Thursday, March 08, 2007

"Pills, 'roids, and wife-beaters"

And so the whacky world of sports lives on.

We have reached the middle of another week, and guess what - hold your breath! - there are sports figures in the news for swallowing pills (Lindsey Hunter), taking human growth hormones (John Rocker) and allegedly beating their wife (good ole Ron Artest).

And, naturally, all of these stories are fairly big news. Because we just don't hear about this stuff very often... right?

Um, lemme check the archives. Oh, boy, there was this story a while ago about a couple Indiana Pacers players allegedly assaulting a bartender. And, WHAT?? Evander Holyfield buying steroids? Where have I been.

OK, I'll snap out of it. I've been here this whole time, digesting the week-to-week transgressions of the athletes we both laud and criticize. And, no, I'm not the least surprised by any of their actions, from the pill-taking to the wife-beating. Sometimes particular cases are a bit on the shocking side, such as Hunter - known as one of the NBA's better guys - being suspended 10 games for "accidentally" taking one of his wife's diet pills. But for the most part, no negative sports news is the least surprising anymore.

And here's another truth bite. It ain't going to stop. George Mitchell's senate committee has been at "work" for over a year now, trying to clean up baseball. Yet no players will talk to the committee - why would they? All they could do is alienate teammates and friends - and the most successful steroids probe has come out of upstate New York, with nine athletes, including Holyfield and the Angels' Gary Matthews Jr. being named.

It's great these investigations are taking place, and I'm sure more players will be linked to steroids, but at the same time other players will stay ahead of the game by finding new supplements to power their swing or throwing arm.

In other words, this is an "ongoing investigation" that will still be "ongoing" when we have amusement parks on Mars.

As for wife-beating athletes, they're not going anywhere. Just like any field of work has its share of domestic abusers, there are always going to be bad eggs in the NBA, NFL, AFL - you name the league - who were never told not to hit women. Now, in all fairness to Artest, this is just an allegation, but, yeah, it didn't surprise me the least.

Just listen to his rap lyrics.

And as much as I love Hunter as a player - a sparkplug off the bench who has always hustled for loose balls and not been afraid to take the big shots - he should have known better than to take a "diet pill," just like Barry Bonds shoulda known that the cream and the clear isn't some holistic olive oil, and on and on we go.

Athletes deny knowing they consumed a banned substance more often than Dickie V yells, "Baby!" I'll applaud the first athlete who stand up and says, "I knew this was illegal, but, damn, it just looked so appealing. I couldn't help myself."

That will be a great day.

But until that day, nothing changes. The world keeps spinning on its axis, squirrels keep scrambling up trees, and athletes continue to provide off-the-field news for us to endlessly dissect.

Until we feel the need for some diet pills.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I fear that on Openning day, this issue it will go back in the closet and we can all believe in the sanctity of baseball until someone hits 100 HRs in a season.

If Mitchell puts some pressure on the game . . . something may pop out. Real pressure that can change the environment for the better can only come from the customer . . . the fans.

The fans need to demand a change . . . lookup www.livetrue61.com