 |
This Issue from John Kuczaj, the Chicago Media Examiner:
• The Trouble with Sosa
• Musings
The Trouble with Sosa
Okay, Sammy Sosa was caught cheating. He used a corked bat during a game, the bat exploded when it hit the ball and he grounded out. He was punished, he took responsibility and everyone lived happily ever after.
Almost.
Sammy's not going to get off as easily as, say, George W. Bush lying about Iraqi WMD. Regular journalists will eventually stop harping on White House lies, but sportswriters like to attach themselves to issues like a pitbull on a mailman. Sammy's gonna be hearing criticism for the rest of his career & beyond.
While I, for one, can believe that Sammy only used the corked bat in a game that one time, sportswriters have generally rejected that assertion. Some have gone as far as pouring over old game tapes looking for that same bat, some have even examined & x-rayed many of Sammy's bats that are in the hands of collectors and exhibits--reaching a level of absurdity when a recent Sosa home run bat was sawed in half live on ESPN. Of course, none of the intrepid investigative sportswriters were able to find a smoking gun, so rather prove their belief that Sammy must have used corked bats before--they have chosen the old "guilty until proven innocent" stance. Sammy's insistence that it was the only time he used a corked bat MUST be a lie or else he has to prove it. Which, of course, is impossible.
In the first few days of Sosa-gate aka Cork-gate, as the lesser intelligent journalists may have called it, the opinions of a few people stuck in my brain. First, at the Sun-Times I have to wonder if Rick Telander and Greg Couch are writing each other's columns on Sosa. I expected Couch to lay into Sammy and I expected Telander to give slack. The opposite has happened. Couch writes that he's disappointed by Sammy, but that he's still worthy of being an all-star. Meanwhile, Telander's so upset, you'd think Sammy assaulted one of his family members. Rick seems genuinely stunned that the previously squeaky-kleen Sosa would do something so dirty and underhanded. From what I have read, Telander has lost all faith in Sammy and Sammy's reputation will be forever sullied. Geeze, it's not like Sammy cheated on his wife with Karla Knafel - that's worthy of turning a man's reputation to mud.
And then we come to Mariotti. Most of you might think that I hate Jay Mariotti. Most of you would be right (PLUG: Read Jay Merryman weekly in the Chicago Red Face). Contrary to popular belief, however, the vanity plate on my car does NOT read "JAY M SUX". The day after the Sosa incident, ESPN went with live wall-to-wall in-studio coverage just like the news channels do during a war. It was ridiculous. Anyway, the Baseball Tonight crew asked Jay via satellite what the feeling was in Chicago. Predictably, Jay made shit up. He talked about how the whole city was stunned (methinks the Sox fans were joyous) but he also talked about how there had always been a cloud over Sosa, alluding to the steroid / andro thing that was an issue from 1998 through last year. Cloud? What the hell was he talking about? No one I know could verify such a cloud ever existed, but Mariotti seems to think that there's one over Sosa. Of course, that just proves how out-of-touch Jay is with the average fan. Sosa was nowhere near the steroid issue-except for the unsubstantiated suspicions of certain sportswriters, one of which was made to look like a total ass by Sosa. The average fan has NEVER had any reason to disbelieve the made-by-the-USA-media Sammy Sosa image. Mariotti isn't about to forgive and forget with Sammy either, which I find hilarious.
From Mariotti's June 18th column:
"Why must he perpetuate the scam? When so many big-league hitters--ranging from his mortal enemy, Mark Grace, to universal good guy Luis Gonzalez--say it's impossible not to know which bat they're using in a game, how can we accept Sosa's story that he didn't intend to choose the corked bat from his elaborate collection of clubhouse weaponry? The mathematical odds of such a fluke pick-up were 77-1 that night...He wants us to think his mistake was picking up the corked bat inadvertently, but we are not stupid. What we need to hear is the more probable explanation: He was in a wicked slump, needed a boost, made an ethical mistake and went for Corky out of sheer desperation. America would much prefer to know the whole truth than hollow bits and pieces. But I suspect we'll never get near the truth."
Good to know that Mariotti has the power to find absolute truth. It's just a shame he's wasting his superpowers writing about sports when he could use it to help humanity. When George Ryan desperately needed to know who on death row was guilty and who was not, Jay Mariotti could have used his superpowers to definitively tell the criminals from the wrongly-convicted. But no. Jay's selfish. His truth-judging ability must be used to expose the crappiness of all Chicago sports teams. Bummer.
Keep in mind that this is the same Jay Mariotti who immediately jumped on the sympathy wagon for Boston Globe writer Bob Ryan after Ryan wished that someone should slap Joumanna Kidd, wife of New Jersey Nets' Jason Kidd. According to Jay, Bob made a mistake, but he's deserving of forgiveness. Uh huh. Sammy, on the other hand, needs to live the rest of his life with a hot poker affixed to his rectum. Both Sosa & Ryan used the tools of their trade in an inappropriate manner. Sosa used a corked bat, Ryan talked about beating women. Both did inexcusable things, they should be punished and atone for their sins. I fail to see how Mariotti could give wordsmith Ryan an immediate pass because it was the first such gaffe in his career while Sosa makes the first such gaffe of his career and he's gotta suffer. Typical twisted logic from Jay, I suppose.
Speaking of smarmy douche bags, Rick Reilly made an appearance on ESPN to weigh in on the issue. His appearance was contingent on the studio host, Bob Ley, mentioning his latest book-which was done at the end of the satellite conversation. A year ago, Reilly was thoroughly embarrassed by Sammy Sosa--made to look rather foolish when Reilly decided that he needed to become part of the story rather than just write about the story. Reilly came to town, found a drug-testing lab and naively challenged Sosa to come with him. Sosa--reacting the way kids should when strange men invite them into their cars-screamed "Stranger Danger" and ran. Reilly was shocked that Sosa would refuse his offer, but rather than the refusal being the big story he'd hoped, it was the fact that Reilly was made to look foolish while trying to fabricate news. One thing's for sure, if you're ever in Rick Reilly's company, don't dare facetiously bet him "a million dollars" that you are right about something and he's wrong--Reilly may prove you wrong and try to collect the 'mill. Anyway, Reilly appeared on ESPN oozing with smugness-as if his stunt last year was now justified or something. It really made no sense to have Reilly chime in on the issue because it was obvious that he hated Sosa for making him make himself look so bad. Poor Rick. At least he still has a job writing for that irrelevant weekly sports magazine. Inside Sports, right?
Meanwhile, as sportswriters started to draw parallels between the cork incident and someone knifing an ex-wife and her friend to death, two real-life baseball experts weighed in with some very interesting comments. Bobby Valentine pointed out that suspending Sosa for the infraction made little sense especially since he'd continue to be paid. He suggested fining him 7-8 game checks and funneling the money to baseball's RBI inner-city program. That would be nearly $1 million for the program and it would hurt Sammy in the pocket. A couple sportswriters ridiculed Valentine's idea, which means they must not believe baseball players value money too much. Uh huh. Sosa was forced to sit out 2 of the Cubs' 3 games against Baltimore and all 3 games against Toronto. Nice of baseball to deprive Baltimore and Toronto fans the chance to see Sammy Sosa play in their park. Valentine's a bit goofy, but he has a good idea. A fine would have been more appropriate than punishing the fans that want to see Sammy play. I think the most amazing comments came from Joe Morgan. During ESPN's wall-to-wall coverage the day after, Morgan admitted for the first time that one time he corked a bat to see if it would perform better. He used it in batting practice a few times and then one time during a game he accidentally grabbed that bat and flew out. He said that it felt different when he hit it, came back to the dugout and noticed he'd used the corked bat. After the game, he broke it in half and tossed it into a dumpster. Joe Morgan is in the baseball hall of fame, and his integrity is unparalleled. Sportswriters and some players questioned why a player with such a stature would cork a bat. They also liked to talk about how a player always knows what bat he grabs from the rack. They're ignoring Joe Morgan. It happens.
Sox radio guy Ed Farmer said it perfectly during the recent Cubs-Sox series at The Cell. "That's enough. Move On."
Musings
Second issue as a weekly and I've already blown a deadline. Nice. Don't worry--my editor docked me one week's salary. Won't happen again. At least until it happens again.
Interesting Feder column today.
He published some of the comments he got for his column blasting the radio coverage of the porch collapse. One radio ND (who works on the first floor of my building) showed contempt for Eddie Schwartz in his response. That's classy. Another guy ended his juvenile rant with a snide "...way to go 'Mr. Journalist'" that reminded me of my time years ago at a TV station listening to viewer complaints. I could never keep a straight face when they told me they would "never watch my station again". Right. Sit down and have a glass of Similac before you pee yourself.
Joel Daly said on yesterday's Channel 7 newscast at 4pm that he once owned a lime-green VW bug.
Channel 32 is still pairing Mark Suppelsa with Walter Jacobson when Robin is on vacation (physically), which I find to be very cool. Walter & Mark - the best anchor team in Chicago, hands down.
NEXT WEEK
Are sportswriters more powerful than editorial writers?
IN THE CURRENT CHICAGO RED FACE:
- Fitzgerald Likes Cox in His Place
- Racists Fear Other Hooded Evil
- Bush Challenges Religious Fanatics
- Dis-Gracin Himself, Josh Gracin discharged
- Planetary System Similar to Ours Is Found, populated by assholes
- FIFA Bans Soccer Players' Stripteases, thousands of WUSA Season tickets returned
- JAY MERRYMAN: Sox Smart, Cubs Dumb
- Cool Again: Joe McCarthy
Check it out at: www.chicagoredface.com.
Chicago Media Examiner e-mail delivery
If you'd like to receive the CME via e-mail, click here to subscribe. Whenever a new issue of the Chicago Media Examiner comes out, it will be e-mailed to you automatically.
Take a look at the new, hip: Chicago Red Face
Take a look at the previous issue:
Tuesday, July 1
Take a look at the issue before that:
Friday, June 27
Published Every Tuesday.
|
|
|
|
