In my opinion, we often look at sports figures with higher esteem than we do politicians, even United States Senators.
So when they screw up, we turn on them, hard and fast.
A politician gets a DWI or is caught doing something else naughty, is often takes months for any sanction to be imposed, if one ever is imposed.
If it's a sports figure, the pressure is on usually starting the next day.
Ask yourself: How many politicians have fan clubs? Do we have an equivanent of a hot stove league for CEOs of major corporations? Does the "Supreme Court winter session" make folks as sentimental as "pitchers and catchers report?"
I submit that sports in general and baseball in particular spawns a faster and more intense discussion of real-life issues than just about anything in the so-called real world.