I have to laugh: Â*Bud Selig, the man who won't allow Pete Rose into the Hall of Fame, sitting in front of a Congressional Committee defending Major League Baseball. Â*
Mark McGwire, who apparently doesn't know silence = acceptance (hey, it does in business meetings). Â*
Barry Bonds, who holding one major record and closing in on another, is repeatedly popped the question: did you, or didn't you? Â*
Let's go back a few years to 1998, just a few years after Baseball suffered another black eye. Â*Fans had had enough and attendance was down, when all of a sudden, here comes people hitting 50, no 60, no 70! a season. Â*Baseball rode the hell out of the McGwire/Sosa HR battle that year, because truth be told, there wasn't much else going on for it. Â*Forget the Player's Association or the Union or the Owners... The fans almost canceled the season due to lack of interest (wait, that was the NHL. Â*Right?) Â*
Now, I'm one of those guys who will be somewhat defensive of these players and all the homers they've hit--besides, it takes a lot more than just sheer strength to hit a baseball, and no amount of growth hormones would aid Bonds in walking to first base--and I'd probably allow them to keep their records. Â*But somewhere deep down inside of me, I smell hypocracy at its worst.
Let's ban a guy who most likely did not take any steriods, defined the term "Charlie Hustle", holds records that probably won't be touched in a lifetime or two, and was hardly what one would consider "an athlete", at least by today's standards... All for something he did, and finally admitted to, AFTER his playing days ended. Â*
He gambled, and had a gambling problem. Â*Addiction can occur in a variety of ways, and it's never stopped MLB before from letting a Daryl Strawberry snort his way into suspensions several times--heck, I'm not sure who holds the record for reinstatements, but the number, which I cannot remember of the top of my head, is staggering. Â*
And then there's the steroid abuse, and the hypocracy. Â*How can Selig sit there, sweating to defend the game with a few lackluster policies AFTER THE FACT, WELL AFTER the problem has been known for many years, and then look back to Pete Rose and say, sorry Charlie, no hustle for you? Â*
Mark McGwire, who apparently doesn't know silence = acceptance (hey, it does in business meetings). Â*
Barry Bonds, who holding one major record and closing in on another, is repeatedly popped the question: did you, or didn't you? Â*
Let's go back a few years to 1998, just a few years after Baseball suffered another black eye. Â*Fans had had enough and attendance was down, when all of a sudden, here comes people hitting 50, no 60, no 70! a season. Â*Baseball rode the hell out of the McGwire/Sosa HR battle that year, because truth be told, there wasn't much else going on for it. Â*Forget the Player's Association or the Union or the Owners... The fans almost canceled the season due to lack of interest (wait, that was the NHL. Â*Right?) Â*
Now, I'm one of those guys who will be somewhat defensive of these players and all the homers they've hit--besides, it takes a lot more than just sheer strength to hit a baseball, and no amount of growth hormones would aid Bonds in walking to first base--and I'd probably allow them to keep their records. Â*But somewhere deep down inside of me, I smell hypocracy at its worst.
Let's ban a guy who most likely did not take any steriods, defined the term "Charlie Hustle", holds records that probably won't be touched in a lifetime or two, and was hardly what one would consider "an athlete", at least by today's standards... All for something he did, and finally admitted to, AFTER his playing days ended. Â*
He gambled, and had a gambling problem. Â*Addiction can occur in a variety of ways, and it's never stopped MLB before from letting a Daryl Strawberry snort his way into suspensions several times--heck, I'm not sure who holds the record for reinstatements, but the number, which I cannot remember of the top of my head, is staggering. Â*
And then there's the steroid abuse, and the hypocracy. Â*How can Selig sit there, sweating to defend the game with a few lackluster policies AFTER THE FACT, WELL AFTER the problem has been known for many years, and then look back to Pete Rose and say, sorry Charlie, no hustle for you? Â*
