The "Worst of Times" in Sports

By: Lowell
Published On: 7/27/2007 9:52:28 AM

It makes me very sad, but I've got to agree with this:

Charles Dickens couldn't make up his mind, but if he were writing sports today he wouldn't have a problem (except he would be writing sports). These are the worst of times.

We are in the tunnel now with no light to be seen. Maybe when the Romans were throwing Christians to the lions, maybe with medieval sickos, things were bleaker. But we certainly are experiencing the darkest moment in modern sports.

The main problems in sports tha make this "the worst of times?"

1.  Barry "BALCO" Bonds' steroid-fueled pursuit of Hank Aaron's all-time home run record.

2. Michael Vick's indictment on some of the most digusting stuff you've ever imagined.  As the San Diego Union Tribune author writes, "it's so disgusting it's difficult to comprehend."

3. Doping in the Tour de France.

4. "NBA referee Tim Donaghy has been accused of betting on games he officiated. Nothing more damning can happen to a professional sports league."

And I'll add one more:  Peter Angelos, the worst owner in baseball history, has destroyed the Baltimore Orioles, the team I idolized when it had Earl Weaver managing, Jim Palmer and Mike Flanagan pitching, Eddie Murray slugging, Cal Ripken playing every day, Rick Dempsey entertaining, etc.  Thanks to Peter Angelos for ruining the Orioled.

Comments



Tieing together points 1 and 3 (Randy Klear - 7/27/2007 3:49:07 PM)
it's interesting to note that Barry Bonds has never failed a drug test, yet is universally vilified as an abuser.  There is more positive evidence of Lance Armstrong's chemical abuse than there is of Bonds', yet Armstrong largely gets a free pass in the US.  Why is that?


My sympathies (Teddy - 7/27/2007 6:17:22 PM)
Lowell, on this fusion of ugly misbehavior and criminal intent in professional sports, almost across the board--- even though personally I have lost much of my interest in professional sports, largely as a result of such behavior. 

Sports extravaganzas are one of the pillars of the modern bread and cricuses offered up by the Powers That Be to placate and distract the average citizen whilst they plunder our pocketbooks and indulge in profit-motive wars--- but this manifestation is regrettable anyway.  We're all only too human, and the professionalization and subsequent commercialization of sports is yet another unsustainable aspect of modern life.

And is it any different, or any worse, for example,than the white collar plundering of companies acquired in merger mania and stripped of assets, loaded up with debt, and palmed off on a gullible stock-buying public as "restructured" miracles? Is it any worse than creating foolish wars on flimsy pretexts in order for bloated corporations to make even more money for their over-compensated executives?

No wonder sports heroes do drugs or manipulate refereeing in order to make a buck. It simply fits in with Bush-republican-business-school philosophy: short term profiteering in place of the long-term effort required to create a sustainable and honorable society for our children.