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September 20, 2007
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LONGSHOTS: Media and fan bias shades the severity of sports crime Ethics, cheating and stretching the rules are in the news these days. From Barry Bonds and allegations of steroid use to last week’s Videogate (and maybe worse on the horizon) the subject of cheating has been with us all summer. And even though it’s been treated that way by the 24/7 news cycle it’s nothing new. You have heard of the 1919 Black Sox scandal, right? In the last decade cheating scandals have hit baseball, football, college sports, NASCAR and even Little League baseball. And that doesn’t take into account betting scandals hitting the NBA and hockey which brought the wife of icon of icons Wayne Gretzky briefly into the spotlight. Nefarious activity to get a “competitive edge” or steal the outcome has been going on in varying degrees for a long time. But today it seems like an avalanche of activity that the average fan just can’t get away from. What has been most interesting about it all is fan nation’s interpretation of what is right and wrong and the media slant in covering the same. As you might expect, the more lenient interpretations come close to home. All you had to do was look at the euphoric reaction Bonds got when he broke Hank Aaron’s home run mark. Around the rest of the country it was decidedly different and in the media it was just the opposite. In New England, where their team will most likely lose a first-round pick over the Patriots’ Videogate mess, it was similar. In a Boston Globe pool 42 percent said the penalty was too harsh. In a similar one on ESPN’s Web site just 17 percent of the national response thought that. A little over 18 percent in the Globe poll said it was too lenient. At ESPN, 60 percent said it was too lenient. While predictable, it’s an interesting swing, don’t you think? It was the same thing with Rodney Harrison and HGH. People have been killing Bonds on talk radio for years. Yet where was the outcry when Harrison admitted to using? There was none because he’s their guy. It’s like the old line that you hate Pete Rose if he’s on the other team, but if he was on yours you’d love him. And it would be the same for a huge group of Boston villains from Peyton Manning to World B. Free. Well maybe, not World B., but it would’ve for even Andrew Toney and Wilt if they wore green. Then there’s Johnny Damon, who was loved until he left. Now he’s hated. Why, because he’s our guy. You think it only happens in sports. Consider a recent front-page editorial in the UL by publisher Joe McQuaid, when Bill Clinton accompanied Hillary here in July. He wrote, “her husband disgraced the office she seeks. If she hopes to win it, she needs to do it by herself.” I don’t disagree about the disgrace the President brought on himself amid the Ken Starr witch hunt that started with Whitewater and $50 million later wound up catching an idiotic guy messing around with an intern in the Oval Office. But around the same time Joe was hosting possible presidential contender Newt Gingrich at the UL. A former Speaker of the House supported by the family values right, who was having an affair outside his marriage at EXACTLY the same time the House was investigating Mr. Clinton’s abhorrent shenanigans. But we haven’t seen any similar editorials questioning Newt’s character, nor will we, I’ll bet, if he joins the presidential race. Why? Because he plays for Joe’s conservative team where infidelity and hypocrisy apparently aren’t character flaws unless you’re a Democrat. And it happens in a similar fashion on the other side of the aisle too. Which brings me to how the media went after Bill Belichick with such zeal. STOP THE PRESSES Ron Borges jumped on someone. A lot of it was payback for how they feel he’s made their job difficult, in the way Bonds was paid back for his arrogance and Jim Rice loses Hall of Fame votes for his snarling way back when. The media has bias on most things and it makes its way into the discourse, which shades stories in certain ways — not that it’s always bad. But it happens to all of us. I’ve got my own issue regarding a personal relationship with someone in the news. Bill Haubrich, the athletic director at Concord High School who abruptly resigned in early August amid allegations of inappropriate behavior, is a very good friend of mine. We have known each other since college, where we were captains on the basketball team. And while we don’t see each other all that much, I know what kind of person he is. As a result I’ve been wrestling with what to write about this story, which I probably would not have if I didn’t know him. But I haven’t quite found the right balance between putting the relationship aside, and using the much better understanding I have of him to paint a better picture, than I’ll ever have in writing about finger-pointing parents who blame coaches even when their kids are clearly in the wrong. Be that as it may, here’s my take on all this. Many people bend the rules and have for years. Stealing signs in sports, despite the hysterical rantings of some, is not cheating. In fact an ability to do it is a positive thing on a baseball coach’s résumé. If they had video equipment, I could definitely see the ultimate rule-bender Red Auerbach involved in a controversy like this. And when he had the heat turned up in the visitors’ locker room and not the Celtics’, that was cheating. If the allegations are true about Haubrich he should pay the price for his breach of trust in what seems like such a stupid act by a good and decent man. I can see why the parents of the student in question may not share my view. But messing up your life by losing a profession of 30 years, his livelihood and who knows what else seems pretty steep, so back off the lawsuits, unless there is more to the story we don’t know about. Belichick finally made a big mistake. He crossed the line and broke the rules. And while the penalty may seem steep, at a time of Pac Man Jones, Michael Vick and recurring offenses in Cincinnati the commissioner needed to make a statement about right and wrong for everybody. So, it’s fair. As for the yahoos who think it’s not harsh enough, I’ll bet most are just jealous, or love seeing someone fall hard. And, as for Joe McQuaid, who I like and respect, and his view on Bill and Newt: sorry, infidelity is infidelity and character is character. If you had the real convictions on this one that everyone in politics and journalists yap so much about, you’d call a spade a spade regardless of party. Dave Long hosts the Absolute Sports Experience at Billy’s Sports Bar in Manchester each Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, broadcast live on WGAM – The Game, 1250-AM Manchester, 900-AM-Nashua.
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9/13/2007 All round baseball week starts with a look at leaders 9/6/2007 It's Superbowl or bust for Pats in 2007
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