If sport was religion, my faith would be waning right now.
In the last week, now former NBA referee Tim Donaghy was investigated for betting on games for the last two years, including ones he oversaw, and NFL star quarterback Michael Vick was indicted for his involvement in a dogfighting ring.
The majority of attention from sports fans, and casual observers in general, has been to the Vick story, and not just because that story broke first.
Vick is a star in America's most popular sport, and his alleged crime disturbs the vast majority of people for its disgusting content.
As horrible as Vick's alleged crime is, it is not at all related to his sport, and does not put his sport's integrity in jeopardy.
The Tim Donaghy situation goes well beyond that of Pete Rose, and is the closest the modern day sports world has to the Black Sox scandal of 1919, when the A.L. Champion White Sox threw the World Series against the Reds.
After a playoff that featured an horrendous series of blunders, particularly in the Suns-Spurs series, this is the last thing the NBA needed. Donaghy's alleged crimes put every call, every game, and every record the league has into question, and as much as Commissioner David Stern would like to believe that it is an isolated incident, nothing of the sort can be taken at face value anymore.
Stern, certainly a better commissioner than his counterparts in the other leagues, needs to issue a full blown investigation into all facets of the league, not just referees. No aspect of the league can receive the benefit of the doubt if the NBA wants to repair its image, and the league with the biggest crackdown on gambling needs to prove to the fans that it is a clean game.
Sport is not a religion. But if Stern wants his paying patrons to believe again, he'll need to perform a miracle.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The Worst Day of the Year
In 2007, it is Wednesday July 11, and in most years, it is the second Wednesday in July.
This is the worst sports day of the year.
Between the middle of June and Labour Day weekend, the only major North American sport in operation is Major League Baseball, and its only competition in that time span in Canada is the CFL, and yesterday was the only day that there was no baseball anywhere across the continent, with their all star break concluding.
The NHL knew this, and took advantage of the media's free space to release their schedule for the upcoming season. On the Canadian sports news programs, this story was the focal point of their show.
The CFL, on the other hand, did not have a game on last night, instead sticking to their usual games on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday this week.
Sports news programs are an hour long and the sports section in the newspaper isn't any smaller on the worst sports day of the year. The CFL, already reduced to a minor league in the eyes of football fans, would have the full attention of Canada's sports media for a day, something any league that is not on top would relish.
A doubleheader on the Wednesday of baseball's all star break by the CFL makes a lot more sense than scheduling games on Sunday afternoons in September. But, maybe that's why the CFL is a minor league.
That and the lack of talented players.
This is the worst sports day of the year.
Between the middle of June and Labour Day weekend, the only major North American sport in operation is Major League Baseball, and its only competition in that time span in Canada is the CFL, and yesterday was the only day that there was no baseball anywhere across the continent, with their all star break concluding.
The NHL knew this, and took advantage of the media's free space to release their schedule for the upcoming season. On the Canadian sports news programs, this story was the focal point of their show.
The CFL, on the other hand, did not have a game on last night, instead sticking to their usual games on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday this week.
Sports news programs are an hour long and the sports section in the newspaper isn't any smaller on the worst sports day of the year. The CFL, already reduced to a minor league in the eyes of football fans, would have the full attention of Canada's sports media for a day, something any league that is not on top would relish.
A doubleheader on the Wednesday of baseball's all star break by the CFL makes a lot more sense than scheduling games on Sunday afternoons in September. But, maybe that's why the CFL is a minor league.
That and the lack of talented players.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Steroids and the Media
In relation to an article written by my father, Ted Griffith, in Friday's Hamilton Spectator and Ottawa Citizen regarding Barry Bonds' chase of Hank Aaron's record of 755 career home runs, I am now posting a condensed version of an article I wrote in December 2006 regarding the media's coverage of steroid use in sport.
And for the record, it would be nice to see Bonds retire at 755, but the chances of that happening are as likely as Babe Ruth coming back from the dead to pitch a no-hitter in Yankee Stadium against the Red Sox.
The Media and Steroid in Sport
The element of steroid use in sport has been an issue for 20 years, from Ben Johnson's drug scandal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, to recent U.S. Congressional hearings on steroid use in baseball. For a large period of that time, however, it had been the elephant in the room. Many people, both in and outside of the media, knew or suspected that many athletes were bending the rules in order to gain a competitive advantage over their opponents. That all changed on March 27, 2006.
March 27, 2006 was the day that Game of Shadows was released into bookstores, a book detailing the steroid use of baseball's greatest modern player, Barry Bonds, by two sports reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. Game of Shadows brought the issue of steroid use, particularly in baseball, to the attention of North America more than any other issue.
The book, based on articles published in the paper in 2004, was the basis for America's premier sports magazine, Sports Illustrated, using the information to label Bonds as guilty, going so far as to headline the cover of the issue with the words, "The Truth: Barry Bonds and Steroids". This story and subsequent book were released just weeks before the baseball season began, with Bonds only 48 home runs away from one of the sport's greatest records, most career home runs. Certainly the timing of the publishing was not coincidental.
Whether Barry Bonds used these substances to attain his record setting numbers is irrelevant in the world of baseball; at the time of the accused drug use, steroids were not illegal in baseball. They were outlawed after the 2002 season.
But this story, and the story of all steroid use in sport, has little to do with the rules of the game.
It is clear from the cover of the issue of SI regarding Bonds that the magazine went with a headline to draw in people and sell magazines. But this is a trend that the sports media has continued with since: convicting people before all the facts are in.
The best example of this is the case of former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jason Grimsley. On Sunday, October 1, 2006, AP picked up a story from the Los Angeles Times stating that Grimsley, suspended from baseball for steroid use, named five high profile players who used steroids, including one of the best pitchers in recent history, Roger Clemens. This information was obtained through a leaked affidavit, and the story spread throughout the continent. For two days, questions arose about these players, but on the following Tuesday, it was reported that the prosecutor in the case stated that these reports contained "significant inaccuracies", effectively saying that the players named were not guilty. It is often said that a bell cannot be unrung, and if the truth had come out much later, the suspicion of the players named may have not disappeared as quickly as it did.
All this doesn't mean that all in the sports media are blind to what has been happening. Some are now ready to admit that they did not do their jobs properly.
In an article from Editor and Publisher, sports writers discuss their failure in exposing steroids in sports like baseball earlier. Bill Dwyre, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, discusses how many in the field did not translate their work from one sport to another. "We did a very good job of jumping on performance-enhancing drugs in Olympic sports, but you don't treat baseball the same as something like weightlifting in the Olympics. It didn't register on our radar like it should have."
The media's treatment of the subject of steroid use in sports has been slanted heavily towards America's pastime. In the NFL, for example, San Diego Chargers star linebacker Shawne Merriman was suspended for 4 games for steroid use, and the issue was largely ignored, and when CBS News reported that multiple members of the NFC Champion Carolina Panthers were using steroids, other media outlets did not pick up the story with any interest, especially when compared to the Jason Grimsley story of last October.
It is evident that the media has little to no interest in drug stories outside of baseball, and that is a shame. All sports are susceptible to this problem, not just baseball, and the media needs to evenly focus its attention on all of them. Too often we hear stories of "juicing" in baseball, but why is that the only sport that matters? Why are all cyclists and sprinters using performance-enhancing drugs, but hockey and basketball players go unsuspected? This problem will only get worse in the coming years, and it is the media's responsibility to fairly and accurately cover all sides of the story, and that means covering all sports equally.
And for the record, it would be nice to see Bonds retire at 755, but the chances of that happening are as likely as Babe Ruth coming back from the dead to pitch a no-hitter in Yankee Stadium against the Red Sox.
The Media and Steroid in Sport
The element of steroid use in sport has been an issue for 20 years, from Ben Johnson's drug scandal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, to recent U.S. Congressional hearings on steroid use in baseball. For a large period of that time, however, it had been the elephant in the room. Many people, both in and outside of the media, knew or suspected that many athletes were bending the rules in order to gain a competitive advantage over their opponents. That all changed on March 27, 2006.
March 27, 2006 was the day that Game of Shadows was released into bookstores, a book detailing the steroid use of baseball's greatest modern player, Barry Bonds, by two sports reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. Game of Shadows brought the issue of steroid use, particularly in baseball, to the attention of North America more than any other issue.
The book, based on articles published in the paper in 2004, was the basis for America's premier sports magazine, Sports Illustrated, using the information to label Bonds as guilty, going so far as to headline the cover of the issue with the words, "The Truth: Barry Bonds and Steroids". This story and subsequent book were released just weeks before the baseball season began, with Bonds only 48 home runs away from one of the sport's greatest records, most career home runs. Certainly the timing of the publishing was not coincidental.
Whether Barry Bonds used these substances to attain his record setting numbers is irrelevant in the world of baseball; at the time of the accused drug use, steroids were not illegal in baseball. They were outlawed after the 2002 season.
But this story, and the story of all steroid use in sport, has little to do with the rules of the game.
It is clear from the cover of the issue of SI regarding Bonds that the magazine went with a headline to draw in people and sell magazines. But this is a trend that the sports media has continued with since: convicting people before all the facts are in.
The best example of this is the case of former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jason Grimsley. On Sunday, October 1, 2006, AP picked up a story from the Los Angeles Times stating that Grimsley, suspended from baseball for steroid use, named five high profile players who used steroids, including one of the best pitchers in recent history, Roger Clemens. This information was obtained through a leaked affidavit, and the story spread throughout the continent. For two days, questions arose about these players, but on the following Tuesday, it was reported that the prosecutor in the case stated that these reports contained "significant inaccuracies", effectively saying that the players named were not guilty. It is often said that a bell cannot be unrung, and if the truth had come out much later, the suspicion of the players named may have not disappeared as quickly as it did.
All this doesn't mean that all in the sports media are blind to what has been happening. Some are now ready to admit that they did not do their jobs properly.
In an article from Editor and Publisher, sports writers discuss their failure in exposing steroids in sports like baseball earlier. Bill Dwyre, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, discusses how many in the field did not translate their work from one sport to another. "We did a very good job of jumping on performance-enhancing drugs in Olympic sports, but you don't treat baseball the same as something like weightlifting in the Olympics. It didn't register on our radar like it should have."
The media's treatment of the subject of steroid use in sports has been slanted heavily towards America's pastime. In the NFL, for example, San Diego Chargers star linebacker Shawne Merriman was suspended for 4 games for steroid use, and the issue was largely ignored, and when CBS News reported that multiple members of the NFC Champion Carolina Panthers were using steroids, other media outlets did not pick up the story with any interest, especially when compared to the Jason Grimsley story of last October.
It is evident that the media has little to no interest in drug stories outside of baseball, and that is a shame. All sports are susceptible to this problem, not just baseball, and the media needs to evenly focus its attention on all of them. Too often we hear stories of "juicing" in baseball, but why is that the only sport that matters? Why are all cyclists and sprinters using performance-enhancing drugs, but hockey and basketball players go unsuspected? This problem will only get worse in the coming years, and it is the media's responsibility to fairly and accurately cover all sides of the story, and that means covering all sports equally.
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