I normally try to stay away from re-posting something that I've written here before, mostly because I figure it's good to try to force a little creativity out of my feeble brain. In this case, though, I'm posting something I wrote originally this past March.
The Jimmy Fund is the long-time charity of the Boston Red Sox, dedicated to fighting cancer in children. Today and tomorrow, Boston sports radio station WEEI and television network NESN, the New England SportsNetwork, are holding their seventh annual Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon, hoping to raise millions of dollars to fund cancer research.
Here is the post I wrote last March dedicated to the subject:
Between fans of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, even over the winter the sniping never really ends, it just becomes a little more muted than during the regular season.
This year in particular, the offseason seemed more bombastic than usual, what with members of both organizations getting involved and ratcheting up the noise. First, A-Rod stepped on Red Sox toes with the ill-timed World Series announcement that he was opting out of his contract. He says it was his agent's idea and that he regrets the timing, but that was just the first volley anyway.
After that came Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon's remark to a reporter that the Series-clinching ball, the one he supposedly had in his possession, had been eaten by his dog. The dog's name? "Boss," of course, what else?
Move on to spring training, where Hank Steinbrenner railed against Boston's "Red Sox Nation," much to the delight of Red Sox fans everywhere. Steinbrenner promised to restore order to the universe by beating the Sox, and everyone else, and earning a Yankee World Championship.
Finally, Boston management responded by enrolling Mr. Steinbrenner in Red Sox Nation and sending him a David Ortiz autographed hat as a peace offering. Needless to say, that peace offering went unaccepted.
From a Red Sox perspective, then, the Yankees are the hated enemy, the thorn in their side, the bane of their existence. As a kid born and raised outside Boston, I can testify to the truth of that statement, and undoubtedly the same thing is true of Yankee fans everywhere, who used to say, "You have to win once in a while for it to be a rivalry," in a not-so-subtle nod to the fact that while the Red Sox were going 86 years without a championship, the Yankees were racking them up with regularity. Well, now that the Sox have won a couple, it seems the rivalry has become invigorated and reached a renewed intensity.
But here's the dirty little secret that Hank Steinbrenner surely doesn't want you to know, whether you are a Boston fan or a New York supporter: The Steinbrenner family has been incredibly generous to the charity the Red Sox organization adopted 55 years ago and has supported ever since, the Jimmy Fund.
Established in 1948, the Jimmy Fund of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is dedicated to raising money and awareness in the fight against cancer in children. In the 60 years since it's inception, the Jimmy Fund has raised over $400 million dollars, with more than 90 cents out of every dollar raised going directly toward research dedicated to "eradicating cancer and related diseases."
For the past seven years, Boston sports radio station WEEI, and NESN, the New England Sports Network, have teamed up with the Red Sox organization to run a weekend radio/telethon in support of the Jimmy Fund. Each of the first six telethons have raised a larger amount of money than the one the previous year, culminating in last year's total of $3.74 million, with a grand total in the six-year history of the event of nearly $12 million raised.
What does all this have to do with the Steinbrenner family? Since it's inception in 2002, George Steinbrenner has supported the fundraising weekend with an annual donation of $10,000, which he upped last year to $25,000. He is not by any means the only celebrity/rich guy making a donation - Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig are two others who have opened their wallets generously - but the others aren't the owners and public faces of the supposed sworn enemies of the franchise.
Rivaries are great for sports. They add drama and excitement to the season and give fans and media something to talk about. But some things are more important in life, and it's nice to see that The Boss and the entire Steinbrenner family have an appreciation for that fact.
This year's 7th Annual Red Sox WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio/Telethon takes place the weekend of August 14-15, and for the seventh straight year will attempt to break the previous season's record for money raised. Undoubtedly the Steinbrenner family and thus the New York Yankees will again be a big part of the fundraising effort.
For more information on the Jimmy Fund or to make a donation, just click this link. Or this one. Or this one. Anyone who has watched a relative or close friend suffer through cancer - and who hasn't? - knows how difficult it is to sit by as a loved one is ravaged by the disease. Now imagine that someone is a young child, maybe even your son or daughter. Take a moment to check out the Jimmy Fund, and if you have a few bucks, think about pledging something - you just might save a life today.
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If you love fiction and have a few spare minutes, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com
You know you're stuck in the dog days of summer when it seems like all the sports stories are the same ones, recycled over and over. The promise of spring is gone for a lot of Major League baseball teams as they drop out of pennant races, the real college and NFL football games are still weeks away, and even though the Olympic Games are happening this year, there doesn't seem to be much sizzle.
So here, in no particular order, are the sports stories that would be banned immediately if I were King of the World:
1) Brett Favre - As great a player as Brett Favre was, and as poorly as his annual retirement sagas were handled (especially this year's), and whether he leads the NFL in passer rating and wins a Super Bowl with the Jets this year or whether he stinks worse than two week old tuna, can't we just let the whole thing go? I bet even Obama and McCain can agree on this one. Please, sports people everywhere, for the love of God, I'm begging you, just let the Favre thing go!
2) Manny Ramirez - Now the big story is that Bud Selig has asked a representative to look into how the whole Manny trade from Boston to Los Angeles was handled. Yay. What's he planning on doing if he doesn't like how it was handled? Declare the whole thing a tie? Let it go for crying out loud! Manny will hit like gangbusters and play hard until he decides not to and that's that. What you see is what you get with him. Always has been and always will be. Let's move on.
3) Redeem Team - Not to be cynical here, but sitting on the edge of my seat, trying to see if a bunch of multi-millionaires can beat another bunch of multi-millionaires to win a gold medal in what used to be the ultimate amateur competition just doesn't really do it for me. The outstanding United States Olympic Basketball Team will either win it all or they won't. What does redeeming have to do with anything?
4) Olympic athletes testing positive for banned substances - I guess I am getting cynical in my old age, but over the next three weeks or so we will see a few stories of courage and inspiration, a few genuinely interesting and exciting matchups in sports most of us only pay attention to every four years, and more than a few medal-winning athletes testing positive for banned substances and being stripped of their medals. They will immediately have the obligatory stunned and outraged reaction, proclaim their innocence, insist - through their high-profile attornies - that they have no idea how the substance got into their system and will fight these scurrilous charges until their dying breath, and then six months to a year down the line will give their medals back and serve their suspensions. Happens every four years. I can't wait.
Okay, I'm done now. Sorry for the interruption. I'd love to stay and chat but I'm off to the Jets website to read up on the latest Favre stuff.
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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com
The clock continues to tick down to Major League Baseball's Opening Day, the day fans everywhere look forward to, beginning, oh, roughly ten minutes after the final out of the World Series the previous year. Hang on, we're down to just over a day left before the start of the new season.
In 2008, of course, MLB proves just how small our little world is getting, as Opening Day will take place in Tokyo, Japan, joining 2000 and 2004 as the only time regular-season baseball games will have ever been played outside of North America.
To celebrate the occasion, the two teams the bigwigs in charge of scheduling at MLB chose to represent the sport on this foray into Asia are, quite naturally, the Boston Red Sox and the...uh...Oakland A's?
Picking the Sox to represent MLB is a no-brainer for a couple of reasons, the most obvious being that they are the reigning World Series champs, and who better to show off the sport than its' crown jewel, based on last season's results?
The other thing that makes the BoSox an obvious selection is the fact that two key components of their pitching staff made their way to the shores of this country just one year ago from Japan - Dasiuke Matsuzaka will fill the Number Two slot in the rotation after winning 15 games in the regular season and striking out over 200 batters last year, and Hideki Okajima came out of nowhere, dazzling major league hitters to the tune of a 2.22 ERA in 66 appearances and making the A.L. All-Star Team in his rookie season at age 31.
So sending the Sox to Japan to kick off the 2008 season makes perfect sense, but Oakland is another story entirely. A glance at the Athletics active roster shows exactly zero Japanese players. It appeared Kurt Suzuki might be a possibility, but he was born in Hawaii, meaning he probably is as familiar with Japan as I am.
Now, I realize the point of the trek halfway around the world is to show off Major League Baseball, not bring as many Japanese players back to their homeland as possible, but given the intense interest Japan's people have shown in following the progress of their native players in the big leagues, wouldn't it have made more sense to send either the Seattle Mariners or the New York Yankees to Tokyo as opponents for Boston, rather than Oakland?
Seattle, it would seem, is the obvious choice. One of the closest teams on our shores to Japan in terms of distance, the city also features one of Japanese baseball's biggest former stars, Ichiro Suzuki. Wouldn't it have been a treat for the fans in that country to see Dice-K face off against Ichiro in one of the two regular-season games?
Or how about the Yankees? In addition to the fact that MLB would have had an opportunity to showcase one of the sport's biggest rivalries, the Yankees also feature one of Japanese baseball's biggest former heroes, Hideki Matsui. The same argument applies to a Dice-K-Matsui matchup that applies to Dice-K-Ichiro, and that is this: It only makes sense to offer the rabid baseball fans of Japan an opportunity to see two of their own people who have made it big in the Bigs, up close and personal, rather than Dice-K facing off against, say, Oakland's Jack Cust.
Once again - big surprise - it appears the people in charge of baseball have shot themselves in the foot. There is no doubt whatsoever the two-game series between Boston and Oakland will be a success and will be followed by other MLB regular-season matchups in the Far East, but come on, Bud Selig, you're pulling down in excess of $15 million a year, couldn't you have used a little common sense in choosing this historic matchup?
The amazing ability of Major League Baseball to #### on its own shoes seems limitless. The organization that has seen its total revenues jump by a whopping 100% since 2000, reaching the staggering total of $6.075 billion for fiscal year 2007 (That's right, that's billion with a "B"), tried Wednesday to strong-arm some of its lowest-paid employees into making a company-mandated business trip without compensating them.
The season-opening two game series between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics in Japan next Tuesday and Wednesday almost didn't get off the ground, literally, as the Red Sox players refused to board a bus to the airport for their trip to the Far East until the issue of pay for the team's coaches and staff was ironed out to their satisfaction.
Incredibly, the $40,000 stipend which was promised the players as compensation for making the trip was never promised to the coaching staff, including manager Terry Francona. Considering Tokyo is known as one of the most expensive cities in the world, especially for visitors, the notion that MLB thought it would be acceptable to send their employees on a 7,360-mile business trip without giving them any sort of travel money is ludicrous.
You want a Domino's Pizza in Tokyo with italian sausage and mushrooms? You can get it, provided you're willing to spend $30.39. Of course, according to pricechecktokyo.com, that is what the average Tokyo-ite (Tokyo-er?) can expect to spend. Prices "for American and European expatriates are usually higher." How does fifty bucks sound? Maybe you'd like to see a movie after you chow down on your pizza - plan on spending $18.21 per ticket at the door.
You get the point, right? It's going to be expensive for these people to make this trip which has been mandated by their bosses, one of whom is Bud Selig, the man making over $15 million this year; the man who has a private jet at his disposal for all that important commissioner travel which is so critical he can't fly commercial.
How much does a batting coach make, does anybody know? I researched it but couldn't find the answer anywhere. You can bet it's less than the major league minimum salary of $390,000, undoubtedly a lot less. And yet Dave Magadan, Boston's batting coach, was expected by Bud Selig and his bunch of cold-hearted cronies to foot the bill for his living expenses in a league-mandated trip to one of the most expensive cities in the world.
The reaction of the commissioner to all this? According to a quote attributed by the Associated Press to Boston Manager Terry Francona, "Mr. Selig was justifiably concerned about playing the game." He wasn't talking about the game next week in Tokyo. The thing that had the commissioner's panties in a #### was the exhibition game that the Red Sox players refused to take the field for Wednesday until the issue was resolved.
That quote by Francona is what is known as not biting the hand that feeds you. "Justifiably concerned," that's a good one. Francona might as well have come right out and admitted it - as a low-level member of MLB's management team, you never know what the upper-level geniuses are going to do next. Better not make them too angry, or else you might find yourself looking for work.
Between fans of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, even over the winter the sniping never really ends, it just becomes a little more muted than during the regular season.
This year in particular, the offseason seemed more bombastic than usual, what with members of both organizations getting involved and ratcheting up the noise. First, A-Rod stepped on Red Sox toes with the ill-timed World Series announcement that he was opting out of his contract. He says it was his agent's idea and that he regrets the timing, but that was just the first volley anyway.
After that came Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon's remark to a reporter that the Series-clinching ball, the one he supposedly had in his possession, had been eaten by his dog. The dog's name? "Boss," of course, what else?
Move on to spring training, where Hank Steinbrenner railed against Boston's "Red Sox Nation," much to the delight of Red Sox fans everywhere. Steinbrenner promised to restore order to the universe by beating the Sox, and everyone else, and earning a Yankee World Championship.
Finally, Boston management responded by enrolling Mr. Steinbrenner in Red Sox Nation and sending him a David Ortiz autographed hat as a peace offering. Needless to say, that peace offering went unaccepted.
From a Red Sox perspective, then, the Yankees are the hated enemy, the thorn in their side, the bane of their existence. As a kid born and raised outside Boston, I can testify to the truth of that statement, and undoubtedly the same thing is true of Yankee fans everywhere, who used to say, "You have to win once in a while for it to be a rivalry," in a not-so-subtle nod to the fact that while the Red Sox were going 86 years without a championship, the Yankees were racking them up with regularity. Well, now that the Sox have won a couple, it seems the rivalry has become invigorated and reached a renewed intensity.
But here's the dirty little secret that Hank Steinbrenner surely doesn't want you to know, whether you are a Boston fan or a New York supporter: The Steinbrenner family has been incredibly generous to the charity the Red Sox organization adopted 55 years ago and has supported ever since, the Jimmy Fund.
Established in 1948, the Jimmy Fund of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is dedicated to raising money and awareness in the fight against cancer in children. In the 60 years since it's inception, the Jimmy Fund has raised over $400 million dollars, with more than 90 cents out of every dollar raised going directly toward research dedicated to "eradicating cancer and related diseases."
For the past seven years, Boston sports radio station WEEI, and NESN, the New England Sports Network, have teamed up with the Red Sox organization to run a weekend radio/telethon in support of the Jimmy Fund. Each of the first six telethons have raised a larger amount of money than the one the previous year, culminating in last year's total of $3.74 million, with a grand total in the six-year history of the event of nearly $12 million raised.
What does all this have to do with the Steinbrenner family? Since it's inception in 2002, George Steinbrenner has supported the fundraising weekend with an annual donation of $10,000, which he upped last year to $25,000. He is not by any means the only celebrity/rich guy making a donation - Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig are two others who have opened their wallets generously - but the others aren't the owners and public faces of the supposed sworn enemies of the franchise.
Rivaries are great for sports. They add drama and excitement to the season and give fans and media something to talk about. But some things are more important in life, and it's nice to see that The Boss and the entire Steinbrenner family have an appreciation for that fact.
This year's 7th Annual Red Sox WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio/Telethon takes place the weekend of August 14-15, and for the seventh straight year will attempt to break the previous season's record for money raised. Undoubtedly the Steinbrenner family and thus the New York Yankees will again be a big part of the fundraising effort.
For more information on the Jimmy Fund or to make a donation, just click this link. Anyone who has watched a relative or close friend suffer through cancer - and who hasn't? - knows how difficult it is to sit by as a loved one is ravaged by the disease. Now imagine that someone is a young child, maybe even your son or daughter. Take a moment to check out the Jimmy Fund, and thanks for reading.
Does Bud Selig have pictures of all of MLB's owners engaging in unnatural acts with farm animals? Is that possible?
The man who has presided over what will be known forevermore as the "Steroids Era" in baseball, complete with broken and now bogus power records, and disgusted fans unable to differentiate great performance from juiced performance, received an unbelievable $15.06 million salary in the fiscal year ending October 31, 2006!
Ironically, this is almost exactly the same amount of money Barry Bonds earned in 2007, although the thorn in Selig's side did earn quite a bit more than Buddy Boy did in 2006.
According to the Business Journal of Milwaukee, the commissioner of baseball made just slightly more in 2006 than in the previous year, although he topped $15 million in that year as well. Selig's annual salary is an astounding 34% higher than NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's $11.2 million, and poor Gary Bettman of the NHL had to scrape by on only $5.9 million in 2006.
Surprised? Did you expect the commissioner to suffer a pay cut or perhaps even lose his job over the steroids and HGH scandal baseball is currently embroiled in? Just in case there was any doubt in your mind as to what is important to Selig's bosses - the owners of the 30 Major League Baseball teams - the Business Journal article makes it crystal clear: "given the league's recent economic growth and that Selig had to be persuaded out of long-held retirement plans, it is believed the [contract] extension calls for further pay hikes."
In other words, Bud Selig was prepared to retire, probably in shame over his complicity in the "Steroids Era," but was talked out of it by the owners. Why? Because they are making so much money under Bumbling Bud's outstanding leadership that they are afraid to install any other puppet, uh, excuse me, person, into the commissioner's office.
The most unbelievable part, of course, is the comment that "it is believed the extension calls for further pay hikes." Pay hikes? Whatever happened to the apparently old-fashioned notion that the guy at the top of the organization gets held accountable for the organization's performance, not just on the bottom line but as far as its public image is concerned as well?
How much will Selig make this year? $18 million? $20 million? The numbers are staggering when you realize he doesn't throw a pitch or hit a ball, but when you consider the black eye baseball has suffered under Selig's watch, you realize the only thing that matters to MLB's owners is the bottom line. Nothing else. It's disgusting and wrong.
From Boston.com and the Cape Cod Times comes a baseball story of greed and avarice that almost seems too ridiculous to be believed. Is it A-Rod opting out of a $252 million contract to sign another for $275 million? Is it the price of warm, watered-down beer at Fenway? Jonathan Papelbon's desire to be paid like Mariano Rivera "for the good of baseball"?
All good guesses, but unfortunately, all wrong. This story is even more ludicrous than any of those, if you can believe it.
This story involves the amateur Cape Cod League, a breeding ground for future major league baseball players that may have no equal in amateur baseball around the country.
If you're a fan of any major league baseball team, chances are that some significant players on your team honed their skills in the Cape Cod League before turning professional: Names such as Lance Berkman, Craig Biggio, Ryan Braun, Jacoby Ellsbury, Nomar Garciaparra, Tony Gwynn, Todd Helton, Brian Roberts and Aaron Rowand, among many others, all played at least one summer in the Cape League. In fact, according to their official website, capecodbaseball.org, fully one in seven MLB players played in the league at one time.
Cape League baseball has always been and is still free for fans to attend and has been in operation since 1885. In its current incarnation the Cape League features ten teams, all located, obviously, on Cape Cod.
Sounds like a storybook All-American summer league, doesn't it? The problem is, after 122 years, Major League Baseball has decided it needs and deserves a piece of the CCBL pie.
That's right, the sports league that's knee deep in its biggest scandal in nearly 100 years has decided the billions of dollars it rakes in yearly isn't enough - they are demanding that the six Cape League teams that share a name with an MLB team (They are the Chatham A's, Bourne Braves, Harwich Mariners, Hyannis Mets, Orleans Cardinals, and Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox) purchase all future uniforms and souvenir merchandise from expensive MLB-licensed vendors.
Additionally, MLB's grasping accountants are demanding an 11% royalty on sales of all existing inventory from the six affected teams. "Items such as coffee mugs and teddy bears that are not available through MLB vendors could no longer be sold."
As currently constituted, this deal being forced down the throats of these six Cape League teams would squeeze out local merchants, many of whom have been associated with the league for decades.
The reason MLB's Masters of Hypocrisy can make these demands is that MLB annually donates $100,000 of the roughly $2 million Cape League operating budget to its administrators. MLB's accountants, who must work part-time for the IRS, are threatening to cancel the yearly donation unless the teams agree to their extortion.
All six of the teams involved say they will change their names rather than submit to the unseemly arm-twisting by the bullies at MLB, but they admit it is too late to change their teams' uniforms for this season, leading to a classic David and Goliath showdown. A league source, who understandably wants to remain unnamed, says the Cape Cod League will not roll over or be strong-armed by MLB.
The shamelessness never seems to end in big-time athletics. $100,000 is nothing to Major League Baseball. Hank Steinbrenner probably spends that much on towels for Kyle Farnsworth to cry into, and yet Bud Selig's geniuses are threatening to yank that money out from under an amateur baseball league that has undoubtedly provided more players to MLB than any other over the past 122 years.
The Cape League should tell MLB to take their money and shove it; all six teams should change their names, and the league should start a national fundraising drive to make up the loss of the money Selig's minions are using to blackmail them with. Maybe MLB could use the $100,000 to fund a real HGH testing program.
Continuing in his well-established pattern of searching out the biggest steaming pile of cow dung in the field and then jumping on it with both feet, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig Tuesday defended baseball's drug testing program and insisted the sport was fully capable of running it rather than turning it over to an independent third party.
Taken on its own, the statement might actually be true, but coming as it did against the backdrop of the showdown between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee in front of the United States Congress, Selig's words seem hollow and, at best, ill-timed.
While it is true that there was no established testing program in place during the period of time Clemens either did or did not get injected with steroids and HGH (1998-2001), depending upon who you believe in the soap opera-like story, the very fact that baseball's dirtiest laundry is being put on display in front of a disgusted nation; being used by politicians to score public relations points with their constituents, is enough to make one wonder whether Selig has even been paying attention to the scandal as it has unfolded.
According to the Mitchell Report, the document produced after an investigation begun at the behest of Selig himself, baseball's testing program needs to increase its level of "independence and transparency." What better way to accomplish that than to turn the whole thing over to a truly independent testing organization, as was suggested by World Anti-Doping Agency president John Fahey back in January.
Selig's stance is that the testing is accomplished at a WADA-certified lab, so there is already a level of independence. The fact is, though, that the program as currently structured is run by a joint management-player committee, with an administrator running the day-to-day operation who can be removed at any time by either side for any reason.
Maybe Mr. Selig is using a different dictionary than the one I found on line, but according to Dictionary.com, independence is a "freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like, of others." Is a program run by the players and management of MLB, two parties who each have a significant stake in no drug violations being discovered, really free of control or influence?
This isn't a sexy subject, and maybe under normal circumstances it wouldn't matter, but the sport is suffering it's biggest and most embarrassing black eye since the Black Sox scandal nearly one hundred years ago. Selig claims baseball will survive, and undoubtedly it will, but is mere survival enough? The commissioner seems to thumb his nose at the fans, arrogantly stating, "Look, we've broken attendance records for four straight years...with this situation going on, and we'll break one for a fifth year."
Speaking of breaking records, commissioner, the career home run record, one of the most revered of all sports records, was broken last summer by a man under su####ion of illegal abuse of performance enhancing drugs, and a man many believe to be one of the best pitchers of modern times was on Capitol Hill taking his lumps yesterday for the same reason. Those are the records real baseball fans care about, commissioner.
If nothing else, releasing a strongly worded public statement supporting a true independent testing program would assure fans you are serious about cleaning up baseball and ensuring that the competition on the field is fair. It would put the pressure of public opinion on the players union to show they want the same thing. And it would give you someone to point the finger at if there are any future problems.
There isn't a carpet big enough to sweep this issue under anymore, commissioner, in case you hadn't noticed. Grow a spine and do something for the good of the game, Mr. Selig, please.
I'm no fan of Reverend Jesse Jackson and the other members of the roving band of publicity-hungry media hogs who travel the country taking advantage of situations involving race in this country, often using those situations to advance their own causes and goals to the detriment of the actual people involved. That said, I find myself once again on the same page as Jackson regarding a sports story.
Maybe you saw this story, and on the surface it seems innocent enough. After the Tim Donaghy scandal broke last year, regarding betting on NBA games by some of its officials, the people who run Major League Baseball decided to run background checks on their umpires for the purpose of ensuring there was no such gambling going on by their on-field officials.
So far, so good. It makes sense. In baseball, as in all sports, it is essential for the paying customers to know the games are on the up-and-up; that the results earned by the players on the field are legitimate. If that legitimacy is put into question, the whole enterprise is instantly at risk of crumbling, of becoming just another professional wrestling tour.
To that end, Commissioner Bud Selig's Supervisor of Security and Investigations, Tom Christopher, last summer took a road trip to Kentucky and St. Louis, among possibly other places, and in the manner of bumbling supervisors everywhere, instantly botched what should have been a fairly straightforward process, subjecting MLB once again to ridicule and questions about the judgment of those running the game.
If World Umpires Association president John Hirschbeck and union spokesman Lamell McMorris can be believed, and so far MLB has done nothing to dispute this claim, the self-appointed crusading inquisitor Christopher invaded the neighborhoods of umpires Greg Gibson, Sam Holbrook and Ron Kulpa, interviewing friends and neighbors of these men and peppering them with such irrelevent questions as whether the men beat their wives, grow marijuana, and even if they are members of the ####!
Sounds funny at first, until you realize this man, Tom Christopher, with such a scattershot approach to his "investigation," has imperiled the reputations of three professionals who have had, as far as we know, not a single charge of wrongdoing leveled against them.
Does it make sense for baseball to quietly investigate their employees to ensure they aren't putting the game at risk? Of course. Check out the umpires and make certain they aren't buying Gulfstream jets and hanging with known gamblers.
But to ask the lady across the street, as Christopher did, whether Ron Kulpa belongs to any "groups or organizations" like the Ku Klux Klan, is slanderous and wrong. If MLB is in possession of any evidence whatsoever that Mr. Kulpa or any umpire, or any employee for that matter, is in fact pulling a sheet over his head and burning crosses at night, they should immediately contact law enforcement and prosecute the offending employee to the full extent of the law.
Otherwise, lacking any such evidence, leave the insulting and irrelevent questions unspoken and inside your head, Mr. Christopher. As difficult as it obviously is for you, try to do your job. On second thought, just do the right thing and put your "investigation" into the hands of someone who can handle it.
Maybe this travesty doesn't bother you. The umpires should be clean, so who cares about a little house-to-house smear campaign conducted by their employer?
It's very easy to give up rights when they belong to someone else. Some slipshod gumshoe wannabe is tramping through Greg Gibson's neighborhood destroying his reputation for (as far as we know) no good reason? So what? If he's not guilty he should have nothing to hide, right?
Put yourself in his shoes for just a minute. Someone you probably don't know and have never even met is canvassing your neighborhood, asking the same people you're going to be sharing a beer with at the next block party when it was that you stopped beating your wife, and how many pot plants you have growing in your basement. Asking them if you belong to any, you know (wink-wink, nudge-nudge), subversive organizations.
Now ask yourself this. Will your neighbors now hesitate to ask you to watch their young sons or daughters for them when they get off the school bus if they're not home? Will they maybe ask you to give them their spare house key back, the one they gave you so you could watch their house while they were on vacation?
It's not a good feeling, is it?
I don't know if Sam Holbrook, Greg Gibson and Ron Kulpa have been involved in anything unsavory, but I do know that the way MLB has gone about trying to find out is creepy and unsettling. Baseball owes these men an immediate and heartfelt apology, but I'm guessing it won't be forthcoming any time soon.
Money talks; ethics walk. If there was ever any doubt about the truth of that statement, all you need to do to get your head on straight is to look at the support of Major League Baseball's owners for the man whose everlasting legacy will be that he presided over what is already being referred to as the "Steroids Era" in baseball, Bud Selig.
According to an Associated Press report published on Foxsports.com, Selig, who has yet to even admit to any share of responsibility for the rampant abuse of steroids and Human Growth Hormone, both controlled substances, by MLB players in the late-1990's and early-2000's, enhoys the complete and total support of baseball's owners.
The select group of millionaires and billionaires who should be under the commissioner's control to ensure that the best interests of the game are upheld have revealed their true colors by throwing their support wholeheartedly behind the man who fiddled while baseball burned.
White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf - "He has total support of the owners..."
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner - "He's a terrific commissioner..."
Major League Baseball's owners can decry the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs to the high heavens, but the above statements reveal the truth of the matter - that it's all a smokescreen; all to pacify you, the paying customer, and to make you believe these people have your interests at heart. In reality, though, as long as the money keeps rolling in and profits continue to be made by the majority of the clubs, there will be no change at the top of the command structure in baseball.
It's instructive to look at the result of the last major scandal suffered by Major League Baseball; the Black Sox scandal of 1919. That was the year eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.
Even though all eight of the accused players were acquitted at trial, the damage to baseball's reputation was so great that the office of Commissioner of Baseball was established as a direct result of the scandal to reassure the fans that the game's integrity would be upheld. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed baseball's first commissioner and immediately banned all eight players from the game for life.
The judge's comment? "Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ballplayers and gamblers, where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball."
Contrast that no-nonsense statement with the public utterances of Bud Selig regarding the performance-enhancing drugs scandal and you can immediately see the difference between a commissioner concerned with protecting the good of the game, and a commissioner whose sole concern is to protect the interests of the game's owners. "For the time being...I'm studying things and analyzing things."
1919 was a long time ago and perhaps it's unfair to compare two different situations from two different eras. There was no player's union in 1919, the men who played on the field were completely and totally under the thumb of the owners.
But those owners, even almost a century ago, were bright enough to see that a scandal of the magnitude of the Black Sox debacle could potentially run the entire moneymaking operation into the ground if the fans, the people who ultimately pay for everything, felt the game was rigged.
How is that so different from today? Well, baseball is enjoying a run of unprecedented popularity, meaning unprecedented income, and the owners don't feel this scandal is of a magnitude to upset the apple cart. If that's the case, why make waves? Keep Selig in the office and continue allowing the clowns to run the circus!
But if profits start falling, suddenly the man who is so popular with all the owners right now will find himself the odd man out and will immediately be held accountable for allowing this issue to take down a great game. Maybe it's not fair; maybe there really was nothing Bud Selig could do for ten years as he watched chemically-enhanced giants tear down records that had stood for decades.
The fact of the matter is, though, the man at the top must be held responsible. He is the one who should pay for allowing the scandal to develop and become full-blown - that's the nature of his job. If and when the money-train starts slowing down, Bud Selig will discover more and more owners feel exactly that way. They will start to wonder what I already wonder: Why in the world are they paying that guy $14.5 million dollars a year to sit around and look befuddled?
In what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one who has paid attention to Bud Selig's tenure as Major League Baseball Commissioner, the man who has presided over the biggest scandal to rock baseball in eighty years has thrust his head back into the sand, or somewhere the sun doesn't shine, and wants you to believe all is well with the world.
I'm not sure I can do justice to the laughability of Selig's recent comments or to the gullibility he seems to believe you possess, so here are a few direct quotes from baseball's fearless leader on the subject of performance-enhancing drugs and the devastating Mitchell Report.
These nuggets of wisdom were tossed out to reporters on Tuesday during a four-minute briefing to reporters. It's hard to believe anyone could cram so much self-serving #### into four minutes unless they were running for president, but here you go:
"We have the toughest testing program in American sports." Really? I wonder if Ricky Williams would agree with that assessment. In fact, I wonder if anyone in America would agree with that assessment.
"I'm proud of where we are." Hopefully "The Commissioner" was talking about the actual geographical location of where he was when he made that absurd comment, although considering he was in Cleveland, I have to believe he didn't. How he could be proud of anything related to the black eye baseball suffered in the last several days stretches the limits of credulity beyond anything a fan should have to endure.
"I do hear people from time to time say we were slow to react..." If by "people" and "from time to time" he means "everyone" and "constantly," then "The Commissioner" is right on the money here. I only read his comments and didn't see the actual briefing to reporters, so I can't say for sure that Selig was able to maintain a straight face when he said this, but I'm going to go out on a limb and assume he wasn't trying to make a joke.
"...From the late '90s on we have been monitoring this thing." Monitoring? What does that mean, exactly? By saying that, isn't "The Commissioner" admitting that he was at least somewhat complicit in this entire mess? You can't monitor a situation you are unaware of, so for Bud Selig to say, in the same interview, that he's proud of the gutter MLB finds itself in and that he was monitoring the situation as it developed over the last ten years is evidence enough right there that he should lose his job.
"For the time being while I'm studying things and analyzing things I just don't have any further comment." Translation: "I think I've pretty much reached the bottom of even my previously unplumbed well of stupidity. I'm going to wait and see if any of you fools buy even a little bit of what I've told you and maybe I will get really lucky and not have to do anything more. That's been my strategy for the last decade and I think it's worked pretty well, if I do say so myself. After all, I'm proud of where we are."
Good grief. Maybe "The Commissioner" ought to consider taking some performance-enhancing drugs, because that was one performance that could sure use some serious enhancing.
Hello, and welcome to The Inside Scoop!, where we bring you the real story on those alledged misdeeds, high crimes and misdemeanors committed by your favorite athletes and sports personalities. I'm your host, Marv Albert, and today's report has some real bite in the backside, so pull on your foul weather gear and lets jump right into the muck, shall we?
Scoop #1 - Bud Selig. The Commissioner of Major League Baseball wasted no time jumping on the Mitchell Report bandwagon. He licked his finger, stuck it in the air, and determined the winds of change were blowing briskly. "There is nothing in his [Mitchell's] recommendations that I can begin to disagree with."
When asked why, as commissioner, he did nothing about the rampant problem of performance enhancing drugs for ten years until being forced to, the former car salesman replied, "It was all just a misunderstanding, really. You see, I kept getting reports of players sticking each other in the butt, and I didn't realize it was with needles. I thought it was just some sort of team bonding ritual or something. I figured, don't ask, don't tell, you know? It was an honest mistake, anyone could have made it."
Scoop #2 - Jason Kidd. The New Jersey Nets All-Star guard is accused of groping a 23-year old model at a New York City nightclub in October. According to a lawsuit filed by the unnamed woman, Kidd "grabbed her buttocks and #### on multiple occasions," and also slapped a cell phone out of her hand, before being pulled away by bouncers.
"It was all just a misunderstanding, really," Kidd said when asked about the situation. "You see, she told me I was a great baller, and I didn't realize she was talking about basketball. I just naturally assumed my reputation preceded me, you know? So I made my move, being a smooth ladies man and all, but she wasn't up for it! Really, she was just leading me on. I should know, it happens to me all the time."
Scoop #3 - Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. The silver-haired coach dropped an F-bomb while being taped during an address to his team at halftime of Wednesday night's game against the Phoenix Suns. ESPN, which was televising the game, apologized for allowing the curse to air on its' broadcast.
ESPN spokesman Mark Mandel said, "It [the offending word] was said quietly, and we missed it. It was all just a misunderstanding, really. Who knew anyone actually watches those things? We figured, it was halftime, everyone would be getting more nachos and beer. Now that we know people are watching, we're going to start airing more 'This Is SportsCenter' commercials in that time slot."
Scoop #4 - Arkansas Razorbacks Head Football Coach Bobby Petrino. The former Atlanta Falcons head coach quit following the Falcons Monday night loss to New Orleans, heading immediately to Arkansas where he was introduced as the new coach.
When asked how he could leave a team during the season, despite having a contract, Petrino replied, "That contract thing, it was all just a misunderstanding, really. I signed it, but that doesn't mean I ever intended to honor it. Hell, I signed a ten year contract at Louisville, and left six months later. At least I made it eleven months in Atlanta. The way I figure it, they got more out of me than they had any right to expect.
"But I love it here in....where am I again....Arkansas? Yeah, that's it, Arkansas. Sooey! This is it for me, I'm where I want to be now. Unless, of course, something better comes up. You know how it is. Nobody's into dogfighting here, are they?"
Well folks, I'm afraid we're all out of time on tonight's edition of The Inside Scoop! Be sure to tune in next time, when we shine the investigative spotlight on the high-stakes world of competitive curling. Thanks for watching, and remember to hold out for The Inside Scoop!
Bud Selig's legacy was cemented today. The man who holds the job title of "Commissioner of Baseball," which you would quite naturally assume gives him responsibility for upholding the integrity of the game, tonight stands guilty of overseeing the biggest baseball scandal since the Black Sox threw the World Series way back in 1919.
Major League Baseball is now the Exxon Valdez of major professional sports in this country, spewing its muck and filth over the sporting landscape because the ship was being steered by, well, no one really, as the hand-picked "commisioner" was busy with far more important issues than protecting the integrity of an entire sport.
Things like calling off an All-Star Game because, ah, what the hell, it had gone on long enough, the fallout from which embarrassed the "Commissioner" to the point where he had to try to do something to make the joke o####ame relevant, so he decreed the game, an annual exhibition, would now be used to determine home field advantage for an entire league in the World Series nearly four months later.
Things like forming and organizing the World Baseball Classic, the utimate example of fiddling while baseball burned. If there is no MLB, there is no WBC, and today MLB is bloodied and bent becasue no one was steering the ship.
There is plenty of blame to go around, however; Selig is just the most prominent name to point the finger at. But the problem really began when MLB's owners, collectively a group of nincom####s I wouldn't let housesit my dog, fired the last true impartial commisioner, Fay Vincent, and after years leaving the post of commissioner unfilled, finally installed their hand-picked puppet Selig.
Baseball's owners, individually some of the richest and most successful businessmen around, collectively don't have the brains to come in out of the rain, and by installing a commissioner who was completely beholden to them and concerned only with protecting their short-term interests, succeeding in creating a culture where there was literally no oversight - nobody in charge of doing what was best for the game, even if it seemed to hurt the owner's interests in the short term.
In other words, every single owner who played a part in removing Fay Vincent and installing Bud "The Lapdog" Selig stands just as guilty as the "Commissioner" in destroying the integrity of an entire sport, the oldest and most tradition-laden sport, and bringing it to the verge of crashing down on top of the very people making billions of dollars off it.
Sure, the players are guilty of injecting themselves with dangerous chemicals and lying and obfuscating and stonewalling, but that is human nature. Given the option of ingesting frighteningly inappropriate things into your body for the chance, just the chance, at hitting the ultimate multi-million dollar jackpot, there are plenty of people that will willingly put their health at risk, especially if the people supposedly in charge of running a clean game are in actuality turning a blind eye to your actions; encouraging them, really, with a wink and a nod.
So this is how low baseball has sunk. America's oldest game, at one time its grandest and most popular game, still its best game according to millions, is tonight stumbling around with two black eyes like the town drunk after being rolled in an alley for a bottle of cheap booze.
How did we get here? You can thank greed and shortsightedness and stupidity by the men who had the most to gain from the rise in baseball's popularity after the 1994 strike turned off so many fans. In exchange for home run races and tumbling records and packed houses, the owners, and most specifically Bud Selig, allowed the soul of the game to become blackened and corrupted, with not even a consideration for the future of the game they were charged with protecting.
It's shameful and disgusting. Congratulations, guys, you've just made professional wrestling look virtuous.
Now that Christmas is over and we are rapidly approaching New Year's Day, it's time to look ahead to the upcoming year in sports. There were plenty of wild and wacky things that happened in the world of sports in 2006, and you can bet there will be plenty more of the same in 2007, but if you think about it, some things you can be pretty certain will not happen. Here are just a few of those things you won't see in the next year. Feel free to throw in your two cents worth, too.
McGwire Leads Class of 2007 in Hall of Fame Inductions - He will probably make the Hall barring future damaging revelations, but it won't be next year.
Selig Lauded as Visionary Upon Retirement as MLB Commissioner - The retirement part will happen, but the rest - forget it.
Owens Takes Vow of Silence, Won't Talk to Media All Season; In Press Conference to Announce This, Calls Jeff Garcia #### - Okay, he could do this, just to get the press coverage, but you know damn well he'd break the vow the next day. The Garcia part is a definite possibility though.
Ferocious Run Defense Leads Colts to Super Bowl Win! - Manning does just enough to win, manages game perfectly as Indianapolis defense shines. Sorry, can't even keep a straight face on this one.
Falcons Win Super Bowl; Mora Headed to University of Washington Job Anyway - This could never happen on two levels - Atlanta isn't a Super Bowl team and Mora won't be around next year to defect.
D.A. Nifong Admits Prosecutorial Misconduct, Apologizes to Duke Lacrosse Players - This should have happened months ago, so if he hasn't done it by now, it's obvious he won't.
Shockey Praises Giants Coaching Staff - Actually, you could probably take out "Giants Coaching Staff" and insert anyone you want.
BCS System Applauded as Top Two Teams Meet in National Championship Game - People will never agree who should be playing in the game unless there's a playoff, maybe not even then.
Michelle Wie Makes Cut in [Insert PGA Tour Event Name Here]! - This young lady's misguided attempts to not win but simply make the cut in a men's tournament are doing nothing to further either her own golf career or women's sports in general. You can argue she's getting plenty of cash to do it, and that may be true, but in the process this girl who is not even out of her teens is becoming a laughingstock; a David Letterman punchline, and it's sad to see.
As NFL training camps get under way, probably the most significant football news isn't even taking place on the field. The Associated Press reported Monday that after a three hour meeting in Detroit, the NFL Commissioner Search Committee has narrowed the list of prospective candidates t
