I apologize in advance for writing this but I couldn’t resist. There were a few things I needed to get off my chest
As a responsible journalist I decided to watch the congressional hearings yesterday involving Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. Actually I was just stuck in an airport and it was on every TV. I didn’t really have a choice but to pay attention to it. To say it was embarrassing would a mild understatement. I think it was quite ridiculous and comical. To think that members of our congress spent over 5 hours yesterday in these hearings makes you wonder. Is this the best way that they can spend their time? More importantly, were we really asking the right questions or investigating the correct issues.
A couple notes that I made regarding this whole debacle:
Ø The purpose of this committee, the Mitchell report, and these pending investigations are to find out how popular steroid use was in professional sports, and how do we stop it. Most importantly, how do we get young kids to stop doing them? I feel as if we’ve completely lost sight of this. Instead it has turned into a prolonged effort to prove whether or not Roger Clemens or Brian McNamee is lying. It has become about two men. These hearings do not take place in a court of law. That was not supposed to be a trial about how was telling the truth. If you’re a high-school baseball player or a minor leaguer, are you going to think twice about doing steroids now? Probably not. The real lesson here is don’t lie about it if you get caught. Andy Pettite has admitted to using HGH. I’m pretty sure he’s going to trot out to the mound the first week of the season and will get cheered loudly by his adoring fans in Yankee Stadium. Brian Roberts admitted to using as well. His owner has gone over the top to praise him and has shown a reluctance to trade him because of the personal affection he has for him. If Clemens had come out and said “I’m sorry, I realize I shouldn’t have done steroids, but half the hitters I was facing were doing it at the time and I made a mistake,” we probably wouldn’t be talking about this anymore.
Ø The drawing of party lines and the clear distinction between the two viewpoints is quite discouraging. I know these guys are politicians, but they are not supposed to bring their political affiliations into these hearings. It’s also a bit disturbing that we cannot have a unified unpartisan view on this. Steroid use is a bad thing for this country, regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, no?
Ø A couple Republicans took special effort to go out of their way to verbally attack Brian McNamee and ignore that Clemens, who is a friend of the Bush family, was even in the room. So much so that Rep. Waxman, the committee chairman, went out of his way to apologize to McNamee at the end of the hearings. I’m not saying McNamee is a good guy, but what Rep. Dan Burton and Rep. Chris Shays did was ugly. (By the way, if you get a second, look up Dan Burton. He’s quite a character. I feel bad for people in the 5th ward in Indiana.) Did anyone think that Clemens was going to get taken to task as much as he should have? A week earlier, he spent a good deal of time walking around Congress shaking hands and signing autographs for the congressmen and women. He’s a hero to many of these people, how can we expect them to be objective.
Ø One representative, a congresswomen from North Carolina, spent the first 3 minutes of her questioning explaining how she thought it was a gross misuse of time for them to be there and how she didn’t agree with them doing any of this. After this soliloquy, I was very much in favor of this woman until she proceeded to present a huge poster with 4 separate pictures of Clemens at various point in his career. She then “asked” Clemens, “There doesn’t appear to be any physical difference in your appearance, does it?” Talk about a tough, hard-hitting question. So, you don’t think your committee should be dealing with this hearing and you think it’s a waste of time, but you took the time to find 4 pictures of Roger Clemens in the same exact position and analyzed the size and shape of his body.
Ø Both of the stories have holes in them. McNamee is a guy who gave people an illegal substance and clearly has lied about things. On the surface, he seems less than credible. Clemens’ supposed closest friend in baseball and training partner has basically said Clemens talked to him about it. Clemens’ camp has also taken on the appearance that they may have tampered with a witness. Again, doesn’t do a whole lot to help your cause. Clemens didn’t look entirely comfortable during the whole proceedings. He made many forceful and demonstrative points during the hearings, but he constantly avoided answering direct questions. There were a number of instances also where the committee had to reprimand Clemens’ lawyers for speaking up during the hearing, which is not allowed and there were also a couple of times where his lawyers leaned in to whisper something in his ear. A tactic most people saw as them “coaching” him on how to answer the question.
Ø Clemens is correct in saying that his reputation will never be restored. He’s used the “how do you prove a negative” line numerous times. Much like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa before him, Roger Clemens is always going to live with this cloud hanging over him. If he is completely innocent of all these allegations, that is very unfortunate for him. Because this may never get to a court of law, which may help him “prove the negative,” he is going to have to deal with how he is viewed in the court of public opinion.
Ø Bias aside, Clemens showed a bit of his true colors yesterday. He not only attacked what McNamee had said about him, but he threw his friend Andy Pettite, his agents, and his wife under the bus in order to save his own name. Either all of these people are in the wrong or this guy feels no loyalties to anyone. It was really a bit disturbing.
All in all, I think the day went pretty much according to how I thought it would go. We didn’t really learn anything new. I still think that Clemens did something illegal. And I still think that, despite the fact he’s telling the truth, Brian McNamee is less than a model citizen. I think the most disturbing thing was the performance of our elected officials. I think they acted in very poor taste regarding these hearing.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Ruining Sports
February 11, 2008
Are we ruining the games that we love? For many people, sports have played a huge role in their lives. Think about the things that you love about sports and why they mattered so much to you. Now are these things getting overlooked in the way sports are covered today?
Our culture has become one in which we want, need, and get information with such speed and wealth, that we have become a bit spoiled. We’ve also become a culture that is driven by shock value and “train wreck stories.” In a time when Britney Spears is on 24-hour suicide watch, 20-something actors are dying of “accidental overdoses,” it seems like the sports world is just trying to keep up. But in the process are we bringing sports down with it.
As fans, I get the feeling that we feel entitled to know everything. Most people would say that we’re responsible for paying these athletes salaries’ therefore we deserve to know everything they’re doing. Before you ask to know all the information, please be prepared to accept the findings.
The reason I mention this is because I wonder if Bud Selig regrets appointing George Mitchell to investigate the world of steroids and their relevance to the world of Major League baseball. Has the 2-year investigation and the accompanying results helped the state of baseball? Do people feel better about the sport now that there have been all these allegations of people using steroids and HGH? What was the reasoning behind fans knowing all this information? Instead of “cleaning up” the game, it seems that we’ve begun dragging the game through the mud and took the focus off the field.
We’re less than a week away from spring training and the signaling of the beginning of the season and the #1 baseball-related story is about Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. The Mets just pulled off a major trade for the best pitcher in baseball, and it barely got a mention in the New York papers. For the past two months we have been exposed to all kinds of he said-he said accusations, a secretly recorded phone conversation, and an admission of a 6-year old collection of used syringes, vials, and bloody gauze pads. I would not be the least bit surprised to hear that they were bringing Jack Bauer in to “break” Clemens during his appearance in front of Congress. Or maybe they’ll put Clemens’ bloody gauze next to Schilling’s bloody sock at Cooperstown.
You want to talk about the NFL. After an allegation at the beginning of the year when the Patriots were said to be videotaping the Jets during a game, they went into full on “F-you” mode, beating teams by unnecessary scores and came close to orchestrating nearly the greatest season in history. What were they rewarded with? The night before the biggest games of their lives, news came out that a former assistant, now living as a golf pro in Hawaii had admitted that he videotaped the Rams prior to their super bowl match up with the Patriots in 2002. Great timing to drop a story like this, right? Other than being a distraction for the Patriots, what bearing did this information have being made known less than 24 hours prior to the sport’s showcase event? Did FOX need something else to talk about to fill their 6-plus hours of pre-game coverage?
Once again, the focus had been shifted from on the field events to off the field activities. And once again, our desire to know everything took away from our ability to fully enjoy one of sports greatest days, or at least it hung over the day enough to distract people just enough. Two days after one of the best Super Bowl’s in history and a great upset victory by the Giants (you don’t know how hard it was to write that), the news kept pouring in about this story. Another US Senator was brought in to investigate the matter further and that was where many of the stories were headed. Instead of stories about the Giants miraculous victory, we were reading about how the Patriots videotaped the Panthers before their Super Bowl as well. I’m pretty sure that both the Patriots and Bill Belichick were fined by the league and had a draft pick taken away from them. However fit or unfit you feel this punishment was, why is it necessary to involve the US government in a full-fledged investigation into this matter. Why can’t we just leave things alone?
My request to everyone is the same as I previously stated. Let’s not allow sports to be dragged down the same way the rest of our culture is. Let’s focus on the beauty of the sports. Let’s keep the focus on what happens between the lines. I want to remember Hakim Warrick soaring through the air with his ridiculously long arms extended to block Michael Lee’s potentially game-tying jump shot from the corner in the 2003 National Championship game. I want to remember Ivan Rodriguez laying on his back with the ball clenched in his fist after getting run over at the plate, securing a wild card victory against the Giants in 2003, which led to the Marlins eventually winning the world series. Do I care that he may or may not have been doing steroids at the time? Does that take away from the greatness of the moment?
Let’s leave the headlines of US Weekly to the pop culture celebrities.
Are we ruining the games that we love? For many people, sports have played a huge role in their lives. Think about the things that you love about sports and why they mattered so much to you. Now are these things getting overlooked in the way sports are covered today?
Our culture has become one in which we want, need, and get information with such speed and wealth, that we have become a bit spoiled. We’ve also become a culture that is driven by shock value and “train wreck stories.” In a time when Britney Spears is on 24-hour suicide watch, 20-something actors are dying of “accidental overdoses,” it seems like the sports world is just trying to keep up. But in the process are we bringing sports down with it.
As fans, I get the feeling that we feel entitled to know everything. Most people would say that we’re responsible for paying these athletes salaries’ therefore we deserve to know everything they’re doing. Before you ask to know all the information, please be prepared to accept the findings.
The reason I mention this is because I wonder if Bud Selig regrets appointing George Mitchell to investigate the world of steroids and their relevance to the world of Major League baseball. Has the 2-year investigation and the accompanying results helped the state of baseball? Do people feel better about the sport now that there have been all these allegations of people using steroids and HGH? What was the reasoning behind fans knowing all this information? Instead of “cleaning up” the game, it seems that we’ve begun dragging the game through the mud and took the focus off the field.
We’re less than a week away from spring training and the signaling of the beginning of the season and the #1 baseball-related story is about Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. The Mets just pulled off a major trade for the best pitcher in baseball, and it barely got a mention in the New York papers. For the past two months we have been exposed to all kinds of he said-he said accusations, a secretly recorded phone conversation, and an admission of a 6-year old collection of used syringes, vials, and bloody gauze pads. I would not be the least bit surprised to hear that they were bringing Jack Bauer in to “break” Clemens during his appearance in front of Congress. Or maybe they’ll put Clemens’ bloody gauze next to Schilling’s bloody sock at Cooperstown.
You want to talk about the NFL. After an allegation at the beginning of the year when the Patriots were said to be videotaping the Jets during a game, they went into full on “F-you” mode, beating teams by unnecessary scores and came close to orchestrating nearly the greatest season in history. What were they rewarded with? The night before the biggest games of their lives, news came out that a former assistant, now living as a golf pro in Hawaii had admitted that he videotaped the Rams prior to their super bowl match up with the Patriots in 2002. Great timing to drop a story like this, right? Other than being a distraction for the Patriots, what bearing did this information have being made known less than 24 hours prior to the sport’s showcase event? Did FOX need something else to talk about to fill their 6-plus hours of pre-game coverage?
Once again, the focus had been shifted from on the field events to off the field activities. And once again, our desire to know everything took away from our ability to fully enjoy one of sports greatest days, or at least it hung over the day enough to distract people just enough. Two days after one of the best Super Bowl’s in history and a great upset victory by the Giants (you don’t know how hard it was to write that), the news kept pouring in about this story. Another US Senator was brought in to investigate the matter further and that was where many of the stories were headed. Instead of stories about the Giants miraculous victory, we were reading about how the Patriots videotaped the Panthers before their Super Bowl as well. I’m pretty sure that both the Patriots and Bill Belichick were fined by the league and had a draft pick taken away from them. However fit or unfit you feel this punishment was, why is it necessary to involve the US government in a full-fledged investigation into this matter. Why can’t we just leave things alone?
My request to everyone is the same as I previously stated. Let’s not allow sports to be dragged down the same way the rest of our culture is. Let’s focus on the beauty of the sports. Let’s keep the focus on what happens between the lines. I want to remember Hakim Warrick soaring through the air with his ridiculously long arms extended to block Michael Lee’s potentially game-tying jump shot from the corner in the 2003 National Championship game. I want to remember Ivan Rodriguez laying on his back with the ball clenched in his fist after getting run over at the plate, securing a wild card victory against the Giants in 2003, which led to the Marlins eventually winning the world series. Do I care that he may or may not have been doing steroids at the time? Does that take away from the greatness of the moment?
Let’s leave the headlines of US Weekly to the pop culture celebrities.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Baseball Preview
We’re six days away from pitchers and catchers and I couldn’t be less excited. “6 days till pitchers and catchers used to get me excited. Now it does very little. As an Oriole fan, you may be able to understand my thoughts and more importantly my frustration. If they were in the NL Central, let’s say, I may be singing a different tune.
Now I’m not saying that the National League is far inferior to the American League or that the teams aren’t as good. I may actually argue the opposite. Through the maniacal nature that is the Sox-Yanks rivalry, the American League has been ruined. Two franchises have become so overly consumed with another and have completely destroyed the hopes of virtually every other team in the league. “The greatest rivalry in sports” has turned into a one on one slugfest with 12 other teams observing.
You can’t fault anyone for getting excited about watching a Yankees-Red Sox game, let alone a seven game series. But look at it from any of the other teams perspective, and it may not be as great as it seems. In the American League, how many teams, how many teams, outside the Red Sox and Yankees, can you make an argument for making the World Series? Three? Four if you’re hopeful?
Conversely, take a look at the National League, or as some people call it AAAA. Is the National League made up of worse teams or is it just more balanced? I’d like to argue the latter of that statement. Going into spring training, how many teams in the National League have a legitimate shot at making the World Series? Ten?
The Mets, quite possibly the best team in the NL for about 150 games last year, just added the best pitcher on the planet without diminishing their major league roster. The Phillies, if Brad Lidge works out like they hope, have one of the best top of the rotation tandems to go along with the past two NL MVP’s. Throw in maybe the most complete player in the NL to go along with a number of very good offensive players. Atlanta lost Andruw Jones, but has tons of young hitters to fill his void. A lineup consisting of Teixeira, Franceour, Chipper, McCann, with all the other kids is quite formidable. Then you have a veteran staff of Smoltz, Glavine, and Hudson at the top. Not to mention they’re trying to get back to the postseason after missing it last year for the first time in 14 years.
The NL Central has its own competitive teams. Last year’s division champs added the biggest Japanese export. We saw what happened last year with prize of the Japanese free agent market. I’m pretty sure he has a championship ring. They brought back their ace and might have the most dangerous 3-4-5 in the league. Milwaukee’s “kids” are all one year older and have the experience they lacked last year when they crumbled in the second half of the year. Houston added Miguel Tejada this off-season, who is not completely removed from his MVP season a couple years ago.
Out west, we may have the most competitive division in baseball. Excluding the Giants, each one of those teams has a very legitimate shot at winning the NL and not because of “mediocrity.” Arizona won the division last year and added an ace to pair with their Cy Young winner from two years ago. Their young guys are also a year older and they get Randy Johnson back in some capacity. Colorado went to the World Series last year and was able to lock up their two best players. In the playoffs, they got valuable contributions from two young kids who only surfaced in the majors at the end of the year. They also may have as good a lineup top to bottom as any team in the NL. The Padres have the best pitching staff in the NL and added a former #1 draft pick to that staff. Even a little bit of offense makes them a very dangerous team, especially if they can get to October. Lastly, the Dodgers added a power hitting centerfielder who may be the best defensive outfielder in the game. They also added a manager who brought his previous team to the postseason for the previous 11 seasons. Throw in the return of Jason Schmidt to their rotation behind Brad Penny and Derek Lowe and the abundance of young hitting talent they have on their roster and I’m not sure there is a more balanced team in this division.
So, my point is probably that while the two, maybe three “best” teams in baseball may play in the American League, you may have a hard time arguing against the fact that the next ten play in the NL. The only debatable thing in the AL is who won’t make the playoffs out of the Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers, or Indians? So as we head towards spring training my attention will be squarely focused on the National League and the great match-ups we’ll be treated to consistently throughout the year.
Now I’m not saying that the National League is far inferior to the American League or that the teams aren’t as good. I may actually argue the opposite. Through the maniacal nature that is the Sox-Yanks rivalry, the American League has been ruined. Two franchises have become so overly consumed with another and have completely destroyed the hopes of virtually every other team in the league. “The greatest rivalry in sports” has turned into a one on one slugfest with 12 other teams observing.
You can’t fault anyone for getting excited about watching a Yankees-Red Sox game, let alone a seven game series. But look at it from any of the other teams perspective, and it may not be as great as it seems. In the American League, how many teams, how many teams, outside the Red Sox and Yankees, can you make an argument for making the World Series? Three? Four if you’re hopeful?
Conversely, take a look at the National League, or as some people call it AAAA. Is the National League made up of worse teams or is it just more balanced? I’d like to argue the latter of that statement. Going into spring training, how many teams in the National League have a legitimate shot at making the World Series? Ten?
The Mets, quite possibly the best team in the NL for about 150 games last year, just added the best pitcher on the planet without diminishing their major league roster. The Phillies, if Brad Lidge works out like they hope, have one of the best top of the rotation tandems to go along with the past two NL MVP’s. Throw in maybe the most complete player in the NL to go along with a number of very good offensive players. Atlanta lost Andruw Jones, but has tons of young hitters to fill his void. A lineup consisting of Teixeira, Franceour, Chipper, McCann, with all the other kids is quite formidable. Then you have a veteran staff of Smoltz, Glavine, and Hudson at the top. Not to mention they’re trying to get back to the postseason after missing it last year for the first time in 14 years.
The NL Central has its own competitive teams. Last year’s division champs added the biggest Japanese export. We saw what happened last year with prize of the Japanese free agent market. I’m pretty sure he has a championship ring. They brought back their ace and might have the most dangerous 3-4-5 in the league. Milwaukee’s “kids” are all one year older and have the experience they lacked last year when they crumbled in the second half of the year. Houston added Miguel Tejada this off-season, who is not completely removed from his MVP season a couple years ago.
Out west, we may have the most competitive division in baseball. Excluding the Giants, each one of those teams has a very legitimate shot at winning the NL and not because of “mediocrity.” Arizona won the division last year and added an ace to pair with their Cy Young winner from two years ago. Their young guys are also a year older and they get Randy Johnson back in some capacity. Colorado went to the World Series last year and was able to lock up their two best players. In the playoffs, they got valuable contributions from two young kids who only surfaced in the majors at the end of the year. They also may have as good a lineup top to bottom as any team in the NL. The Padres have the best pitching staff in the NL and added a former #1 draft pick to that staff. Even a little bit of offense makes them a very dangerous team, especially if they can get to October. Lastly, the Dodgers added a power hitting centerfielder who may be the best defensive outfielder in the game. They also added a manager who brought his previous team to the postseason for the previous 11 seasons. Throw in the return of Jason Schmidt to their rotation behind Brad Penny and Derek Lowe and the abundance of young hitting talent they have on their roster and I’m not sure there is a more balanced team in this division.
So, my point is probably that while the two, maybe three “best” teams in baseball may play in the American League, you may have a hard time arguing against the fact that the next ten play in the NL. The only debatable thing in the AL is who won’t make the playoffs out of the Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers, or Indians? So as we head towards spring training my attention will be squarely focused on the National League and the great match-ups we’ll be treated to consistently throughout the year.
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