One of my many guilty pleasures in life is my undying appreciation for trash-TV. Watching a train wreck on "The Real World," having Flava Flav looking for love in all the wrong places. and my all-time favourite - paternity and lie detector tests on Maury Povich.
The lie detector tests really gain steam from the all out denials until the moment Maury tells us that the results are in...
"When asked if you had sex with anyone other than Cherise during the time you were dating, the lie detector test determined that is a lie, more than fifteen times."
Reactions out of the guys who have just been exposed are really where the money shot comes from. They can either play it off like somehow the lie detector was wrong, or start defending why they did it. Maybe it was that their old lady wasn't showing them the love they need at home, maybe they have a problem they need to fix, or maybe they were just young and naive and made a mistake... fifteen times.
I guess where the analogy ends is by taking a look at exactly what happened yesterday during Alex Rodriguez's press conference where he tried his best to offer up full disclosure to the media about his own steroid use. Where does Alex fit in on Maury Povich? He didn't blame the lie detector test like Bonds and Clemens did, but he certainly did try and turn it around on us all and blame the girl for all of his cheating.
That's not fair, it's not fair at all. I've had the idea since the story broke a week and a half ago about A-Rod's positive test to write something, but I've just struggled to really come up with how I feel about it. In reality, I don't think we should blame Alex for what he did or have him condemend. Let's actually pick up with the cheating boyfriend analogy and ask if we can really blame him for his actions.
If we are to believe everything that has been told to us by A-Rod, he first met the needle back in 2001. They met at some shady dive of a bar, where Alex's cousin took him out to set him up with a girl he knew. Maybe in a spot where your buddies wouldn't see you in the event this girl was nothing to look at. Turns out A-Rod has a few drinks, maybe gives the lady a kiss and they continue talking. Nothing serious. He just arrived in town and wants to see what else is out there, so the girl gives him a free pass. They'll meet up twice a month and hang out, but he can see other girls if he wants and not worry about the consequences.
2003 rolls around and suddenly she wants to put a label on what you have. There are rules now. Maybe A-Rod knows he can't see other girls anymore, but if he wants to he has to do in secrecy. At that point A-Rod isn't allowed to run around anymore, but he knows that whatever he does he won't get in trouble for it. So in that case, why stop?
Don't take this whole analogy as condoning cheating on ones significant other, because that isn't the case. But like Major League Baseball prior to 2004 and it's strict punishment for testing, if you have an open relationship why wouldn't you expect someone to take advantage of it?
What really bothers me about this whole thing is how now that people can put a face to one of the 104 players who tested positive in 2003, when results were meant to monitor the percentage of players who used during that time and the results were intended to be kept secret, that the one guy who was exposed is now being outed for his accomplishments, his records, his character and out of anything - the Hall of Fame.
Regardless of whatever happens to these sealed positive tests, how can anyone not just suspect anyone who played the game? Two weeks ago A-Rod was supposed to be the saviour of baseball for being the one who wound break the all-time homerun record and he would be the one who was clean while he did it. Sure, Barry "The Iron Shiek" Bonds would hold that title briefly, but we know how these things end. Alex "Hulk Hogan" Rodriguez would eventually win back that title for the good guys. The Ruths, the Aarons and the rest of the babyfaces of the sport. But now that A-Rod has been outed, he loses everything when we have no idea what other names are included in that list of 104 players.
Greg Maddux? Manny Ramirez? Pedro Martinez? Randy Johnson? Albert Pujols?
It seems most won't write off those names and I don't want to either. I really would like to believe that steroids and PEDs are for those who are fringe players trying to make it to the show, but we know that isn't the case when arguably three of the best players of this generation have a shadow cast over them.
In the end, I just see the rules as being the rules. Some guys chose to play and not go around and see other girls, some guys did. Let's condemn those with positive tests after 2004 as that's when the rules should apply. If it's all in the game prior to that point, then let's take it for what it is and just take it for what it is. Maybe we don't agree with the choices some of our favourite players made during that time, but it wasn't our moral dilemma to go through. It was their own and they made their own choices that were put forth to them.
Without consequence, it is all fair play.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
The sweat is starting to show...
A day after the Super Bowl and possibly one of the greatest championship games that you will ever see, it is hard to believe that I've spent the last few hours trying to figure out exactly what is going on with Chris Bosh and the Toronto Raptors.
The team appears to be dead in the water as of this moment and as a fan, I understand completely the rage the fans are bringing to the Air Canada Centre. When the team comes and throws out two consecutive stinkers as they did against the Bucks and the Magic this weekend, there really does not really seem to be a more fitting of a response.
Earlier in the week I had a conversation with a friend of mine about the way Toronto sports fans seem to rally around the media and not their team when it comes to certain players and their deficiencies on the playing field. It had become really obvious that a lot of sports fans in Toronto were not capable of forming their own opinion on a player, but instead relied on guys like Bob McCowan to tell them exactly what to think of players like Bryan McCabe, Eric Hinske and Andrea Bargnani. I had remarked to this friend of mine how ludicrous I thought the whole notion of relying on sports talk radio to come up with an opinion of a player was. Although after the whole fiasco this past weekend with the Raptors, I'm starting to wonder if maybe I was wrong.
We all have things in our life that motivate us; the fear of failure, the desire to be the best, the almighty dollar. The thing in sports is to simply find out how to motivate a particular player to get the best of his or her ability. If you need to baby them, then baby them. If you need to scream until you are hoarse, you do just that. When it comes down to it though, I figured a team leader would look to find his own motivation when a crowd of people are questioning you and your teams toughness and ability.
Let's clear the air - I love Chris Bosh. I would put him in the label of a top-15 player, I think he's entertaining to watch, great to listen to and overall great for the basketball community in Toronto. What bothers me about Chris lashing out against the fans and his willingness to boo the fans if they have a bad fiscal year, is that he is setting us all up for more heartbreak as Raptors fans. As if the fiasco with Damon, Vince and so many other former stars of Toronto sports didn't leave us all bitter in the way those atheletes left, we now all seem threatened to feel as if we're the single 36-year old girl watching her last single friend get married. That we had fun during the whole dating thing with us, but to have you go off and marry a Portland, New Jersey or a lonely billionaire New York.
(By the way: Given the financial situation around the world, maybe multi-millionaire atheletes should boo us all if we have poor fiscal years. Manny Ramirez and Latrell Spreewell will be the first in line to do just that.)
Look, if Chris Bosh leaves in 2010 to go win a couple of championships and does so with grace, I'm sure the Toronto sports market will understand. But with efforts like we've seen over the past weekend, mixed in with the angry comments towards the fans that have embraced him since he came into the league, this is starting to feel all too familiar to all of us fans. We tasted the first bit of success as a franchise with Vince and it hurt when he quit. Chris lifted the Raptors up to a division title and back-to-back playoff appearances when most thought this project would take a few years to get back on track.
Don't break our hearts again, Chris. I swear we can change.
The team appears to be dead in the water as of this moment and as a fan, I understand completely the rage the fans are bringing to the Air Canada Centre. When the team comes and throws out two consecutive stinkers as they did against the Bucks and the Magic this weekend, there really does not really seem to be a more fitting of a response.
Earlier in the week I had a conversation with a friend of mine about the way Toronto sports fans seem to rally around the media and not their team when it comes to certain players and their deficiencies on the playing field. It had become really obvious that a lot of sports fans in Toronto were not capable of forming their own opinion on a player, but instead relied on guys like Bob McCowan to tell them exactly what to think of players like Bryan McCabe, Eric Hinske and Andrea Bargnani. I had remarked to this friend of mine how ludicrous I thought the whole notion of relying on sports talk radio to come up with an opinion of a player was. Although after the whole fiasco this past weekend with the Raptors, I'm starting to wonder if maybe I was wrong.
We all have things in our life that motivate us; the fear of failure, the desire to be the best, the almighty dollar. The thing in sports is to simply find out how to motivate a particular player to get the best of his or her ability. If you need to baby them, then baby them. If you need to scream until you are hoarse, you do just that. When it comes down to it though, I figured a team leader would look to find his own motivation when a crowd of people are questioning you and your teams toughness and ability.
Let's clear the air - I love Chris Bosh. I would put him in the label of a top-15 player, I think he's entertaining to watch, great to listen to and overall great for the basketball community in Toronto. What bothers me about Chris lashing out against the fans and his willingness to boo the fans if they have a bad fiscal year, is that he is setting us all up for more heartbreak as Raptors fans. As if the fiasco with Damon, Vince and so many other former stars of Toronto sports didn't leave us all bitter in the way those atheletes left, we now all seem threatened to feel as if we're the single 36-year old girl watching her last single friend get married. That we had fun during the whole dating thing with us, but to have you go off and marry a Portland, New Jersey or a lonely billionaire New York.
(By the way: Given the financial situation around the world, maybe multi-millionaire atheletes should boo us all if we have poor fiscal years. Manny Ramirez and Latrell Spreewell will be the first in line to do just that.)
Look, if Chris Bosh leaves in 2010 to go win a couple of championships and does so with grace, I'm sure the Toronto sports market will understand. But with efforts like we've seen over the past weekend, mixed in with the angry comments towards the fans that have embraced him since he came into the league, this is starting to feel all too familiar to all of us fans. We tasted the first bit of success as a franchise with Vince and it hurt when he quit. Chris lifted the Raptors up to a division title and back-to-back playoff appearances when most thought this project would take a few years to get back on track.
Don't break our hearts again, Chris. I swear we can change.
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