Does anyone understand Statistics?

The latest sports headline on the "steroid problem" attempts to allude to the fact that the early season decline in homeruns is attributable to less steroid use among baseball players. This is frickin ridiculous and anyone with a brain would not publish this shit. Here is the ESPN link, of the Associated Press story, where the purported exports commenting on the fact that there must have been a link are Todd Jones, the current closer for the Marlins and I guess he also doubles as a statistical analyst. And then there is this gem from Joe Maddon, the bench coach of the Los Angeles Angels: I don't know exactly to what extent, but you see people maybe not as big as they had been in the past or don't look as strong as maybe they had been in the past," he said. "Some balls are hit pretty well, but they're not carrying like maybe they had in the past couple of years. So, just being a thinking person, and you know what's been going on, you have to tie them together a little bit." The key to this quote is the part about the balls not carrying as well, maybe it's not steroids, could it be...oh I don't know... the weather!!!!! If you want to use the same type of statistical analysis that these people use, you would come to the conclusion that there was a similar drop in steroid use in 1998 as well, the year of Sammy and Big Mac. Wasn't that the year with all the question marks. My point is that if you want to use these stats to show that your policy is working this year, then you will also exonerate Sammy and Mark. Since there is no one with an actual working brain in the media today, I doubt they will make this connection, or realize that they do not understand the first thing about statistics.