I give a lot of crap to sportscasters on Nonsportsmanlike Conduct!, because they deserve it. I mean, Mike & Mike and the rest of the ESPN crew spend so much time sucking up to everyone who's not Michael Vick that it's disgusting. And why do they do it? Because they're afraid of making one of those athletes or coaches or someone mad. They won't say anything bad about anyone, for fear that they'll be left out of the locker room when game time comes.
That's part of the problem with where sports are going: as ESPN gets bigger and bigger, it gets safer and safer, because as ESPN gets bigger and bigger, it relies more and more on the corporate sports feeding it. That's why ESPN cut that football series "Playmakers," after all: they didn't want to offend the NFL and lose the revenue the NFL provides. As the NFL Network more and more takes over, expect the problem to get worse, not better; do you think the NFL will allow someone to refer to the Patriots* coach as "Belicheat" on their network? I doubt it. You'll hear less and less honest criticism in the future, and more and more of Mike Golick trying desperately to convince people that it's not that big of a deal to steal the other team's signals.
But I do need to give credit where credit is due, and I was greatly cheered to hear Dan
Patrick, this morning, tell the truth and not worry about offending anyone. Patrick was talking with a caller about what should be done to the steroids-users and suspected steroids users. The caller made a comment that they could let the all-time home run king into the Hall of Fame, but give the full story, and Patrick said:
"The all time home run champ is in the Hall of Fame -- it's Hank Aaron."
Way to go, Dan. Keep up that kind of commentary. While sports are not important enough to lose sleep over, there should be some modicum of integrity to sports reporting, and you're doing a valuable anti-ESPN service by not sucking up. And you other reporters, why are you worried about offending people who cheat, or the people who defend them?
P.S.: Re-read that headline again, reader. You don't know the answer, do you? That's what cheating gets you, Barry. Nobody cares about your fake record.
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Comments: 35
I put him at 498 HR's legit, and the royal family are ones with 500 or more HR's
giving you a 10, great article
What happened to integrity and honor like AAron, Ron Santo, Andre Dawson, Billy Williams, and Mr. Cub himself, Billy Williams?
Go Cubbies!
I am not a sport person but seems he is a great name in sports...Lovely tribute with those nice pics...
I don't care at all about the steroids. The problem was that most of the top players used them. I guess you could say that it was a moral failure but it was a moral failure that swept through pro sports and is far from over.
Bonds does happen to be a jerk. He was a jerk before steroids too so that's one thing that didn't change. In a way though, he had a level playing field. Most all of his competitors in his peak steroid years used steroids too. How about Sammy Sosa? :)
One thing about hitting a baseball. It's a coordination skill. Even hitting for distance is more of a coordination skill than a function of strength. Strength will give a good hitter more power but it won't help someone who isn't very good at getting the bat on the ball or hasn't mastered the complicated blend of wrist, arm, shoulder, torso, and leg movement that has to be just right in order to hit for power. That's not a steroid influenced skill. Bonds got more walks than just about anyone. Part of it was the home run threat and pitchers not wanting to give him anything too good to hit. Part of it was Bonds' discipline. Like Ted Williams he didn't swing at bad pitches ever.
Bonds had a beautiful swing. Like it or not he was a slo mo hitting lesson every time he swung the bat.
He's the poster boy for cheating in sports because he's not very nice. Roger Clemens is trying to unseat Bonds, even as I type.
It's good info to know. However, it does not decrease my animosity towards this s***head.
I just wanted to say I am finally going through what is now under 7,500 pieces of gather new mail that is in my inbox on here. So with that in mind I have finally come to a piece of mail that was addressed to me in regards this article submission you have created to share with the gather community. Thank you for taking the time and sharing your piece with us here at gather. :o)
And as well Merry Christmas... and Happy Holidays... :o)