Mad #469

Mad #469 takes dead aim at one of 2006's biggest sports controversies with a cover caricature of a massively muscle-bound San Francisco Giants slugger in full batting stance, his enormous arms bristling with syringes and his batting gloves conspicuously branded "BALCO." The headline "What — Me Barry?" riffs on Mad's own Alfred E. Neuman catchphrase while the tagline "We Stick It to Baseball's Giant Fraud!" leaves no doubt about the magazine's satirical target. Inside, Sergio Aragonés also turns his sharp pen toward the summer's blockbuster mutant movie, and the issue rounds out with additional spoofs on little leaguers, MTV, and Britney Spears — a typically eclectic Mad package.