Sports Perspectives

In the interest of time I (being of complete immature mind) decided to merge a couple of stories into one measley post. I’m sure it’s not good for the search google whatever it is they do rankings but we all have to do our part to save the environment – Non sequitur notwithstanding.

Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Alex Burrows have each made sports headlines in their own unique way. Let us begin with The Rat, Jose ‘Don’t call me Josie’ Canseco.

I’ll tell you what, it’s easy perhaps even justified to dismiss Canseco as a snitch and to be skeptical of his motives. However, without him MLB would never have confronted the problem of steroid use. Canseco represents, uniwttingly I presume, the notion of remaining silent and whistleblowing. The cult of the whistleblower is being nurtured and even encouraged in the corporate and government ranks now (especially where national security is concerned) and it seems sports is facing its own version of that reality.

On one hand, yes, Canseco is a cheat without much credibility. On the other hand, he did step forward and most of what he has said, after much derision, has turned out to be true. And now Canseco, in light of Mark McGwire suddenly coming clean, is saying this is far from over. Methinks he may be right about that too.

Speaking of McGwire, he denies ever being injected by Canseco. A war of “you calling me a liar” has ensued following McGwire’s denial. He said, he said.

In this latest chapter, who should fans believe more? McGwire, when given the chance, never seized the moment to tell truth, choosing instead to “No comment” his way towards insulting baseball fans. Canseco, for his part, blew the lid right off the conspiracy of cheating in baseball. Moreover, McGwire’s about face seems way too calculated for my taste. There are too many “aw, come on! You expect us to believe that?” angles to the story.

Rockford! This file is for you!

Then there’s the whole blogging versus traditional aspect to all this. Journalists failed miserably on this story. My journalists, I mean every Tom, Dick, Larry, Tony, Rick, Bob Michael and Harry with privileged access to sports personalities and locker rooms. It astonishes me that NONE of those over at ESPN or NBC or Fox or where else, didn’t come across something that perked their ears. Or maybe they did and didn’t act on it.

In a journalism vacum where investigative reporting is dead, bloggers have temporarily come in to fill in the void left open by mainstream reporters and pundits. I say temporarily because sports blogging is evolving at a rapid pace. While the community is prepared to pick up what journalists have dropped, the reality is blogging remains unrefined and inexperienced to deal with serious issues. Moreover, the recipe (in some cases) for blogging success is sports gossip and I’m not so sure that’s any better.

Nonetheless, it plays a massive role in shaking journalists into doing their damn jobs. I really don’t care this writer was text by that athlete. In fact, that concerns me. How is a writer supposed to expose a problem when they’re way too chummy with organizations and athletes?

Some fear that if they actually do their jobs and cover negative stories, they’ll lose their press privileges. Confronted with the dilemma of getting access and writing fluff pieces and writing about the truth but with no access, journalists have made their choice.

Bloggers don’t have that problem. Thankfully, I say. When Ken Rosenthal made a stink about a blogger wondering about Raul Ibanez being a doper, I thought it was unfair. For two reasons. One, where were you with all the information you could have had regarding steroids? Writing Sosa-McGwire feel good stories like the rest of the damn sports community? Second, is it that unreasonable, given all that we now know, to make some educated assumptions about athletes who may cheat? Especially in cases where statistics suddenly inflate? Journalist leave bloggers no choice because of their unwillingness to dirty themselves in fear of wetting their own beds.

The sublime Bob Costas, another “Gate Keeper” to all things professional in sports, is also leaving some of us scratching our heads.  I wished he would have perused McGwire’s mind a little more in their talk.

I’m not saying he should focus on bad things or delve into the private lives of athletes (quite frankly, I really don’t give a shit about who A-Rod is banging and if St. Jeter is getting married. Incidentally, he may want to check with the Vatican to make sure this won’t affect his chance of being canonized), but I am saying don’t pass this as a “special report.”

Hey, McGwire is probably sincere but the stench of choreography is too much to ignore.

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Quick word on Vancouver Canucks forward Alex Burrows going medieval on referre Stephane Auger’s ass. Should he have done it publicly? Probably not. I would have told my coach – but that’s me. However, once in a while, it’s good that an athlete steps up and keeps things honest. I don’t know what went on and I’m not sure the NHL’s investigation into Burrow’s allegations will amount to anythng, but one thing is for sure, Auger’s calls were blatantly bad. It’s there for us to see. At the 24 second mark, can anyone explain to me how that’s bloody interference?

And this thing about officials saying nothing goes on is ridiculous. Anyone who has ever played sports at adecent level knows refs can be assholes and some do make things personal. I remember one time, playing soccer, a defender jumped and rammed his knee into my back to head a contested ball I did not end up challenging. The call went against me. Apparently, according to sources, the ref hated our town.

Shit like that happens all the time. Yes, the big leagues are complete different cat but is it that unreasonable to think Auger was a tad upset about something? Either that or he’s a terrible ref because those calls were pretty cheesey to me.