This is getting ridiculous:
…. McGwire doesn’t get off the hook, and leave Bonds hanging on one of his own, because people like him more. Or because Cardinals manager Tony La Russa – who starts to come across as some unindicted coconspirator with McGwire – wants to rewrite his personal history as much as Mc-Gwire does.
Nobody is defending what Bonds did with his own drug use, ever. But Bonds didn’t start the “steroid era.” McGwire is the one who did that. He doesn’t get cleared now because of a crying jag that started to make you think he was watching some kind of all-day “Old Yeller” movie marathon.
The guy sure did do a lot of crying, before he ever got to Costas. It was reported in the St. Louis paper that he cried on the phone. It was reported in USA Today by Mel Antonen that he cried on the phone. Tim Kurkjian reported that McGwire cried on the phone with him. Everybody who watched the Costas interview saw what happened there. But the question that doesn’t go away is why he was so broken up if all he was doing was taking “low dosages” of steroids to heal.
Wow. I mean, wow. It’s hard to imagine a more pompous, self-aggrandizing response. Just who the hell does Mike Lupica think he is? Sure, he can be a terrific sportswriter, but man, is he coming off small right here.
And I’m not gonna let it slide. I can’t. It’s wrong. It’s indefensible, really.
If there’s only one place in the world where you can read about how the so-called defenders of the game get called out for the blatant hypocrisy, it’ll be here at OBM. I’ll defend the players. I’ll defend their right to be treated as human beings, as fallible. I’ll defend my favorites, and I’ll even defend the ones I didn’t care so much about. They are men who play games. They stand there, in the spotlight, with all the pressure you can imagine in a world where they get paid millions of dollars to run around and hit and throw and catch a ball. It bears mentioning that sportswriters like Lupica are often the source of much of that pressure.
Be sure of that. When Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriguez fail, when they run out a lousy playoff performance, or strike out with the game on the line; guys like Lupica make their bones telling us how lousy they are:
…. he has made a career of hitting home runs and knocking in runs and compiling some of the best numbers in the history of his game. What he has never done is play in a World Series, even though he was supposed to play in one every year when the Yankees beat the Red Sox out of getting him after the 2003 season. He carried the Yankees for one first-round series in 2004 against the Twins and has never done it again when the games matter the most.
…. Thirty-one to play now. Yankees six out in the wild-card race. They left runners on base the way they have all year. Tuesday night they finally heard about it, and good, the $300 million third baseman most of all. Of course he was the last batter of the game for the Yankees, one last runner on base. Of course he got struck out and got booed one last time for good measure.
That’s from two years ago, when A-Rod didn’t come through. The Yankees lost to the Red Sox, and Lupica’s lead –and back-page headline, by the way– was Enough blame to go around, but it lands on A-Rod.
And that was before A-Rod came clean on using steroids, which, of course, didn’t satisfy Mike -Hall of Fame Defender- Lupica:
…. Alex Rodriguez gave us more than you thought he would when he admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs, a lot more than any big baseball star ever has. Rodriguez gave us his version of the truth. But that’s all it was, his version, and one only provided because he finally got caught.
Rodriguez says he was only dirty when he played in Texas but cleaner than corners on a hospital bed when he was in Seattle before that, and later when he got to New York.
We are supposed to accept all that as gospel because he has made this kind of television confession now. Or maybe he just expects us to believe him because he has always been such a good scout.
Here’s an idea. Since you seem to think it’s completely acceptable to walk around all day telling everyone what they’re supposed to, let me tell you what to do:
Stick to writing about the game. Stop acting like your job is to break these athletes down, make them accountable, hold their feet to the fire, or whatever version of saving the children you happen to posturing about on any given day. You’re not David Halbestram, writing about Vietnam. You’re not Woodward and Bernstein, breaking the Watergate scandal. You’re a sportswriter. If it wasn’t for your ridiculous, gas-bag television show, no one in the world would even know what you look like.
It’s the players that matter to fans. It’s the teams that we root for. Not the sportswriters. And, honestly, if you didn’t write about A-Rod’s girlfriend, or McGwire’s steroids supplier, we’d never notice. Really. We don’t care.
You, and Tom Verducci and the rest of you Great Defenders think you are the story. You’re not. And, quite honestly, we’re all tired of hearing about it. Let it go. Your heroes let you down? Please. Get over it. Let it go.
Pete Rose. Jason Giambi. Marion Jones. A-Rod. Manny Ramirez. David Ortiz. Andy Pettitte. And you made damn sure that Mark McGwire knew he was never ever gonna get in the Hall of Fame if he didn’t apologize. On and on, you sat there, and called for their heads, like some King of all that’s Right. Except that the only way you show up like a King is when you’re being a royal pain in the ass. Not one time did any of these athletes satisfy your demands. Not one mea culpa was good enough. That’s the real story. Why did McGwire bother? We all have seen how you treated every other athlete who capitulated your demands. Why would anyone even consider coming clean, when this is what you get?
Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa are still in your sights. They haven’t asked for your forgiveness yet, have they? And given the shameless way you and the rest of you Great Defenders are acting, why would they ever even consider it? I sure as hell wouldn’t.
Shame on you. Shame on all of you.
UPDATE: Here’s another voice of reason:
…. In the wake of Mark McGwire’s admission that he used steroids and his blubbering, Costas-ized public apology, there’s been a good deal of faux outrage, petty character assassination, bad spelling, and even worse logic as the spineless hacks at the BBWAA and their willing sheep in the blogosphere rushed to pronounce judgement on Big Mac. There were the usual hyperbolic calls for records to be expunged, for purity to be restored to the game, and that sort of sanctimonious nonsense. There were those who nobly pretended to be shocked by McGwire’s admission. And then, there were those who laughed.
All the way to the bank.
I am speaking, of course, of the MLB owners cabal, and, in particular, of the leader, the man with the penchant for the short-sleeve dress shirt, one Bud Selig.
Well done. Hat tip to B
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Forgive my misspellings =) but you get my point. Nonetheless good to hear your opinion on the matter.
No really. Please take the time to read some of the links over on the right side. Years of research, analysis, critiques.
I’m sorry, but I’m with Lupica here. I don’t think he’s out of line in anyway. Sports journalism isn’t what it was when Watergate broke. ESPN, the internet, and money among other things have put sports in a more visible line of site within our culture. Steroids and just cheating in general is a huge problem in our society. I think McGwire needed to be scrutinized and feel embarrassed so that amateur athletes everywhere understand the seriousness of the decisions that they are making while letting their competitive side get the best of them.
This paragraph demonstrates so little comprehension of the larger as well as the smaller issues involved here that have been dicussed, debated for years here that it merits little reply other than to say please read up on Johns writings from some of the links over at the right before writing something that has been written 243,673 times in the comment sections all over the blogosphere.
wtf are you talking about??????
i take it that you have never competed at anything
cuz if you had, you would know that every athlete, pro and amateur, will do anything to gain an advantage
so mac getting embarressed aint gonna stop that kid in podunk idaho from doing what he has to to get that college scholarship
I don’t think that McGwire owed me (or anyone else) an apology. I hope he has a successful coaching career, and that he finally gets his due by being voted into the Hall of Fame.
That said, I saw the apology as a carefully-crafted one designed by PR reps. The idea was to admit just enough to turn any outcry into something manageable so that everyone can move on. I understand why they did this– short of verbally cutting his own throat in public, the Lupicas of the world will not accept anything he has to say. And frankly, the Lupicas of the world not only aren’t owed an apology by McGwire, they’ve got some explaining of their own to do about how all of this PED use went on for decades without any of them noticing.
I don’t believe that McGwire only used steroids in small amounts for its healing properties any more than I believe that ARod only took them for three years before having a religious moment. I don’t believe it any more than I believe that Barry allowed people to rub arthritis cream on his elbow. There was a time when I cared, when my ignorance made these cases seem unique and therefore so sinister. Now it seems to me as if this was always a part of sport, and that the real scandal is the way that so many people who were involved in some way act as if they’re shocked and outraged. Yeah yeah, Mac used steroids. Wake me up when Lupica confesses.
I think the problem is Lupica took Human Growth Hormone and didn’t’ get his money back
i wanna know why hgh is not widely distributed
by all accounts, it slows down the aging process
forget the health care prob…give out free hgh
Perfect column, John. You said it all.
Yes. As per usual.
John is the best by far when it comes to laying out the facts about the fabricated and manufactured scandal of steroids.
More than exposing the phony scandal for what it is, a big fat pile of nothingness, he has relentlessly and overwhelmingly demonstrated in minute and precise detail, over an extended period of years, that is supported by impeccable ethics and logic that mainstream media twerps like Lupica, Verducci, Costas, Fanny-Wada, Ley, Rome and their co-conspiring non-compensated bleeters in the non-mainstream media are liars, phonies, and fakers at worst, and empty-headed, non-thinking, basement dwelling, rumor-rephrasers at best.
Fuck ‘em. Fuck ‘em all.
+1
Thought I’d share a good article I just read.
http://www.anothercubsblog.net/2010-articles/january/do-as-i-say-not-as-i-say.html
Meanwhile, ESPN produces something like this:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4817722
Good information, but with all their McGwire bashing, bringing Canseco into the equation, talking about whether he “really belongs in the Hall of Fame”….no link to it anywhere on their baseball page. It’s somewhere, buried in the back, inaccessible to the mainstream audience. No surprise there. Maybe it was there at one point a couple of days ago, I dunno…what I do know is given all the McGwire coverage, it sure seems relevant. It’s no wonder why the public found the Mitchell Report groundbreaking – all that information was already available, ESPN just buried it under layers of attention grabbing BS, so nobody came across the articles linking Clemens to ‘roids from years earlier…
Just disgraceful how the media covers this issue.
Not ever. Don’t ever confuse writing skills with integrity. He is a terrific ass. Articulate ass. But an ass nonetheless. And he is the primary reason I quit taking ESPN seriously all those years ago. Unfortunately, the internet and ESPN have enabled (enhanced) his weasel words to be spread elsewhere other than NYC.
His prose and style underwhelm me… I’m not sure what’s so great about Lupica. Maybe he was better in the 90s, I don’t know…
I couldn’t agree with you more on all of this. Let’s also include the knbr hosts, one in particular, who won’t stop screeching about it until Mcguire is crucified. Thanks for the calling them all out.