Letters to the Editor
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Steroids
Loved your article about the Mets ballboy. You're right: This story has huge implications and it should be be a national story. I also find it amusing that you stuck it to the complainers by devoting a second column to the same issue.
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Almost Always If Not Always
The athletes are also singled out for making too much money for what they do.
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So We Need To Clean Up Sports To make the gambling legitimate and fair?
In a word, yes.
Leaving aside the morality of cheating for the moment, when people lose faith in the integrity of the sport for whatever reason they will not bet on it. The fewer people betting on any given sport, the fewer people watching it as a general rule.
Historically, many early efforts to standardize rules were undertaken with just that purpose in mind: to make betting fairer.
It is in the owners/players/leagues' best interests to have the games and clean as possible and having as many people betting on it as possible because that brings more eyeballs to the TVs and more fannies to the seats.
When sports lose their integrity, they lose their audience. Remember that until the 1960s, the unassailable Big Three sports in this country were baseball, boxing and horse racing. Two of those three have lost the perception of integrity and have consequently been overtaken not just by NFL and NASCAR, but also by arena football, hockey, beach volleyball, etc. etc.
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Wes, you are correct.
I need to take the joke.
If only Zim was actually joking...
This is the dumbest thing he said:
"The Yankees should show a lot of class and extend Joe Torre and Mariano Rivera"
Whatever you say, Jabba.
No doubt Rivera is the greatest closer the game has ever seen, but when your entire (recent) identity is in beating the Red Sox, and BoSox (among others) clearly have Mariano's number, it's time to move on. It kills me to say that, because he has been the single most important person on that roster for years, until now. An ERA hovering around 11 on May 1st is does not spell "contract extension" to me. The guy can only ride his past accomplishments for so long. As great as he is, it's time for him to hang it up.
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Don't like Zimmer?
King,
Do you have something against Don Zimmer? He has done some stupid things, but I can't figure out why his latest comments even deserve mention. His record as a manager is not great, but it isn't awful either. I mean, he is not Buddy Bell or anything. He has a history with the Yankees, so it is obvious that his comments are far from unbiased. Beyond that who cares?
Personally, I always liked Don Zimmer, but then again I guess I have a soft spot for slightly wacky old coots.
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Steroids
The message that is being sent by ignoring the use of steroids in the majors is that following the rules is for losers. We see it so much in other news such as the corporate shenanigans like Enron and Tyco, torturing prisoners, speeding, tax shelters in the Caymans, dads yelling at umpires in Little League, etc. that it's part of the American culture to get away with as much as you can and only getting mad at people because they get caught.
However, I also agree that it's in the sports network's best interests not to bite the hand that feeds them by airing negative news about baseball. Same deal with GE not airing documentaries about the risks of nuclear power on NBC.
Keep writing about the stuff no one else writes about and I'll happily keep reading.
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miles from fatigued
i'm entirely willing to admit that i may be in the minority here, but it still does bother me to hear about rampant steroid use in baseball. just because so many players may (or may not) be using illegal drugs to enhance their game doesn't change the illegality of their actions. i wouldn't have heard of the radomski case had king not written about it, and that's a little shameful. i'm all for reading more about the continuing crackdown on steroids, "toothless" as it may be, in hopes that public pressure builds to the point where players take notice.
keep it up, king.
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I've got Making-Fun-of-the-NHL Fatigue
I know you're a (former?) hockey fan, King, and I know that you probably write about hockey more than your readership probably wants (which is never, apparently), but I'm just tired of hearing about how much the NHL is ignored. Trust me, we hockey fans know. We hear it every night on ESPN, or when any major sports columnist, or hell, even the Onion mentions hockey.
In case I forget that my favorite sport is the whipping boy of the sporting media, believe me, I'll be reminded of it when I go to watch a playoff game at a sports bar. Sometimes they don't even try to find the game, other times the staff will disinterestedly put it on the small screen in the corner. Even this invites insulting remarks from people nearby who were not paying attention to the early-season Royals-Devil Rays game. Here in San Francisco, the best hockey bars are for out-of-area teams (the Red Wings, primarily), not the Sharks.
It's apparently a source of boundless mirth, how unpopular the NHL is to you and the rest of the sporting world. But could you please just shut up about it? We get it. I don't expect anybody to get excited about the Stanley Cup playoffs. I don't expect you to devote any space to hockey in your column. I just want to enjoy my sport in peace, without hearing the same thing over and over and over again. It's really tiresome. I imagine it's how a really tall person feels, whenever they hear, "How's the weather up there?" or some other lame, obvious joke.
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Not fatigued, in fact the PED issue is under-covered; and the hypocricy of the American fan
I read this column because it often covers a side of sports that gets neglected. I don't need another article about the NFL Draft. It's been covered to death. Likewise,the NBA playoffs. It's the first round and it takes a month to get through. Leave it to someone else.
Journalists are obligated to cover PEDs because they go straight to the integrity of the sports they are covering. We have to eat our spinach on this stuff because ultimately it is more important than Brady Quinn slipping down to no. 22. It isn't as important as Iraq, but most journalists took a pass on hard news about Iraq during the run up to the war. "Hey, Americans didn't want to hear it, they want to be gung-ho patriots" the journalists seemed to shrug. Meanwhile, David Hallberstam is already turning in his grave. He understood that sports are a window to the American way of thinking. Someone ought to point out that the American people sure cared about PEDs when it was the Eastern Bloc countries beating us at the Olympics. Now no one cares? It's reached the point of absurdity, this hear no evil, see no evil. Few American journalists will even touch the evidence against St. Lance Armstrong, even though there is more to that story than just "the French".
Even Balco did not get the headlines or analysis it should have. I blame ESPN for a lot of this because they dominate the tv and radio. ESPN has no incentive to devote hours to PEDs. The last thing they want to do is irritate their "partners"-- the NFL and NBA and MLB. They need access and their entire program depends on keeping the goodwill of those leagues. They even cancelled their NFL drama because the NFL didn't like a FICTIONAL show about football. I wish someone would expose ESPN as nothing more than a paid shill for Disney. All those "actors" in the booth during Monday night football, promoting their projects during the game...Goobers like Adam Sandler "on the hot seat" on ESPN sportscenter...I can't even watch it anymore.
The best coverage of steroids has been from the Game of Shadows writers--who were often excoriated--and from HBO's Real Sports. And oh yeah, in this column.