The Joy and Sadness of Double Standards

I was talking to my girlfriend last night about something that's been bothering me lately. One of my favorite football players happens to be Shawne Merriman (OLB, Chargers). Don't ask me why, I just like him. Last season, Merriman was suspended for using steroids.
Didn't faze me in the least. Kept right on rooting for the man.
Now, Don Mattingly, my favorite baseball player of all time, forever and ever, has never been accused of taking steroids or growth hormone, or any other banned performance enhancing substance. The minute he does, I'll hate him for the rest of my life.
Done. Everything I own of Mattingly will be tarred, feathered, burned, ripped up, mailed back, and shot with a potato gun.
I wonder why that is.
Jayson Stark,ESPN, recently ran an article on the double standard that exists between the Barry Bonds case and the recent light that's been shed on Rick Ankiel.
I for one am guilty of what Stark outlines as "Double Standard #1; The Likeability Test".
In theory, a good journalist is supposed to leave his personal thoughts, beliefs, and opinions checked with his coat at the front door.
That is why I never got passed writing articles for the Quinnipiac University Student Chronicles.
I despise Barry Bonds and everything that he does, eats, watches, showers with, sleeps on, and mails his credit card bills to. There is not one single redeeming quality I can find in the man.
If he was to find a cure for the AIDS crisis, reverse global warming, wipe oil off a baby seal, develop a better mouse trap, and adopt a tribe of aborigines, I would scoff and chalk it up to a media publicity stunt.
Rick Ankiel could wipe out half of the rain forest, and I like many of my American counterparts, would smile and look in awe as he walks by, chainsaw in hand.
I can't figure it out.
Stark lists some possibilities for why this is plaguing me and scores of baseball fans throughout the country, and I think he may be onto something:
He wasn't even a hitter then.
It wasn't a banned substance then.
He had a doctor's prescription.
He was recovering from Tommy John surgery.
He needed it to heal.
He hasn't been accused of any "wrongdoing."
The media is out to get him.
It's not like he's Barry Bonds or something. (Stark; Exposing Our Dirty Double Standards)