Landis and Bonds and other news.
Here is my reaction to some of what’s going on in the sports world right now:
1. Is it possible that Landis’ collapse in the Tour de Lance was staged by OLN? I was just starting to care a bit about the tour because, as I’ve mentioned, I love the idea of yet another American providing some much needed humility to the French, when suddenly, he takes both hands off the handlebars and wraps them firmly around his neck and squeezes until he goes from first to more than 8 minutes off the lead. In an instant, slight but mounting interest completely evaporated. Then, dude went nuts. Not only did he win the next stage, but he crushed the competition Lance style making back all but 30 seconds on the leader. I have been amused the past several years at how much the Tour was a foregone conclusion after a certain point. Lance would get, sometimes a small lead of only a few seconds, in the mountains and everyone would declare him the winner. But this year, it seems like anything could happen. I’m not an expert, but as I understand it, there is only one more stage that matters – tomorrow’s time trial. What I wonder is what if one guy is winning by a second or in a virtual tie with another on the last day when the leader gets to ride in to Paris sipping champagne? I hope this happens and I hope the race ends with Landis beating some French guy while drinking champagne.
2. Speaking of the tour, I have to say a couple other things. First, it is a wildly underrated sporting event. You have national pride mixed with great skill and athleticism and a deceptive amount of strategy. You would think the strategy is just ride your bike faster than the other guys, or if you really get sophisticated, maybe “pace yourself.” But this race is full of individual and team strategy with new approaches taken to every stage and the race won or lost more on key decisions than on strength as a rider. It’s good stuff, but sadly, for me at least, I just can’t get into it unless an American is in contention. Which reminds me….
3. I’m the same way with Golf and Tiger. I really enjoy watching the PGA if Tiger is playing and in contention. Otherwise, I would rather nap or perhaps play my brothers’ very good lawn golf game that they use to torment their apartment neighbors in Sacto. Let’s just say that in my brief playing career I knocked not one but two wiffle style golf balls into someone’s third story living room and while I was cringing waiting for a profanity laced tirade, I looked at my brother who shrugged and said, “petty common really. You’ll just have to take a drop.” Good times. All of that to say, I really hope tiger uses his stellar play on the first two days and turns it in to another dominant performance that is always fun to watch. Otherwise, I’m back to trying to make myself care about baseball. Which reminds me….
4. I’m headed to Safeco to watch the Mariners play the Red Sox this weekend and couldn’t be happier about it. I’m bringing my oldest son, I’m meeting up with my buddy Clint and his boy and watching some baseball in the sun. that is baseball at its finest. If you don’t get to go to the games and your team is not a real contender, baseball is just brutal. The Giants right now have me in the worst possible position. They are not bad enough to ignore completely, but not good enough to get excited about. They are a .500 team, no more and no less, but because they play in Baseball’s Minor league division known as the NL West, they still have a shot, even if they never play any better than they are right now. And speaking of the Giants, that reminds me….
5. Bonds avoided indictment by the grand jury, which seems a minor point given that he has already been found guilty by the media and public but is really quite a statement. But, now is a good time to throw a few of my thoughts out there on Bonds. I have resisted up until now because I didn’t want to even think about it, but here goes:
First, I was a Bonds fan even before he came to SF. I loved the skills, the fact that he could do it all and the fact that he openly refused to play along with the sports media who are, for the most part, numbskulls. Then when the best player in baseball came to my favorite team to take over from Will the Thrill as the franchise leader, I couldn’t have been happier. I quickly became a big time Bonds fan, and then increasingly a Bonds apologist. Bonds became so unpopular with the media because he had the nerve to act irritated when he’s sitting naked at his locker and 25 guys who don’t like him shove microphones into his face and ask him “how he feels about going 0-4 that night” Imagine that someone in that situation might grow tired of answering the same stupid questions to the same group of jerks who would all too happily misquote him or write his statements out of context to help them sell newspapers. I know every ballplayer goes through that and most of them manage to play along, but I never blamed Bonds for refusing to.
When Bonds took that jump a few years ago from co-best player of the decade with Griffey and lock hall of famer to “in the conversation” for best player of all time, I was nearly giddy and Bonds could do no wrong in my mind. I didn’t want hear the roid rumors and quickly and easily chalked it up to all the haters that had been attacking Barry for years.
So that was my background when all the Balco stuff hit. Now, here's what I think.
a. I don’t claim Bonds didn’t juice. As far as I know, he’s denied it and it hasn’t been proved, but I’m not saying he did or didn’t.
b. From the beginning, the investigation was about Bonds. He was singled out because he was unpopular and unfriendly and even more than that would get the local DAs and US attorneys and investigating officers’ names in the paper. There are a lot of things wrong with that approach of course, but not the least of which is when you make an investigation and prosecution like that personal like it was, you greatly increase the risk of royally screwing up little things like justice and due process.
c. I was highly irritated at how quickly people jumped to the conclusion that he had done every conceivable performance enhancing substance for years in spite of the fact that no credible investigative body had been able to manufacture proof….not evidence,…proof. You can find “evidence” of anything.
d. I never really got why this was cheating and why, in a sport that largely forgives cheating and sometimes glorifies it, this was so evil. Steroids is worse than scuffing a ball or pretending to have been hit by a pitch when you weren’t or corking your bat? Really? But all those things are against the rules. Right? Steroids was not against the rules in baseball. It may have been illegal and it was certainly a bad choice from a health perspective, but it wasn’t cheating. I’m not saying that makes it ok at all, I think it was and is wrong, but it is significant.
e. Tax payers should not have to pay for any of this. Not one minute of law enforcement time should be spent investigating steroid use in pro sports. Let the sports clean it up and spend the money on schools and roads and things that actually matter.
f. Mostly though, I was sad to see a guy I had rooted for be so tainted. It’s not like he was a role model to begin with. Even though I defended him, I would never want to be like him or have my sons imitate him. But I hated that all of what he accomplished would now be dismissed by so many. I loved that fact that when I was arguing about players with my friends, Barry always won the numbers game. He is, without a doubt, the best hitter of our generation and perhaps the best all time. He stole bases and for a while was a very good fielder. Now, roids is the ultimate trump card. I hate that. Especially since the empirical evidence appears so damning.
g. All of this to say, here’s my take on Barry. He may be the single greatest baseball player in history and in my mind at least, the roids don’t change that at all. At most, the stuff he took, if anything, probably added a few HRs to the total, but they don’t affect vision or balance or hand-eye coordination or any of the things that really matter in hitting. They affect strength, so maybe the year he hit 73, he would have “only” hit 50 without the roids. He’s still the best hitter of all time and given what he did for so long in the field and on the bases, he is at least in the conversation for best ever, roids or not.
Also, and this will be my final point I promise, everyone should take note of the lack of indictment. They have been chasing him for a long long time and it is one thing to not get enough to convict, but the legal system makes it very very easy to indict someone. Prosecuting attorneys are famous for saying that any decent DA could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. But not Bonds? Really? What about all the “evidence” that people claim? It takes next to none to get an indictment, so where is it? Maybe it will come later. Maybe after enough digging, they’ll find something, but it is pretty telling that they haven’t so far.
6. Ok, enough on Bonds. ESPN writer, Chris Sheridan is way out of line when he wrote a long scathing article about how coach K was wrong to suggest to his new Team USA players that they should try to dominate the competition. Sheridan’s point was that we could no long dominate so we shouldn’t try because then we might be crushed if we lose. Chris, call me when you have motivated a group of people to do anything. Last time I checked Coach K has a pretty decent resume for pushing the right buttons with his players. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt maybe.
7. My favorite sports writer Bill Simmons has taken a liking to soccer after the world cup. I believe he must be on the take. This is a sellout of such monstrous proportions I’m not sure I can even read him any more. I had become convinced he offered real insight into sports, but now I see he was much more right than I realized all those times he called himself an idiot. Just to clarify, soccer could probably be a fun game, but instead, thanks to ridiculous rules and the creation of far superior sports, it is basically quite lame.
That’s all for now.
Roy for ROY.
Here is my reaction to some of what’s going on in the sports world right now:
1. Is it possible that Landis’ collapse in the Tour de Lance was staged by OLN? I was just starting to care a bit about the tour because, as I’ve mentioned, I love the idea of yet another American providing some much needed humility to the French, when suddenly, he takes both hands off the handlebars and wraps them firmly around his neck and squeezes until he goes from first to more than 8 minutes off the lead. In an instant, slight but mounting interest completely evaporated. Then, dude went nuts. Not only did he win the next stage, but he crushed the competition Lance style making back all but 30 seconds on the leader. I have been amused the past several years at how much the Tour was a foregone conclusion after a certain point. Lance would get, sometimes a small lead of only a few seconds, in the mountains and everyone would declare him the winner. But this year, it seems like anything could happen. I’m not an expert, but as I understand it, there is only one more stage that matters – tomorrow’s time trial. What I wonder is what if one guy is winning by a second or in a virtual tie with another on the last day when the leader gets to ride in to Paris sipping champagne? I hope this happens and I hope the race ends with Landis beating some French guy while drinking champagne.
2. Speaking of the tour, I have to say a couple other things. First, it is a wildly underrated sporting event. You have national pride mixed with great skill and athleticism and a deceptive amount of strategy. You would think the strategy is just ride your bike faster than the other guys, or if you really get sophisticated, maybe “pace yourself.” But this race is full of individual and team strategy with new approaches taken to every stage and the race won or lost more on key decisions than on strength as a rider. It’s good stuff, but sadly, for me at least, I just can’t get into it unless an American is in contention. Which reminds me….
3. I’m the same way with Golf and Tiger. I really enjoy watching the PGA if Tiger is playing and in contention. Otherwise, I would rather nap or perhaps play my brothers’ very good lawn golf game that they use to torment their apartment neighbors in Sacto. Let’s just say that in my brief playing career I knocked not one but two wiffle style golf balls into someone’s third story living room and while I was cringing waiting for a profanity laced tirade, I looked at my brother who shrugged and said, “petty common really. You’ll just have to take a drop.” Good times. All of that to say, I really hope tiger uses his stellar play on the first two days and turns it in to another dominant performance that is always fun to watch. Otherwise, I’m back to trying to make myself care about baseball. Which reminds me….
4. I’m headed to Safeco to watch the Mariners play the Red Sox this weekend and couldn’t be happier about it. I’m bringing my oldest son, I’m meeting up with my buddy Clint and his boy and watching some baseball in the sun. that is baseball at its finest. If you don’t get to go to the games and your team is not a real contender, baseball is just brutal. The Giants right now have me in the worst possible position. They are not bad enough to ignore completely, but not good enough to get excited about. They are a .500 team, no more and no less, but because they play in Baseball’s Minor league division known as the NL West, they still have a shot, even if they never play any better than they are right now. And speaking of the Giants, that reminds me….
5. Bonds avoided indictment by the grand jury, which seems a minor point given that he has already been found guilty by the media and public but is really quite a statement. But, now is a good time to throw a few of my thoughts out there on Bonds. I have resisted up until now because I didn’t want to even think about it, but here goes:
First, I was a Bonds fan even before he came to SF. I loved the skills, the fact that he could do it all and the fact that he openly refused to play along with the sports media who are, for the most part, numbskulls. Then when the best player in baseball came to my favorite team to take over from Will the Thrill as the franchise leader, I couldn’t have been happier. I quickly became a big time Bonds fan, and then increasingly a Bonds apologist. Bonds became so unpopular with the media because he had the nerve to act irritated when he’s sitting naked at his locker and 25 guys who don’t like him shove microphones into his face and ask him “how he feels about going 0-4 that night” Imagine that someone in that situation might grow tired of answering the same stupid questions to the same group of jerks who would all too happily misquote him or write his statements out of context to help them sell newspapers. I know every ballplayer goes through that and most of them manage to play along, but I never blamed Bonds for refusing to.
When Bonds took that jump a few years ago from co-best player of the decade with Griffey and lock hall of famer to “in the conversation” for best player of all time, I was nearly giddy and Bonds could do no wrong in my mind. I didn’t want hear the roid rumors and quickly and easily chalked it up to all the haters that had been attacking Barry for years.
So that was my background when all the Balco stuff hit. Now, here's what I think.
a. I don’t claim Bonds didn’t juice. As far as I know, he’s denied it and it hasn’t been proved, but I’m not saying he did or didn’t.
b. From the beginning, the investigation was about Bonds. He was singled out because he was unpopular and unfriendly and even more than that would get the local DAs and US attorneys and investigating officers’ names in the paper. There are a lot of things wrong with that approach of course, but not the least of which is when you make an investigation and prosecution like that personal like it was, you greatly increase the risk of royally screwing up little things like justice and due process.
c. I was highly irritated at how quickly people jumped to the conclusion that he had done every conceivable performance enhancing substance for years in spite of the fact that no credible investigative body had been able to manufacture proof….not evidence,…proof. You can find “evidence” of anything.
d. I never really got why this was cheating and why, in a sport that largely forgives cheating and sometimes glorifies it, this was so evil. Steroids is worse than scuffing a ball or pretending to have been hit by a pitch when you weren’t or corking your bat? Really? But all those things are against the rules. Right? Steroids was not against the rules in baseball. It may have been illegal and it was certainly a bad choice from a health perspective, but it wasn’t cheating. I’m not saying that makes it ok at all, I think it was and is wrong, but it is significant.
e. Tax payers should not have to pay for any of this. Not one minute of law enforcement time should be spent investigating steroid use in pro sports. Let the sports clean it up and spend the money on schools and roads and things that actually matter.
f. Mostly though, I was sad to see a guy I had rooted for be so tainted. It’s not like he was a role model to begin with. Even though I defended him, I would never want to be like him or have my sons imitate him. But I hated that all of what he accomplished would now be dismissed by so many. I loved that fact that when I was arguing about players with my friends, Barry always won the numbers game. He is, without a doubt, the best hitter of our generation and perhaps the best all time. He stole bases and for a while was a very good fielder. Now, roids is the ultimate trump card. I hate that. Especially since the empirical evidence appears so damning.
g. All of this to say, here’s my take on Barry. He may be the single greatest baseball player in history and in my mind at least, the roids don’t change that at all. At most, the stuff he took, if anything, probably added a few HRs to the total, but they don’t affect vision or balance or hand-eye coordination or any of the things that really matter in hitting. They affect strength, so maybe the year he hit 73, he would have “only” hit 50 without the roids. He’s still the best hitter of all time and given what he did for so long in the field and on the bases, he is at least in the conversation for best ever, roids or not.
Also, and this will be my final point I promise, everyone should take note of the lack of indictment. They have been chasing him for a long long time and it is one thing to not get enough to convict, but the legal system makes it very very easy to indict someone. Prosecuting attorneys are famous for saying that any decent DA could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. But not Bonds? Really? What about all the “evidence” that people claim? It takes next to none to get an indictment, so where is it? Maybe it will come later. Maybe after enough digging, they’ll find something, but it is pretty telling that they haven’t so far.
6. Ok, enough on Bonds. ESPN writer, Chris Sheridan is way out of line when he wrote a long scathing article about how coach K was wrong to suggest to his new Team USA players that they should try to dominate the competition. Sheridan’s point was that we could no long dominate so we shouldn’t try because then we might be crushed if we lose. Chris, call me when you have motivated a group of people to do anything. Last time I checked Coach K has a pretty decent resume for pushing the right buttons with his players. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt maybe.
7. My favorite sports writer Bill Simmons has taken a liking to soccer after the world cup. I believe he must be on the take. This is a sellout of such monstrous proportions I’m not sure I can even read him any more. I had become convinced he offered real insight into sports, but now I see he was much more right than I realized all those times he called himself an idiot. Just to clarify, soccer could probably be a fun game, but instead, thanks to ridiculous rules and the creation of far superior sports, it is basically quite lame.
That’s all for now.
Roy for ROY.
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