This has been a year of road trips and bad news.

I was in the Chicago airport on the Sunday morning when the news came out about the death of Josh Hancock. I was in the same place the night the news broke that Scott Rolen's shoulder may shut him down for the year. I was out of the country when Chris Carpenter was shut down for the season and on a flight to Austin, Texas just before a foul ball crushed the eye socket of Juan Encarnacion.

Friday morning, sitting in an Orlando airport, I read the story surrounding Rick Ankiel and shipments of human growth hormone (HGH).

My first reaction? Disappointment. In Walt Jocketty.

''If it's true, obviously it would be very tragic, along with everything else we've had happen to us this year," Jocketty is quoted as saying in the New York Daily News, the paper that broke the story.

Tragic?

Maybe I missed something but I don't believe Ankiel is accused of being an agent for Al Qaeda. I don't think those shipments contained a dirty bomb. He's not trafficking in kiddie porn, taking part in a murder plot or trying to swindle people out of millions of dollars.

Rather, he's accused of receiving shipments of something described as a "naturally occurring growth stimulant produced by a small gland in the brain."

On Friday night, the Cardinals GM had a different take.

"We know that he was under the care of licensed physicians in Florida..." Jocketty said. "All the medications and prescriptions he received were legal (and prescribed) by licensed physicians. That's all we know at this point. There was no violation of Major League Baseball rules. There was no violation of any laws."

Under the care of licensed physicians.

No violation of Major League Baseball rules.

No violation of any laws.

And there's more.

In the Post-Dispatch story, Joe Strauss goes on to explain that "scientists don't agree on whether the hormone can boost performance, but many athletes believe that the drug builds muscle mass and strength and speeds recovery times after injury."

Let's take that sentence and break it down -- focus on the second part first.

Athletes believe a lot of things, superstitious baseball players in particular: stepping on the foul line is bad luck; so is talking to a pitcher with a no-hitter in progress. They wear their hats backwards and upside down when trailing in the bottom of the ninth. Wade Boggs would eat chicken before every game. Turk Wendell would brush his teeth in-between innings.

All of this behavior is done, of course, in the belief that it brings good luck.

But believing something doesn't make it true.

Superstitions and rituals tie back to the first part - the really fascinating part of that sentence.

"Scientists don't agree on whether the hormone can boost performance…"

In fact, there's evidence that HGH doesn't help athletes at all. Writing in Slate back in March, Daniel Engbar said the most likely reason that athletes use HGH is….here's that word again…. superstition.

"A ballplayer might shoot up with HGH for the same reason we take vitamin C when we have a cold: There's no good reason to think it does anything, but we're willing to give it a try. The fact that the major sports leagues have banned growth hormone only encourages the idea that the drug has tangible benefits. Why would they ban something unless it worked?"

No proof that it works. No proof that he broke any laws. Yet writers like Jay Mariotti and Mike Lupica can't wait to pounce.

Relax. Take a deep breath. Exhale. Rick Ankiel can survive this. The Cardinals can survive this. The country can survive this.

This ain't no tragedy.

Off to Oxford, Mississippi today to watch the Tigers and the Rebels and back to the airport and traveling through Chicago on Monday. We'll wait and see what other shoe drops.

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Postscript

Mike Celizac, writing at MSNBC, on the Ankiel story.

"Let's go back to the basics, I can guzzle HGH -- or inject it -- by the quart, and I'm still not going to able to hit a 96 m.p.h. two-seamer. Same for most of you. Before Ankiel took anything -- if, indeed, he did, which can't be proved -- he could hit a baseball.

"Look at pictures of the guy. He's hardly got Popeye forearms or a bowling-ball head. A-Rod looks at least as big as he, and Albert Pujols is a lot bigger."