Don't Let the Turkeys Get You Down

I come bringing good news. Despite a tsunami of negativity, sports lives! I am told that there will be a baseball season starting in little over a month. Professional basketball seems to have overcome a potentially devastating scandal involving a very corrupt referee. And football is planned as usual to blanket the airwaves this fall.

The reason why anyone might be in doubt concerning these happy events is that the sports pages -- and sometimes the front pages -- of our nation's newspapers have been filled with tales of woe concerning our sporting diversions. Baseball's steroid scandal continues to offer surprises and periodic paroxysms as we watch the greatest athletes of the modern game self-destruct. An NBA referee's performance on the court proved not to be objective. Professional football's tower of power, the New England Patriots, keeps avoiding genuine questions whether it systematically violated NFL rules by taping its opponents.

The saving grace of all these allegations is that they are clearly the exception and not the rule of sports. The games are played, for the most part, on a level playing field in accordance with well understood rules and practices. The outcome of the games are not predetermined. (See, e.g., the New York Football Giants versus my hometown Patriots.) The athletes are in better physical shape and more proficient at their sports than ever in history even without performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals.

The current abundance of dysfunctions in the sports industry is really nothing new. Baseball players have used drugs to help them play better for over a century. In fact, in my research I discovered that baseball's Jimmy "Pud" Galvin, a member of the Hall of Fame, took testosterone shots in 1889. Referees and umpires have always been subject to bribes, although most have not yielded to temptation. Coaches, football and otherwise, have stolen signals for generations. Ty Cobb once taught high school players how to cheat in order to win on the diamond.

Why then the current anguish? Most of it appears to be the result of an off-season lull in news. We heard way too much about Barry Bonds before the 2007 baseball season. Then the incessant drumbeat lessened as the games began and he proceeded (without artificial stimulants, we must assume) to systematically dismantle the career home run record. The 2007-08 NBA basketball season has been a blessing for those, like the bedraggled Celtics fans, who have suffered in recent years. Not one question has been raised about the integrity of the current system of refereeing. Spygate continues to haunt the NFL, but the Patriots surprise loss to the Giants has brought retribution of sorts against the alleged wrongdoer.

And the games continue to entertain and amaze us. Spring training holds out the promise of a fresh start. Your team, whatever it may be, is currently in first place! (It is also in last place, with only zeroes on the standings.) Maybe this might be your year. The NBA is flourishing with a new crop of potential recruits ready to show off their stuff in the college championships set for March. Football holds promise for all fans when, it turns out, on any given Sunday the Giants might win it all.

Comments

[larry278]

Mr Abrams is right about the no sports news period. The Super Bowl game was played weeks ago. The NBA & NHL appeal to a special group of fans. The fact that the NHL & NBA publicity people haven't created a very large & most efficient publicity machine like MLB & the NFL have makes Feb a no sports news month. But MLB's spring training will start soon. "Baseball been good to me." interviews will resume when spring training begins along with practice games.
The legislative inquiries into the use of 'roids & other performance enhancing substances by star MLB players is a bore. The lords of baseball are pleased.

[Henry]

Isn't it true that pro baseball is a monopoly and therefore a violation of everything that we stand for? We are such a joke, we have long since left the point of awareness.