ARod and your Sunday paper

I do see the difference. I just think it's redundant. You could do that with EVERY individual sport (golf, swimming, tennis, etc.).

Have a team tournament. OK, everyone come back next month and we'll start from scratch or an individual tournament. Just sounds silly to me. But to each their own.

For instance, I am covering a district swim meet this weekend. Winner in each race advances to the state meet. If you don't win but post a good time, you MIGHT get an at-large spot depending on how your time compares with others from around the state.

Once you get to state, it's each boy/girl for themselves. If your team is deep enough to have qualified a whole bunch of people, you have a shot at a team title, which is based on points from each individual race. But "Dash King" (a real athlete, loved the name) can still win his two state titles even if no one else from his school qualifies for the state meet.

 

That's because too many owners sell out. If their team is in the pennant race, they turn a blind eye to THEIR doping star. Like when Barry Bonds was chasing the home run record, the Giants management turned a blind eye for years because running off Bonds was perceived as bad for business.

Like I said, I think Selig wants to do the right things, but is afraid.

And the players' union seems to almost condone drug use. If they could remove all sanctions altogether, I'm sure they would.

Look, we're coming to a fork in the road where pro sports leagues --- and, by extension, the sporting public --- is going to have to decide: Either it's "anything goes" and everyone just does whatever it takes to win at all costs. Or we draw the line someplace and say "This is unacceptable".

Baseball, or any other sport, doesn't owe its survival to any one star. We survived -- even improved, in my book --- without Bonds, Clemens, Canseco and the other frauds. The NFL has survived without Michael Vick and will be even better when big mouth Brett Favre is gone (although I am not linking those to drug or steroid use.) The idea that people will turn away if we banish the cheaters is exactly the opposite from reality.

 

Nah, we're not coming to a fork in the road. That answer was decided a long, long time ago. And we all know what the answer is.

Look, owners aren't the only ones turning a blind eye -- fans do it, too. If A-Rod hits 10 home runs in April, don't you think Yankees fans aren't going to mind so much what he did in 2003? Fans -- the paying public, otherwise known as, you know, our readers, but that's another story -- turn more of a blind eye than anyone. Players turn a blind eye, management turns a blind eye, owners turn a blind eye ... even the media sometimes turn a blind eye. Everybody is complicit here. Everybody is to blame.

But ... that's our culture. That's who we are.

Getting rid of Selig doesn't change that.

 

Uncover another World Series fix, then bring in a drunken Cub fan as benevolent
dictator.

Worked, last time . . . oh, wait . . .

 

Apologies in advance for the threadjack, but this is more interesting to me than A-Fraud.

You've never worked in any of the big wrestling states, then, because Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and Iowa all have state duals championships.

And the comparisons don't wash. Golfers all play the same course and swimmers race the clock; the opponents are secondary. The team I cover switched their 215-pounder (a returning regional champ and their best wrestler) with their 285-pounder in the district semis, knowing that he would probably pin his opponent no matter what, but the "heavyweight" (who can make weight at 215) would have a better chance of winning at the lighter weight. They ended up getting pins from both wrestlers, and the team won the match by two points.

 

Bingo, pseudo.

 

You are correct. I categorically refuse to do wrestling. No offence, just got enough other stuff on my plate and really have no interest in that sport. I was just curious about the format.

 

Actually, I can see swimming team championships, golf team championships, and especially track and field team championships being quite valid. That's not to say I want to see them; I just think that they would produce unique results, as compared to the individual championships in said sports.