Sports journalists' Jihad

HAIL TO THE BURGEONING sports journalism community--a sundry group of columnists, reporters, writers, talkshow hosts, analysts, commentators, gossips, and experts on every aspect of athletics. In reality, they are little more than pig-headed hacks sitting in condescending judgment of skilled professional athletes.

There are, of course, spectacular exceptions to the rule. By and large, though, broadcast, cable and satellite, Internet, and less culpable print media sports journalists rush to the scent of controversy like a pack of wolves descending upon helpless prey. Lest you think this hyperbole, consider the cases of Pete Rose and Barry Bonds, two of the greatest baseball players in the game's history whose main sins have been to be less than heroic off the field. They made the kinds of mistakes most mortals do in the course of a self-centered, addictive lifestyle.

On the field, Rose did virtually everything a baseball player could do and was rewarded with record-book numbers that have few rivals. Yet, this sports idol had an Achilles heel--a gambling addiction. Like a moth attracted to a flame, he was done in by his fatal attraction to betting as he did the unpardonable: while managing the Cincinnati Reds, he wagered on baseball. No one cared much that Rose, who never has been accused of throwing a game or shaving points, bet on horses and sports of all kinds. However, when it was determined that his addiction knew no bounds and that he had bet on The Game, he became a pariah, someone to be scorned without mercy.

The baseball commissioner decided Pete Rose was persona non grata and pressured him into signing a document removing his name from the list of eligible candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. The sportswriters who vote on who should be admitted to this shrine quickly and quietly fell into line. Rose had bet on baseball and should not be in the Hall. Case closed. So what if the hallowed Hall is filled with racists, drunkards, drug addicts, and gamblers whose only claim to fame is what they did on the diamond? A different standard would apply to Rose. The end result is that perhaps the great singles hitter in the history of the sport is denied access to the Hall of Fame, which includes the vicious racist Ty Cobb and other notables of an era that refused to let any person of color play the game of baseball on the major league level.

Bonds, meanwhile, was like many ballplayers at the end of the 20th century who decided that they would do whatever it takes to be the best. Working with professional trainers and nutritionists, these players went on special diets filled with vitamins, proteins, and other health store pills and liquids. They started daily body-building routines to develop more strength at the plate and on the mound as well as more speed on the basepaths. Their rigorous schedules were unheard of in past eras when players emulated New York Yankee slugger Babe Ruth and drank the nights away, showing up at the ball park exhausted and hung over. Modern ballplayers relied on the experts who had studied how to make the human body stronger and healthier, and some of these experts added legal steroids that were not banned by baseball into the mixture of pills, smoothies, and creams ingested by these athletes.

Bonds, the National League MVP a record seven times (including the last four years in a row), has testified under oath that he did not know what his personal trainer had given him, but that he never purposely took steroids. Since most athletes cannot even pronounce the names of half the substances personal trainers were giving them, Bonds' testimony might not be that far off base. Yet, the minute grand jury testimony was leaked and some of the biggest names in baseball were linked to steroid use, sports journalists on radio, television, the Internet, and even in print went after Bonds and company with a vengeance. They pounced, yelling that the records held by modern baseball players were suspect, and that the public had been deceived.

No matter that most surveys show that paying patrons could not care less what an athlete does to his body as long as he hits the ball hard. No matter that most baseball experts say steroids really do not make that much of a difference in a sport where hand-eye coordination is essential for success. Sports columnists and commentators were after blood. First, they demanded that Bonds admit to his so-called crime. Then they wanted an asterisk put by any record Bonds or other home run hitters of recent vintage achieved. They were a disgrace to baseball and it was up to the holier-than-thou sportswriter to bring these cheaters to their knees.

What no one pointed out was that baseball records going back to the turn of the 20th century always have been tarnished--great Caucasian players never faced African-Americans athletes and many of the records were broken by men addicted to alcohol, drugs (especially uppers and downers), and caffeine, substances that often enhanced their play by either relaxing them or revving them up. If you want to play around with an absurd asterisk, why stop with Bonds?