among the league leaders with 19 homers and 54 RBI, which project much higher than his 162-game average over his career.

“You can have my urine, my hair, my blood, my stool – anything you can test,” Ibanez said. “I’ll give you back every dime I’ve ever made” if the test is positive.

Ibanez made his remarks to the Phildelphia Inquirer following speculation about his hot start which appeared on a blog.

“I’ll put that up against the jobs of anyone who writes this stuff. Make them accountable. There should be more credibility than some 42-year-old blogger typing in his mother’s basement. It demeans everything you’ve done with one stroke of the pen.

“It’s unfair because this story should be about how hard work, determination, and desire trumps chemicals and shortcuts. That should be the message: desire, character, work ethic. But some guy who doesn’t know me – one idiot – says something like this. They should be held accountable. It’s cowardly.”

It’s most unfortunate, but we’ve heard the same thing from other players (Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, et al) who swear they’ve never taking anything, and look how that turned out.

So what do you think:  should Ibanez get the benefit of the doubt?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 627 times, shame on me.

Tagged as: PED, Raul Ibanez, steroids