- Joined
- 14 Nov 2003
- Messages
- 479
Baseball Scandal
As a lifetime Mets fan, I am extremely disappointed in baseball, and it's not because my team hasn't won a World Series since 1986. No, it has to do with this steroid controversy. This is a travesty, an aberration, a vile anomaly in a game that is known as The American Pastime.
Surely, what happened in the NBA when Ron Artest went into the stands is no greater crime than an athlete purposefully taking these drugs. Because, in truth, Artest's emotion is at least honest. Give him credit for that. A football player acts untoward after a touchdown and he receives a penalty, so why is baseball making this so easy.
Anyone taking steroids is a crook, a thief who taken away the purity of the game. There are standards in baseball: ninety feet from base to base; sixty feet from mound to home plate, and so on. Sometimes, baseball is called a game of inches. In truth, this is meant if a ball is fair or foul, a strike or a ball, or a runner is safe or out. It is not meant to indicate the girth of a player's pumped beyond reason biceps.
My feeling is that anyone on these drugs should be banned from baseball. What Pete Rose did is no more criminal, and the man who has the most hits in major league history is still persona non grata. I think baseball will stink worse than a Brooklyn sewer on a summer day if it sweeps this controversy under the astroturf.
If they start the season off like nothing happened, if the networks want to pump their ratings up with coverage of Bonds stalking Ruth and Aaron, and if he does connect enough times and breaks the record, we should all rebel in the most powerful way we can: stop watching the games, stop going to the games, stop buying baseball merchandise. I know people won't be strong enough to do it, but they should.
Ruth is no doubt turning over in his grave, and I'm sure a gentleman like Hank Aaron, who accomplished his 755 lifetime homeruns with sheer talent, must be extremely uncomfortable, especially if some baseball honchos have the idea to have him around when Bonds hits 755 and 756. Mr. Aaron, please don't be there. Mr. Aaron, you are all about integrity and this situation is all about impropriety. Please, Mr. Aaron, don't be there on the field to shake Bonds's hand.
It makes me sad to the core of my baseball-loving soul to see the game come to this. Remember "Say it ain't so, Joe" in reference to Shoeless Joe Jackson and that World Series scandal in 1919? That was one of baseball's lowest points. This is another.
Somewhere in the great diamond in the sky, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, The Babe, Roy Campenella, and all the greats (men who were honest baseball heroes we can admire) are sitting around with tears in their eyes.
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Indeed!
As a lifetime Mets fan, I am extremely disappointed in baseball, and it's not because my team hasn't won a World Series since 1986. No, it has to do with this steroid controversy. This is a travesty, an aberration, a vile anomaly in a game that is known as The American Pastime.
Surely, what happened in the NBA when Ron Artest went into the stands is no greater crime than an athlete purposefully taking these drugs. Because, in truth, Artest's emotion is at least honest. Give him credit for that. A football player acts untoward after a touchdown and he receives a penalty, so why is baseball making this so easy.
Anyone taking steroids is a crook, a thief who taken away the purity of the game. There are standards in baseball: ninety feet from base to base; sixty feet from mound to home plate, and so on. Sometimes, baseball is called a game of inches. In truth, this is meant if a ball is fair or foul, a strike or a ball, or a runner is safe or out. It is not meant to indicate the girth of a player's pumped beyond reason biceps.
My feeling is that anyone on these drugs should be banned from baseball. What Pete Rose did is no more criminal, and the man who has the most hits in major league history is still persona non grata. I think baseball will stink worse than a Brooklyn sewer on a summer day if it sweeps this controversy under the astroturf.
If they start the season off like nothing happened, if the networks want to pump their ratings up with coverage of Bonds stalking Ruth and Aaron, and if he does connect enough times and breaks the record, we should all rebel in the most powerful way we can: stop watching the games, stop going to the games, stop buying baseball merchandise. I know people won't be strong enough to do it, but they should.
Ruth is no doubt turning over in his grave, and I'm sure a gentleman like Hank Aaron, who accomplished his 755 lifetime homeruns with sheer talent, must be extremely uncomfortable, especially if some baseball honchos have the idea to have him around when Bonds hits 755 and 756. Mr. Aaron, please don't be there. Mr. Aaron, you are all about integrity and this situation is all about impropriety. Please, Mr. Aaron, don't be there on the field to shake Bonds's hand.
It makes me sad to the core of my baseball-loving soul to see the game come to this. Remember "Say it ain't so, Joe" in reference to Shoeless Joe Jackson and that World Series scandal in 1919? That was one of baseball's lowest points. This is another.
Somewhere in the great diamond in the sky, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, The Babe, Roy Campenella, and all the greats (men who were honest baseball heroes we can admire) are sitting around with tears in their eyes.
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Indeed!