Part 1: Which Part of a Racist Act Don’t You Get
We all know what’s going on. If you don’t, come back when you do. So let’s skip the pleasantries and get to my points and give you this sistah’s perspective.
Sad to say but after hours of listening to ESPN, Fox, and sports radio (yes, I’m a glutton for sports) my anger hit the mother lode. Too many white reporters are sanctimonious and hypocritical when it comes to acknowledging racism exists. Too many black reporters appear afraid to acknowledge this acknowledgement. And even though one shouldn’t expect more because reporters are just a reflection of American society as a whole, to not get angry makes me part of the problem. To give in to the ‘what’s the point which comes after the anger’ leads to apathy and the control of defining what is meaningful in the hands of too too few.
So regarding the rabid outcry over Barry Bonds and his alleged use of steroids, this absolutely brilliant and amazingly phenomenal African-American woman has one question – where the hell was this moralistic outrage when you saw that Mark McGwire was using performance enhancing drugs? The optimal word being saw because the Creatine was in his locker, on national television. Some of you screamed “Oh he shouldn’t be taking Creatine” or “Creatine is bad for you,’ as you jocularly jabbed each other in the ribs, but vehement clamor that baseball is stained, the moral fabric of our children’s world has been irreparably harmed, and my favorite, that Mark McGwire’s season home run record needed to be punctuated by an asterik did not occur.
When he retired suddenly folks in my neighborhood guessed it was because ‘without the Creotine, which he had then given up, he was afraid he couldn’t play as well anymore and if that occurred it would reflect on his record. Friends speculated that since he probably was using other ‘enhancers,’ since few athletes who take this route use only one type of drug, getting out right then would not open him to drug testing that could disclose this possibility. And the sports media said … very little, other than ‘what a nice guy’ and ‘he brought integrity back into the sport’
Yup, if you screamed on Mark McGwire, you did it at a whisper. Until now …
You’ve been salivating to go after Barry Bonds, your poster child for athletic malcontent, ever since you were forced to pretend you liked him because the public liked what he did on the field. You’ve wanted that Negro’s hide every since he had the audacity to not only surpass Mark McGwire but, gasp gasp, close in on the sacred Babe’s all-time home record. It was bad enough when one Negro did it, but now another one. And one you didn’t like. But times have changed. Political correctness is in. So the things some whites said about Hank Aaron then, you can now only think, then disguise in your columns under the guise of ‘he’s dirty,’ ‘he uses steroids,’ ‘he lied.’ But just in case a few Black folk see through your words to your real intent – to get that Negro Barry Bonds – you also throw in ‘let’s asterik this whole era of phenomenal baseball records for the Barry Bonds’, Sammy Sosa’s, and dah dah, Mark McGwire’s. Y’all so funny.
At this point of reading I am sure, most black folks are nodding their head in agreement, while most white folks are thinking ‘that’s not it at all’ and/or ‘she’s playing the race card.’ I’m not writing to change anyone’s point of view. But let’s look at what we do know -
Barry Bonds has one of the highest workout ethics and regimens of any athlete in any sport.
Barry Bonds has never flunked a drug test.
To my knowledge Barry Bond’s has never skipped a drug test.
The cream and clear Barry Bonds admits he used has not been tested by any sports reporter.
In other words, there is nothing against Bonds’ but circumstantial evidence to which the smoking gun test has been applied to determine he’s guilty and an asterik placed next to any record he achieves from this point on because a portion of that record was acquired gets an asterik.
And the evidence against Mark McGwire …
He used, he admits he used, you saw the use of Creatine.
Direct evidence, no asterik.
Circumstantial evidence, asterik.
And by the way, before you start ‘cleaning up baseball,’ to quote my grandmother, ‘just remember three fingers point at you when you point at someone else.’ In other words if only 10.5 percent of all major league baseball players on opening day last season were African-Americans, and the number of baseball players using ‘performance enhancement’ drugs is estimated even as high as 40%, do the math. Not all players using these drugs are black. So where are the rest of those names, Mr. Conte? Where are the sport reporters who are disclosing the rest of those names? Hell, where are the sport reporters who are disclosing the name of any white person who has not already admitted he used steroids? Where are the sport reporters who will stand up and say for every white person we know was juiced, all records associated with this person should be asterisked AND any games won, where their performance contributed to the win, are forfeited? Where are they?
All we here being painted and tainted is Barry Bonds.
Because he’s a star and his name sells papers? Definitely.
Because there’s resentment this non-ass kissing Black man is tearing down white folks’ records right and left? Definitely.
And you dare to wonder black athletes like Ron Artest and Latrell Sprewell and Charles Barkley and others have ever gone off on folks. I get it. I get it almost every day. And you know what I’m referring to. We need to stop smiling and bowing and try frowning and standing.
So here’s my rule to black athletes. You are better off dealing with types like the Crips and Blood than trusting the likes of Victor Conte and Gary Anderson, because the former would never have given anyone up. Think I’m joking? Have the murders of Biggie Small, Tupac, or Jam Master Jay been solved.
Part 2: ”It Don’t Mean A Thing, If You Ain’t Got That Swing”
Moving on. I’m also angry because few are acknowledging or it is said begrudgingly that Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Mark McGwire are great players. How can you asterik any record they achieve when …
- these player have God-given talent that has propelled them way beyond what an average player or even an average juiced player could accomplish,
- there is no way to prove any success they had was primarily based on performance enhancing drugs, and
- even if an advantage was received from there is no way to numerically quantify what portion of a record was due to this advantage and don’t even try projecting quantification from what may have happened to ‘so and so.
For all we know these chemicals may be no more successful than the cream women rub on their boobs to make them bigger. Other than the extra half-inch you get from a harden nipple, and a level of arousal that heightens depending on who rubbed and how long, you really have very little gain to show for your few seconds of vain.
Furthermore, if any steroids or performance enhancing drugs or human growth hormones gave that big of an edge in the short period of time Bonds is alleged to have taken steroids, a whole lot more players would take them so they could win the brass ring. Don’t believe me? Well think about this, if owners are willing to sacrifice everything, including their financial stability, to build a team for one year just to win a championship, you don’t think a player would do the same thing? We are talking about athletes, many of whom are so addicted to the game they play that they don’t have the God-given sense to retire when it is obvious to the rest of us that they need to sit their butts down. Now. Before they get themselves and/or some other player seriously injured. Emmett Smith.
Everything that Bonds, Giambi, and McGwire accomplished is not because they did or may or could have taken steroids. Give them some props, you jealous son of a bit… oops, forgot this is a family magazine.
Let me get to the third reason I’m angry – because once again Congress is honing in on an issue. This time because the banishment of steroids in professional sports is for the ‘public’s good’ and concerns the health of our children. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.
First, what ‘public good’ and when did ingestion of substance by employees of a privately owned company become a ‘public good’ issue? Congress acted in the ‘public’s good’ when they mandated seatbelts and motorcycle helmets. Congress acts in the ‘public good’ when the Food and Drug Administration oversees the safety of drugs available to the public. But this isn’t the public. This is a business. These are the employees of a business. Congress has no more right telling major league baseball and baseball players what they can and cannot do, than they have telling Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble, or Universal Studios and their employees what they can and cannot do. Baseball’s exemption from the antitrust rules does not give Congress that leeway. And shouldn’t. And until such time that the ‘steroid du jour’ is sold through the sanctioned interstate marketplace, Congress can not control the quality or ingestion of that steroid any more than they can the quality or ingestion of illegal drugs like coke, pot, and heroin. They can set up and enforce rules that ‘strongly discourage’ the involvement with those drugs, but that is it. That is it.
And in regards to protecting the ‘health of our children,’ Senators Biden and McCain should skip their playing to the media pontification and deal with issues that more directly and in greater numbers affect the health of our children more direct and in greater numbers – health care and hunger. Shall I go on? How about poor public school systems and crime. Air pollution, and toxic brownfields. Hmm, what affects our children more, controlling drugs in sports or an adequate health care system that can save a life?
Don’t you hate it when Congress tackles the issues that mean dick to us, thinking we will actually think they’re doing a job for a change?
Don’t you hate it when Congress tackles issues where public sentiment is already on their side so they don’t have to show some balls for a change?
Let’s go to reason #4.
Until such point in time that the drug patrol adds a chemical compound to the banned substance list – it’s legal. They can do it. They can’t be banned. That’s how the sport system works. Until it’s banned so you can flunk a drug test, you’re home free and daggum skippy. Since drug creators are like computer hackers, always one step ahead of the trackers, there will always be something legal out there athletes can use.
Bottomline, how can I rephrase this so my uncle can read this column without calling my father in panic?
Okay …FO, FO, FO, and KMA. If you require translation, stop reading now. You’re not in this league.
Let me be more clear Jay Mariotti (Chicago Sun-Times) and Mike Lupica (NY Daily News). I don’t give a sweet mmph if Barry Bonds took steroids. I don’t give a sweet mmph is Mark McGwire took Creotine. You can add Jason Giambi to that list TOO. I don’t care because I never was naïve enough or dumb enough or hypocritical enough to believe in the purity of sports. I was never blind enough to believe that athletes are not doing everything they can within the limits of the rules to make themselves the best performing athlete on the diamond. It’s their job. You may not like it, but it is what it is. I kind of find it analogous to actors getting boob jobs, or muscle implants. You may not like it. It may not be fair. But it is legal.
So ban the new drugs you’ve found.
Accept there are more out there and they are one step ahead of you.
And let’s move on, my God.
Because everybody but y’all are dealing in reality – for the same reason the media is putting the light on Barry Bonds (as a star his name sells papers), Major League Baseball owners and players are not going to ever implement a serious drug policy – Bonds sells tickets. No one is going to annihilate the goose that lays their golden eggs. Small punishment for public value – yes. Anything else, no.
Conclusion: “Dear Media: #$#$#$%$#%^$#@#%&^^&(**&(*)$%^”
Before we completely abandon this topic, i also find it interesting that very few sports reporters who are screaming about the integrity of the game are not screaming about the integrity of the disclosure of grand jury testimony. Now, that to me has a greater impact on my life than a piece of friggin drugs.
Grand jury testimony is guaranteed to be, not maybe it will be, confidential. You are granted immunity from anything you say just so you will say it all. For that to be broken for any reason, I’m sorry i don’t give a damn what the reason was, but especially for a reason like I want to get a scoop makes me sick. If you think those San Francisco chronicle sport writers broke the story because they cared about the game of baseball, then you are dumb, which explains why this issue is being discussed ad nauseum. Those writers, and no I will not say their names to give them any more publicity, broke the confidentiality rule for the Pulitzer. They broke it for the fame. They broke it so they could negotiate more salary bucks. They broke it to make more bucks by maybe getting more or better gigs. They have no integrity. The government employee who gave them the transcript has no integrity. While you are sitting there thinking, “Oh who gives a crap?” Think about the next time there is a real scandal that affects real people in your town or city and you need someone to testify before the grand jury to truly effect some positive change, if I am the attorney I’m telling my client to shut up. Shut up because you cannot trust the government and you sure in hell can’t trust reporters who will implement the “it’s for the better good of society” bullshit rule to justify their heinous actions.
Hmm, I’ve got one more point to make. Let’s go back to the race component.
You know how some white folks ask a black person, “Do you know so and so?” as if all black people know each other? You know how some white folks will say “Oh, one of my best friends is black” but they forgot to mention that to the black person who would roll up their eyes and laugh if they heard that statement?
All white folks don’t fit this description.
There are black folks who are just as bad as white folks.
I’m not throwing in this statement as a suck up for any of the previous statements I stand behind.
I say this to point out that to moi some black sport reporters disagree with me and some white sport reporters agree with me does not change the inherent validity of the statements. Don’t get so caught up in the trees, you will forget you’re in a forest and get lost.
Oops one other point. For anyone even analogizing Bonds to Pete Rose let your grip slack so the blood can rush back to your brain. Get this IDEA clear in your heads – Barry Bonds was trying to win. Mark McGwire was trying to win. Sammy Sosa and Jason Giambi were trying to win. Pete Rose was trying … to win money but win the game? To gamble you have to bet on someone to lose. Someone to lose. Not that’s a lack of integrity. And banned. BANNED.
Now here are my feelings about Notre Dame Shame and a few other things. Fasten your seatbelt, I’m on a roll. Oh, and no, I didn’t forget to discuss Hank Aaron’s feeling of ‘wrongness.’ Did you expect him to say anything else? Dag y’all.
