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Scoop Calls Out Sports Media Cowards

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by IU90, May 16, 2007.

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  1. IU90

    IU90 Member

    Well put, you just nailed a classic Scoop trait.
     
  2. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    I guess this is in the same vein as everybody else, but I read several columns of the exact type he says he searched high and low for and couldn't find.
     
  3. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    Did he mention any Nike parties he went to in this column?
     
  4. zagoshe

    zagoshe Well-Known Member

    Bingo SF -- He mustn't have looked very hard or very wide.........I just did a quick google search and came up with a number, including one from Scoop's homey (his words) Screamin' A. Smith...

    Stephen A. Smith
    Posted on Thu, May. 10, 2007
    MLB whiffs by allowing Clemens' deal
    By Stephen A. Smith
    Inquirer Columnist

    Roger Clemens' former teammate David Wells says the Clemens deal shows disrespect to other players on the team. The sports world can shut up now.

    It can shut up the second the next athlete reminds us that humility is neither a part of his vernacular nor a part of his lifestyle. It can hush whenever the next athlete illustrates a departure from established tradition, upgrading things to suit his wishes.

    Roger Clemens may be about three months removed from 45 years of age, en route to Cooperstown and possibly a parade down Broadway this fall, but the new pitcher for the New York Yankees also could give lessons on how to accumulate riches and the perks that come along with his job.

    Heck, maybe he'll even enlighten us on how he's done it with Major League Baseball's approval, too.

    Terrell Owens looks pretty darn good today. So does Allen Iverson. Say what you will about their bravado, their penchant for trying to get their way, but they work under the same rules and regulations as their contemporaries. Neither had the audacity to contractually circumvent basic team etiquette - with league consent.

    And never mind getting into what would have happened if they even had tried.

    The fact that the Yankees surrendered a reported $28 million to a pitcher who is depreciating before our eyes is their business. If they want to give about $750,000 per start to a pitcher whose ERA was 4.35 and 3.91 in his last two seasons in New York, who gets bigger and better with age, who was last seen hobbling off the mound for the Houston Astros.

    Literally.

    But when any pitcher is contractually allowed to show up only on the days he is scheduled to pitch, playing golf or showing up at movie premieres in between, marketing himself to the highest bidder while feigning retirement, then prepare for the day when Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera say, "Hey, what about me?"

    Yeah! What about them?

    Just the other day, David Wells, a pitcher for the San Diego Padres and Clemens' former teammate with the Yankees, said, "I don't think I would ever do it because of the fact I personally think it would disrespect the team and your teammates."

    Wells also implied that Clemens' actions disrespect the game, which is something few are paying attention to.

    If this had been football, basketball, boxing or hockey, the pundits would have been chirping.

    They would have harped about the lack of respect today's professional athlete has for the game, how these athletes should be more appreciative of the status they enjoy.

    The thing is, baseball should have been the first in line. Commissioner Bud Selig should have stepped up to the plate and reminded the players' union and the Yankees that while there isn't a rule against such deals, they are highly inappropriate and in violation of professional ethics. Specifically when it comes to our national pastime.

    Except it is baseball we're talking about - the land of steroids, alcohol and, evidently, privilege. The same place where a manager (Tony La Russa) could muster the temerity to lecture Josh Hancock on alcohol abuse after his own arrest on drunken-driving charges.

    Hancock died a few days later in a crash linked to alcohol.

    The hypocrites are everywhere.

    They are the same people who will dump on Barry Bonds about alleged steroid use, or perks aimed at Michael Jordan during his heyday.

    Practices may have been adjusted for Jordan, just like a few perks were accorded to Bonds. But there were no contractual obligations placed on a team to capitulate to a player's AWOL status, nothing that validated in writing for any player to appear above the team.

    If you didn't practice, you at least had to show up to practice.

    And since Clemens' good friend Andy Pettitte can be seen in the Yankees' dugout on off-days, the same conceivably applies to the games, as well.

    It doesn't apply to Clemens anymore, because he is a hired gun. Clemens is a mercenary in the age of mercenaries.

    He'll never admit as much, but he doesn't have to anymore.

    Now other athletes don't need to make excuses anymore.

    Clemens handed one to them. A fastball right down the middle.

    Strike three! Welcome to a new era.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Contact columnist Stephen A. Smith at 215-854-5846 or ssmith@phillnews.com.
     
  5. I have to admit.
    The FIYAH! got by me, jargon-wise.
     
  6. Sportsbruh

    Sportsbruh Member

    ^^^^^

    obviously it's the REAL Bro's with COURAGE that's getting this story right. All other writers are COWARDS for not having integrity.
     
  7. Fire?
    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=FIYAH
     
  8. zagoshe

    zagoshe Well-Known Member

    Yeah, here's another one of those Real Bro's (By the way is Real Bro's an offshoot of Warner Bro's or Ringling Bro's? Just wondering...) who is keeping it real by asking questions about Roger Clemens. And judging by his picture in the column head, he looks like a real gang banger to me......

    Smizik: Bonds and Clemens ... The wonders of the game
    Sunday, May 13, 2007
    By Bob Smizik, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

    Two of the greatest players in baseball history were all over the news last week. Barry Bonds, whose hitting credentials place him in the exclusive company of Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Ted Williams, moved closer to breaking Hank Aaron's celebrated career home run record, while his skills show almost no sign of deterioration. Roger Clemens, the second winningest pitcher of the past 75 years, signed to play another partial season at an extravagant rate, this time with the New York Yankees.

    It's much more than their prodigious accomplishments and massive salaries that bind Bonds and Clemens in historical perspective. Bonds will be 43 in July; Clemens will be 45 in August. No players in baseball history have performed at such a high level at such an advanced age.

    As tied together as they are by their feats and their age, Bonds and Clemens are distinctly separated in another area. And that is quite peculiar.

    It is virtually impossible to read about Bonds without mention of the steroid accusations that have dogged the latter part of his career. His production at so advanced an age, the size of is head -- believed to be caused by steroid use -- and a large amount of convincing circumstantial evidence have most people believing Bonds' greatness is chemically enhanced. It doesn't help that he's not a very nice person.

    It's not just the fans who don't trust Bonds. If he came up for a Hall of Fame vote tomorrow, in all likelihood he wouldn't have a chance in front of the self-righteous members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, who regularly enshrine players who quite probably used performance-enhancing amphetamines.

    By sharp contrast to Bonds, there's barely a whisper of scandal about Clemens. The only outrage concerning him last week came from critics in the New York media who felt the Yankees lowered their standards by agreeing to allow Clemens to be away from the team when he's not scheduled to pitch.

    But his body is every bit as bloated as Bonds and his accomplishments every bit as stunning. Yet the feats of Clemens arouse almost no suspicion.

    What's more, if he came up for a Hall of Fame vote tomorrow, Clemens would probably be enshrined in a landslide.

    In defense of Clemens, although he's hardly been the swellest fellow in the clubhouse, he's not gone out of his way to be antagonistic as has Bonds.

    But why is Clemens so in the clear on the steroids issue and Bonds so married to it? Why haven't the amazing numbers Clemens has been posting drawn the same scrutiny as those of Bonds? They are every bit as suspicious.

    For the first 21 years of what has been a 23-year career, Clemens assured himself not only of Hall of Fame enshrinement but also with all-time greatness by winning 328 games and posting a career earned run average of 3.11.

    To put that in perspective, the career ERAs of Greg Maddux and Steve Carlton, the modern-day pitchers closest to Clemens on the all-time win list, are 3.07 and 3.22. Both declined in later years. Maddux, who is still active, had an ERA last season of 4.20. This season it is 3.67. In Carlton's final two years, his ERAs were 5.10 and 5.74.

    In Clemens' two most recent seasons -- when he was older than both Carlton and Maddux -- his ERAs were 1.87 and 2.30. At an age when most pitchers are either retired or significantly declining, Clemens isn't just hanging on, he isn't just getting better, he's getting much much better.

    When Bonds improves with age and dominates the game, it's steroids. When Clemens improves with age and dominates the game, it's his great workout regimen.

    Bonds, it should be noted, has been steadfast in his denial of using steroids. As near as we can tell, Clemens has never been asked. Neither man has tested positive for steroid use.

    Oh, did we mention: Bonds is black and Clemens is white.

    That might not have anything to do with the issue and it might have much to do with it. Bonds comes off as an angry, sullen black man, and people don't like that. If he had the demeanor of a Willie Stargell or an Aaron, there's a good chance he'd be getting about as much scrutiny as Clemens. But the nature of his personality leads people, correctly or not, to be suspicious.

    Clemens is no sweetheart. His episodes of throwing at Mike Piazza, with a baseball and then a bat, are ugly. But his single-mindedness of purpose, where he has little time for outsiders or the media, has been viewed as a positive. He's just one hard-working guy.

    Bonds, too, works hard in the weight room but his regimen has never received the notice of Clemens and he's not regarded as one hard-working guy.

    Maybe the difference isn't about race. If not, explain, please, why the magnificent accomplishments of one man are viewed as the result of chemical assistance and the similar accomplishments of another are viewed as the result of hard work.

    (Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com. )
     
  9. Twoback

    Twoback Active Member



    What is he pimping, exactly? Can someone explain that to me? Please?
     
  10. Sportsbruh

    Sportsbruh Member

    Doesn't matter.

    Nobody laid-the-Pipe like Scoop.

     
  11. zagoshe

    zagoshe Well-Known Member

     
  12. That's not Smizik's first stab at this question. He has more than once raised an eyebrow about Clemens and steroids. This is just the most recent.
     
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