What’s Wrong with Baseball

As we prepare to continue this series here is a review of numbers 7-10 of the list. Click on the titles to read the articles. Number 6 to appear soon.

10: Wimpy Pitchers

9: The Designated Hitter

8: Cheating

7: The Concept of the Closer

Don’t Give the Evidence to Goodell!

Bill Belichick is talking … finally. And, while he’s apologizing, he’s also implying it wasn’t much of a big deal.

But what’s more important is what former Patriot employee Matt Walsh has to say. Walsh says he had evidence that the Patriots taped the St. Louis Rams’ walk-through before the 2002 Super Bowl.

Belichick recently minimized “Spygate,” saying, “I take responsibility for it. Even though I felt there was a gray area in the rule and I misinterpreted the rule….”

Here is the rule he misinterpreted. Tell me how someone who is consistently called a “genius” could misinterpret such a rule.

NFL Constitution & Bylaws Article 9:

Any use by any club at any time, from the start to the finish of any game in which such club is a participant, of any communications or information-gathering equipment, other than Polaroid-type cameras or field telephones, shall be prohibited, including without limitation videotape machines, telephone tapping, or bugging devices, or any other form of electronic devices that might aid a team during the playing of a game.

How on earth could someone who is not even a genius misinterpret that, much less a genius?

Meanwhile, Belichick is denying the Rams incident and Walsh is keeping the evidence until he has stronger assurances from the NFL.

Walsh! Don’t give the evidence to Roger Goodell! Remember what happened to the previous evidence? Heaven know has much incriminating evidence Goodell has already destroyed. Don’t give him any more.

Justice! Giants Take Down Cheatriots in Super Bowl

Cheatriots fall.

Giants destroy evil empire.

Roger Goodell puts up greatest act of his pitiful career, pretending to be happy that the Giants won.

Have been away from the blogosphere for a while. My last blog post (read below) lamented the Giants narrow loss to the Patriots in the regular season. I ended that post by saying this:

One’s only hope is to pray for a miracle … an upset in the playoffs. For that to happen, three things need to take place: Pats have a bad game, opponents have a great game, refs call the game fairly.

Those three things happened … as deep into the playoffs as you can get. After I wrote that post, one comment from a New England fan told me, and I quote, “GET OVER IT.”

I’m over it.

The 1972 Dolphins stand alone. It is justice that this cheating, condescending Patriot team and coach lost. And not surprising that Belichick was not courteous enough to be on the sidelines for the final play.

Now, Senator Arlen Specter and Congress, go after Roger Goodell.

Nothing he has said in defense of destroying evidence makes sense. He was quite simply, protecting the Patriots. Their spy-gate surely goes far beyond what we have heard. We’ll never know what Goodell destroyed. But, if justice is on a roll, other evidence will surface.

Congratulations to the New York Giants. They have saved the sports world … for now.

Bobby Petrino Joins the Nick Sabin League

Bobby Petrino is not popular in Atlanta. After urging his embattled team to “play all four quarters” each game, Petrino skipped town after 13 games in his first season with the Falcons. Shades of Nick Sabin. When the going got tough, Petrino got going. The players, Atlanta fans, Georgia, and all NFL viewers are rightly upset with such a low-class display. We call upon players to display character. When head coaches show so little of it, we can only pity the players who have to play under them.

And wasn’t it tacky to hold that celebratory press conference where Petrino was heralded as the Second Coming of Arkansas football? Not only did he shaft the innocent Falcons, he also was shown partying on television right after he did it. ‘Tis pitiful for a human being to act that way.

Belichick, Patriots Prepare for Jets

Bill Belichick today, when asked how he would prepare for the next game, replied that it would be just like they have been preparing for their games. Since their next game is a divisional contest with the New York Jets, we have to wonder if that includes the use of illegal videotape, which they needed to use earlier in the season when they played their first game in order to sufficiently embarrass them. Since New England will be at home, it should be easier for them to find an alternate way to cheat.

James J. Braddock Wins Heavyweight Title

Underdog James J. Braddock, dubbed the Cinderella Man for his remarkable fairy-tale comeback, won a unanimous 15-round decision tonight against the overwhelming favorite, Heavyweight Boxing Champion Max Baer, to win the world heavyweight crown.

OK, so it didn’t really happen tonight. I just saw the movie Cinderella Man for the first time. Here was this overwhelming underdog, an honest family man, facing off against the arrogant, womanizing champion. The world wanted him to beat all odds and win. It defied reality but he did it. And this was not fiction; it really happened.

So I’m thinking, there’s a parallel here with the NFL this year. Braddock: All the massive underdog, honest teams. Baer: The dishonest, arrogant, womanizing Patriots. There is hope! If Braddock beat Baer, some decent group of guys could beat the villainous Pats.

Then Hollywood can make it into a movie.

Consequences Escalate for Marion Jones

Marion Jones is already infamous … and a possible jail term looms. The International Association of Athletics Federation voided all of her results since September 2000, including her Olympic and world championship titles. They also told her to return her all the prize money she won for those events … some $700,000.

Jones claims she is broke.

(Read the original story.)

Sports Soaps Top 5 of the Week

The U.S. sports scene has been providing a bumper crop of soap operas.

1. Barry Bonds: Finally indicted.
2. A-Rod: Mr. Not-October slinks back to New York.
3. O.J.: Is America ready for another trial?
4. Stephon Marbury: AWOL egoist pays.
5. Ricky Williams: Desperate Dolphins tap sober former-superstar.

Dishonorable Mention:

Joe Glenn/Kyle Whittingham: Coaches prove they can be less mature than the students they coach. [story]
Michael Vick: Continuing saga.
Belichick/Patriots: The coach fans love to hate.

Bonds Indicted: Career Over

Barry Bonds has been indicted for multiple counts of perjury and obstruction of justice four years after his testimony before the grand jury that he did not knowingly take performance-enhancing drugs. The baseball world is wondering, Why now?

Did they wait for him to break the record? What do they suddenly have now that they didn’t have before?

Regardless, his career is certainly over. A debatable value as a DH, most likely in nearby Oakland for the A’s, Bonds has lost his options. No g.m. is going to want to add a circus to their 2008 schedule. And, of course, he may not be at liberty to play anyway.

It’s a sad day for baseball. Some fans, mostly in San Francisco, were holding out hope of his innocence. And while those hopes have not been entirely dashed—he could still be found innocent—most expect a guilty verdict to be inevitable.

Now we can look forward to months of news dominated by the Bonds and O.J. cases. Remember when sports were what mattered in the sports world?

Marbury Soaps

The New York Knicks fined Stephon Marbury more than $180,000 for missing Tuesday night’s game at Phoenix.

Marbury says he has something on Isiah Thomas and threatens blackmail.

What will happen in the continuing saga of Stephon Marbury?

Get rid of him. This guy is a loser. It’s the same Marbury who defended Michael Vick’s dogfighting as a “sport.” Now he’s playing loose with his team commitment.

Which will be the next team to be afflicted with him?

The One Thing the Patriots Don’t Have

October 28 final score: New England Patriots 52 Washington Redskins 7.

Embarrassing? Yes. For both teams.

The ’Skins’ Randall Godfrey, after the close of the game, reportedly confronted Bill Belichick. “You need to show some respect for the game,” he said, referring to the Patriots obvious running up of the score. Here’s what he told NBCSports.com he said:

“I told him, ‘You need to show some respect for the game.’ You just don’t do that. I don’t care how bad it is. You’re up 35 points and you’re still throwing deep? That’s no respect….

“You look at all the great head coaches … I’m just disappointed,” he said. “You gotta show some class, show some respect. Joe Gibbs? We wouldn’t have done that. Bill Walsh? You wouldn’t see those types of guys doing that stuff. I’ve never seen nothing like that. Most teams, you get up like that you sit on the ball and try to run the time out. They’re up 30-some points and they’re throwing deep. That was blatant disrespect. I hope we can see them again, definitely. You don’t see Joe Gibbs doing that. You can’t even imagine that kind of stuff coming from him. Joe Gibbs. Bill Walsh. Bill Parcells. This isn’t like college going for power rankings. This is the pros you show some respect, show some class.”

I have to say Godfrey is out of line on most of this. Spare us your sour grapes when you’ve just been obliterated on the field. Losers don’t get to cross examine their conquerors.

But there was definitely some lack of respect shown by the Pats, like Wes Welker’s in-your-face playground-like spiking after scoring the TD that led to a 45-0 lead; and Matt Cassell celebrating by winding up and spiking for his touchdown in garbage time. (That’s like some NBA scrub doing a dance for getting a meaningless lay-in as time expires.)

Tom Jackson said the Pats were getting “frenzied” as they poured it on the hapless Redskins. “They want to pound people into submission,” said Steve Young (who once did a kneel down on the Niners’ opponents’ 1-yard line at the close of a game).

Even the Pats’ owners appeared uncomfortable with the run-up. They have felt embarrassed by video-gate; now their scrubs are doing dances late in a rout?

There is another reason we could expect Belichick to lay off.

”It’s risk/reward,” said Bill Cowher. “How long do you want your starters to play? You want to be careful. At some point, if this continues, someone is going to take a cheap shot. Is that worth subjecting your players to if it comes to that? The risk [Belichick] is taking is that guys could get hurt in those situations. That’s his decision as a coach, and he has a right to do it.”

Players and coaches should all react with the same class Joe Gibbs did, who took the high road. He said he had nothing against what the Pats did. And you can’t argue. They have every right to run up the score. It’s just that previous dynasties didn’t do it. But that’s up to Belichick. Belichick still looks cowed and sheepish at his press conferences. He gives curt, mumbled answers and gives every appearance of a shame-faced malefactor who can only talk on the field, not eye-to-eye.

The difference between Gibbs and Belichick? One word: class. Gibbs has it; Belichick doesn’t. I doubt he even knows what it is. The great coaches of the past had it; that’s why, though Bill B. will be on the same level as many of the great coaches of the past, he will never be in their class.

So the Patriots do indeed have almost everything. The one thing they don’t have is class.

The Finger and the Run-Up: Two Coaches Make Very Bad Decisions in Same Game

Wyoming coach Joe Glenn made a very bad decision in the midst of his team’s 50-0 drubbing at the hands of Utah Saturday. Moments before, Utes coach Kyle Whittingham had also made a bad decision.

Ahead 43-0 and kicking off following a field goal, the Utes executed an unsuccessful onsides kick, an obvious attempt to run up the score. Glenn flashed his middle finger at Whittingham, a surprising loss of good judgment for an NCAA coach.

Glenn had more than one reason to be embarrassed. Besides being down 43-0 at the time, he was clearly replaying in his head the tape of him guaranteeing a victory over Utah at a school function earlier in the week. This is also a surprising loss of good judgment for an NCAA coach.

Glenn was reprimanded by his conference. Today he apologized. He initially claimed he didn’t remember the gesture, but eventually acknowledged it. “I met with my team on Sunday and apologized to them for the gesture I made toward the Utah bench during the game,” Glenn said. “I also want to apologize to all fans for that action. Football is an emotional game, and I let my emotions get the best of me. I felt it was appropriate for me to let my team and all fans know that I am truly sorry for that emotional moment.”

For his part, Whittingham also acknowledged the onsides kick while up 43-0 was indeed a “bad decision.”

Both of these coaches get bad marks for character. Forgiveness, when asked, should be given. But both of these guys need to make some kind of positive contribution to the character of the young men they lead, to make up for the bad influence their actions conveyed.

NCAA coaches are big boys. They should know better. And they should care more about making a positive impact on young lives than throwing an obscene tirade at an enemy or trying to grind a guy’s face in the dirt for something he foolishly said.

Now, having apologized, Joe Glenn and Kyle Whittingham need to do some “community service.” They need to make some kind of clear positive contribution to make up for their childish antics. And they both need to grow up.

What’s Wrong With Baseball #8: Cheating

Cheating would come in at No. 1 if I were currently doing a series on What’s Wrong With Football. And there would be something about Belichick and video tape. But baseball is far from being above the cheating fray. And it never has been. While Bill Belichick has taken cheating to a whole new level of sophistication, similar things have been done in baseball for a long time, though not quite in such a refined manner (e.g., binoculars in the scoreboard stealing signs).

The cheating that stands out right now … I mean right now … is steroids, and related substances. I really hope there is a way Paul Byrd can be found innocent. (See “Byrd Revelation Casts Pall Over Indians-Red Sox Game 7.”) Barry Bonds is still on the hook, though nothing has yet been proven. Then we have Giambi.

Perhaps the most disappointing is Mark McGwire, who has disappeared since his sworn testimony evaporated.

Let’s be honest about cheating. It has been part of the national pastime in more ways than can be enumerated from memory.

There was the out-in-the-open dirty play … Ty Cobb sliding into the bag with his spikes high.

Gamblers fixed games … whatever one believes about the Black Sox … perhaps the worst form of cheating.

There was one that was so universally used that they had to create a rule to prevent it … the spitter. Gaylord Perry, where are you now? We even hear about little edges that Hall-of-Fame greats like Whitey Ford used to get … digging a wedding ring into a ball, for example.

My goal is not to list all the types of cheating in baseball. You can stretch the whole ethics issue here. How about a catcher framing a pitch to try to fool the umpire? I remember once playing first base in a pick-up game. One of our infielders tossed me a ground ball, which arrived at about the same time as the runner, but clearly beat him. I had to come into the line to get the wide throw and the runner slammed into me. I went sprawling, tearing a brand-new pair of pants (in the days before rips became desirable).

The runner jumped off the ground. “He didn’t touch the bag,” he yelled repeatedly. Everyone considered him out. I was the only one who knew he was right. But I was ticked about the pants. I didn’t say I did touch the bag, but I didn’t say I didn’t either. So he was out. That was unethical … and now it’s finally off my chest.

My point is … even little forms of cheating, like trying to get an edge with the umps, are cheating.

We would all love it if we could free the game of the big cheats and forms of cheating. But how about we just expect adults who play baseball to be honest. Now, wouldn’t that be refreshing?

I Missed This About Brady and Belichick

In yesterday’s post “Brady’s Six TD Passes: Are You Kidding Me?” I finished with, “It seems like I should say something about Bill Belichick, cheating and video tape here, but … forget it. They just plain dominated.”

Now I learn I was too kind. I did not see the game and wrote the post as a tip of the hat to a team I have been down on since Videogate. I didn’t have the whole story. Here’s a quote from an AP story:

“Tom Brady was flawless at the start and off the bench, too. With his team winning easily, Brady came out of the game early in the fourth quarter Sunday, then re-entered to throw a team-record sixth touchdown pass, capping unbeaten New England’s 49-28 rout of the winless Miami Dolphins.”

He actually played into the fourth quarter before coming out, and when the scrubs couldn’t dominate, Belichick actually put Brady back in to run up the score. I hear he was less than pleased by questions about running up the score. This is something Bill Walsh would never have done with his dominant Niner teams. But then Belichick bears no resemblance to Walsh … at least when it comes to ethics.

Byrd Revelation Casts Pall Over Indians-Red Sox Game 7

I have said that game sevens are heaven—seventh heaven if you will—for baseball fans. It is unfortunate when anything takes away from those magical games. But a blog called Sports and Ethics can’t ignore the current revelation about Cleveland starter Paul Byrd.

“Byrd, whose win in Game 4 of the ALCS moved the Indians within one victory of the World Series, bought nearly $25,000 worth of human growth hormone and syringes from 2002 to 2005, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday.” (Read the full report here.)

Baseball doesn’t need this. One normally associates steroids with power hitters, like the accusations against Barry Bonds. But a non-superstar-type player seems to have the most to gain from such use. Byrd has denied the accusations in the past. The timing of this revelation seems political, like something that would happen near election time. Game 7 is the closest to election time in baseball there is. It is a shame to see this now. It is even a worse shame if it is true.

No matter what happens, we will be hearing a lot more on this. If the Indians pull one out tonight, it will become front and center until the end of the World Series.

Lofton, Grow Up

This is the playoffs. Don’t act like a little kid.

In the fifth inning, after Kenny Lofton dropped his bat on a 3-0 pitch that was called a strike (and was a strike), he popped up on the next pitch. Beckett yelled something at Lofton and Lofton barked all the way down the first base line, then crossed into the field toward Beckett before being separated from Beckett by umpires. The teams left the dugouts.

Come on, guys, this is the playoffs. Lofton should probably have been ejected but they don’t want to do that in a game of this magnitude. Both of you, play the game and put your insults in your pockets.

Lofton, especially … the old man of the series … should be above this kind of display. And he is more at fault than Beckett, who apparently just barked an impulsive shout. Lofton released a stream of invective and then moved menacingly toward the Red Sox ace. We don’t need to see this, from either man … definitely not from the most-seasoned veteran.

I like Kenny Lofton. He even played for my favorite team once. (Of course he’s played for just about everyone’s favorite team at least once.) But this is beneath him. It’s beneath any Major Leaguer. It’s beneath any adult.

So Kenny, grow up. You can start by apologizing to the fans.

The Juice in Hot Water

Out of principal I have resisted doing anything about O.J. Simpson up to now. But a blog called “Sports and Ethics” has to eventually get to the most unethical of sports figures.

When he confronted two sports memorabilia dealers, according to a co-defendant Walter Alexander, who has copped a plea and will testify against the Hall of Famer, “O.J. said, ‘Hey, just bring some firearms.”‘

Simpson said the guns were “so that these people know that, you know, we’re here for business.”

Apparently one of Simpson’s men got carried away and flashed the gun, but there is no proof O.J. tried to restrain him.

Co-defendant Charles Cashmore has also agreed to a plea deal. And the Juice is in trouble.

How the mighty have fallen. There are plenty of accounts of wayward superstars, a few who have gotten into crime. But O.J.’s true story reads like bad fiction. The things he keeps getting involved in—alleged murder, If I Did It, this incident and more—just boggle the mind. No one would believe this if it were fiction.

Michael Vick has rightly been the target of a lot of disdain; but the “alleged” O.J. makes Vick look like a Boy Scout.

Decent folk everywhere are hoping this is the last wacky saga from the one-time king of football.

(Read the AP report here.)

Two Undefeateds Will Remain; Let One Not Be the Cheatriots

With Indy on a bye and the other two undefeateds playing each other, there will be two teams left without losses at the end of the day. That is, of course, except in the unlikely event of a Pats-Dallas tie. Then there would still be three.

Justice would demand a Cowboys victory. The Patriots should have forfeited at least the one game against the Jets. But with an apparently complicitous commissioner, Roger Goodell, who took it easy on the league primadonnas, then destroyed evidence, that didn’t happen.

The Dallas Cowboys are a good, honest team … up against the exposed villains of the league. Every honest football fan not living in Massachusetts should be saying, “Go Cowboys!”

Boston Up 2, Down 1

No this is not the Red Sox-Indians score. The Red Sox breezed to a 10-3 first-game win. This is the city’s score.

Up: Boston Red Sox, back in the running.

Up: The city of Boston. I have walked the Freedom Trail, sampled the clam chowdah, and a lot more. It’s one of the best cities in America.

Down: Patriots, the team that didn’t need to cheat, but did. The team that tries to make NFL fans believe it didn’t matter. The coach that besmirched his team and damaged the league. The coach who is not “the best coach in NFL history.”

It would be easier to enjoy the Red Sox run if the Patriots weren’t still around, bothering sports fans.

(But wait; it’s really Foxborough, isn’t it?)

“World’s Fastest Woman” Can’t Outrun Steroids Scandal

She’s been called “The fastest woman on Earth, and arguably the best female athlete in the world.”[1] But Marion Jones’ long-distance run against steroid accusations ended in defeat earlier today.

The AP reported:

Marion Jones’ … words rang out in the silent, stately federal courtroom.

She was a liar and a cheat, she told the judge….

And so ended years of angry denials by one of the world’s most celebrated athletes.

The owner of three Olympic golds and two bronze medals, Jones came clean Friday and admitted she used steroids. She pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs, then announced her retirement in a tearful apology outside the U.S. District Court.

“It’s with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust,” Jones said, her voice cracking as her mother stood behind her, a strong and supportive hand on her shoulder.

“I have been dishonest and you have the right to be angry with me. I have let (my family) down. I have let my country down, and I have let myself down,” she said, pausing frequently to regain her composure.

Time, one of many to put Jones on their cover, said:

You wanted to believe her. She made you believe. She was good like that. Marion Jones, TIME cover girl, winner of five medals — three gold — at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and now an admitted steroid user, sat in a sweltering press tent at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials in Sacramento, and put on an Oscar-worthy show.

Five Olympic medals are history. In a dark day for athletics of any kind, much less the Olympics, Jones takes her place in the Olympic Hall of Shame alongside Canadian Ben Johnson, whose 1988 malfeasance was discovered much more quickly.

Yes, Marion, you have let your country down. In a day when we need all the positives we can get, you tied the name Cheater, not just to Marion Jones, but in the eyes of many around the world, to the U.S.A. Of course, Ben Johnson’s cheating didn’t make Canada a cheating nation. We know it was Johnson alone and not his team or country. And we know our country is not a cheating nation either. We don’t want to win that way. But that won’t stop others from saying it.

Honesty and ethics in sports go far beyond the individual. This case shows that someone who cheats for herself can reflect poorly on an entire nation.

Let the light of truth shine. The U.S.A. wants no wins it doesn’t deserve.

Endnote:

1. Infoplease.com, “Marion Jones: The first woman to win five medals at one Olympics”