Without sorting through the whole story, I'm just going to go on record that I find it a hypocrisy that sports writers who spent years reporting and cheering for the Home Runs and expanded stats of The Roid Era (even when it was not-too-unclear that there was some steroid abuse or something... going on) and now it appears they can't seem to find anybody worthy from The Roid Era for the Hall Of Fame.
24 comments:
I've got to agree... the moral indignation is just plain funny. Like Bob Costas interjecting himself into the gun control debate because he read a column.
I am pushing for a new wing to the old place. "Roids: Era of the long ball" It could start out with everything oversized and amazing and shrink down to where you have to crawl out the far end.
Like who?
RW: Barry Bonds is one. with everybody else doing it too, he still dominated.
John: i like that design for a new wing.
They could build a new wing in the HOF in the shape of an asterisk.
No I meant sportswriters. I want to know who did this so I can avoid them. :-)
Great point.
RW, really anyone who covered baseball on a beat or national level, I remember the race between McGuire and Sosa in particular was well covered.
Robert, it's my recollection that the McGuire-Sosa bandwagon started long before that reporter asked about the bottle on McGuire's shelf. That runaway train was already pretty far down the line by the time the first question was ever raised - and then what the sports writers covered was just as much the fan frenzy as anything else.
G\
There is an unfair bias, in my opinion, that wants to blame "the media" for being an undue influence on people that smacks of elitism on the part of the media critic.
I want names. Who were these sports writers, exactly, that Gino is all worked up about? I mean it's not like Gino isn't prejudiced against the fourth estate. Any time he laments about his opinion being in the minority it's "the media's" fault, instead of him just being full of it.
RW: i'm not calling an unfair bias, just a hypocrisy that i see.
to be clear: that I see.
YMMV.
what i'm not doing is getting 'all worked up' over anything to do with Cooperstown. i'll save that for baseball fetishists.
i remember the hype about the home runs and how it was good for baseball, the sold out stadiums, the increased interest in the sport, baseball players dominating the front page of print media...
you want me to name names? sorry, i cannot. i'm not much of a baseball watcher the past 30yrs, and pay even less attention to who writes the occasional sports article that i read.
i am commenting on the hype as i remember it, and making an observation.
you, or anybody, is free to come in here and tell me that i am full of shit on any given posting.
i welcome it.
if i didnt, i would just post a series of cute dog and cat pictures and offer little opinion of my own.
its kinda nice to receive the love of an agreeable reader on ocassion,
but i dont see much growth or discussion if i find myself surrounded by bobbleheads.
Fair enough. But you have bobbleheads nonetheless, and the common trait amongst them - to my way of thinking - is to settle on assumptions and just go from there. You do, I mean come on, assume "the media" is mostly a bad thing.
So it wasn't "sportswriters" you were talking about, it was mostly the TV and radio guys, since that's where I remember the major hype artists were. I remember McGuire-Sosa well, I was there for that, for example.
Everything's cool. But there are reasons we don't get paid for our opinions.
For what it's worth, here was Sports Illustrated in 1998, naming McGwire and Sosa as "Sportsmen of the Year":
"McGwire and Sosa gave America a summer that won't be forgotten: a summer of stroke and counterstroke, of packed houses and curtain calls, of rivals embracing and gloves in the bleachers and adults turned into kids -- the Summer of Long Balls and Love. It wasn't just the lengths they went to with bats in their hands. It was also that they went to such lengths to conduct the great home run race with dignity and sportsmanship, with a sense of joy and openness. Never have two men chased legends and each other that hard and that long or invited so much of America onto their backs for the ride."
Some great adjectives in that one -- dignity, sportsmanship and my personal favorite, openness. And that was written after they found the bottle of andro in McGwire's locker, since SI names their Sportsman of the Year in December.
And since RW has asked for a name, the name of the writer is Gary Smith.
Here's another one, in the midst of it, from Richard Justice in the Washington Post.
And Mike Lupica wrote a book about McGwire and Sosa the next year.
Gino, could you ask Mr D how these guys voted? lol... thanks. :-)
or even if they did.
all i know is that the voters are largely sports writers. maybe some historians, inside baseball folks, etc.
i could be wrong on that, though.
i dont assume 'the media' is a mostly bad thing.
but like any body-at-large composed of humans, it is often times a flawed thing.
it is right and proper to call bullshit if one sees it or suspects it... and calling bullshit on a blog page is also part of the flawed media.
naturally, those who get paid to do it deserve criticism (being held to a higher standard) more than those of us who do not.
Seriously though my recollection was that there was a reporter from the AP (Steve something... I can't remember) who saw the banned supplement in McGuire's locker and broke the story, but this was already after all the hype had started. Until then it was fantasy land.
So we can also thank the media for finding the truth too.
The "sportswriters" include TV commentators, game announcers, and even radio call-in hosts with a resume.
And I'm not too sure... I don't know about the "higher standard." But I've found out the hard way - you put yourself out there - you better be able to bring it.
Oh btw, please tell Mr D thanks for spending his entire Sunday morning looking all this shit up, I'm still waiting for the votes but no hurry, and - when he finishes looking that up - he can "show that RW what's what" by looking into the sportswriter's birthdays. I need to send a few cards.
i remember somebody finding a supplement in mcguire's locker. i was under the memory that it was a legal (if questionable) thing.
anyway...
i sparked a coversation here. i enjoyed it, and learned a thing or two.
RW, all I'm saying is that there were a lot of people doing the hagiography thing back then. I was trying to backstop Gino's assertion, which was true.
No one disputes that the TV guys and the sports talkers on the radio weren't doing the same thing. They all were. We're not even really disagreeing, but I realize you can't help yourself.
Well if you look at it I asked for the names so I could be sure to avoid them. I didn't ask you to spend hours arguing with a shadow. But that's how some people are I guess.
At least you don't have to talk to me through Gino anymore. That's a start.
RW, not to put too fine a point on it, but I don't give a shit what you want. What I was doing was backstopping Gino's specific point, to wit:
i am commenting on the hype as i remember it, and making an observation.
His observation was correct and I wanted to provide specific examples to show why he was correct.
It's ok. Like Gino sez, every blogger has his bobbleheads, :-)
Let's see, someone asks for some specifics. Another person responds with specifics. The first person then says, "Get a life" to the person who took the time to respond. Maybe we need some sportswriters to report on this phenomenon of shifting goalposts.
Why do you expect depth when all you're doing is wading?
Wading? I'd say you were trolling, RW. You were the one, however, who asked for depth, only to squirt snark when it was provided. Stick close to the safe harbor of your pre-suppositions; I suspect anything deeper than a dog dish might be over your head.
Oh my! Personal affront! I'm embellished! I mean offended.
Nah it isn't that serious. I was more illustrating the point that Gino was shooting this from the hip and didn't have any details to give us - which he didn't.
But keep it in context, crankshaft, Mr D gets a boner the size of Pittsburgh when he sees my name, for some reason. His day isn't complete unless he can condescend to somebody.
Anyway, so much for Gino not having any bobbleheads. Looks like there's all kind of white knights out there to right the wrongs and spare the damsels.
WTTW - don't take this so seriously. It's just the internet. lol...
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