Mondoweiss

Juiced Baseball Has Come from Conspiracy Theory to Conventional Wisdom

During last night's Yankees game, broadcaster Michael Kay spoke of how the home run has been devalued and listed a bunch of reasons why there were so many now, from steroids to smaller ball parks. Also: the "tighter baseball."

Ten years ago after I watched scrawny Brady Anderson of my team, the Orioles, hit 50 home runs in a season, I went to Yankee Stadium and interviewed a bunch of players about whether the ball was juiced. Almost to a man they said it was. Mel Stottlemyre's the one guy I remember right now, and he used the concrete floor to demonstrate his point.  The ball was jumping out of the park in a way few of us had seen it do before, players and fans. I wasn't the only one who talked about the juiced ball then.

But my point is this, when I wrote it up, friends said I was indulging in a conspiracy theory. I believe MLB did a study to prove they weren't juicing the ball, cut it open, pictures in Sports Illustrated and probably the Times. Well they were; and now it's conventional wisdom. These things happen...

American Athlete Who Overcame Mental Illness Is 'A Little Different,' and So What

During last night's Yankees broadcast, announcer Ken Singleton matter of factly described Kansas City Royals pitcher Zack Greinke as having suffered from depression and anxiety that he's gotten treatment for. Yahoo Sports has a similar straightforwardness. The Kansas City Star too--in which Greinke's dad says his son will always be "a little different."  I love America; our culture is a liberal one, we have made incredible progress at destigmatizing mental illness, and in honoring all kinds of difference.

(And do I think there's a Middle East echo here? But of course.)

2 Comments on '60'

I'm a devoted "60 Minutes" watcher and had two strong impressions from the last two weeks.

1, Last week LaDainian Tomlinson, the Chargers' incredible running back, said that he spends the day before a game in fear of injury. Playing a game of football is like being in a car wreck, he said, and he worries whether that day is going to bring a season- or career-ending injury. Let alone concussions. The Times' Alan Schwartz has done passionate, important reporting on this issue. I hope the comments on "60," by one of the league's top performers, mean that things might change... 2, Tonight in a report from New Guinea on rarely-seen bird species, Robert Simon, who spent 10 days in the bush, kept cooing over the fact that no one had caught these scenes on film before. With the suggestion that no one had seen these birds doing their mating dances before. I think this is somewhat racist. 3 years ago I was in New Guinea and on a trek through the mountains, my guides brought me to a village for a Tolai fire dance. The thing went on all night long, men jumping in and out of the fire. Well, they were all wearing amazing, outlandish bird costumes. Strange wire-and-paper headdresses and tail feathers. Birds are revered in New Guinea, and the people who live there have been observing them for eons. 

A Historical Apology for Steroid-Shooting Ball Players

In 1977 I was working at a shortlived weekly in Minneapolis called Metropolis when Timothy G. Carlson, our photographer and a superb storyteller, went to see Zoilo Versalles, the late great Cuban shortstop (1939-1995) who had won the MVP playing for the Twins in 1965. Carlson came back with a funny story about "greenies," or amphetamines, which I'll never forget.

He said that Versalles had said that he often took greenies when he was worn out. Someone on the staff, as I remember it, the trainer, would quietly offer them, and he'd take them. Especially if he was playing a day game after a night game. "The first inning, I strike out, I'm nowhere near the pitch. Then in the field I kick the ball, make an error." That's when someone would pass quietly through the dugout and offer Versalles greenies, and he'd take one or two. By the third inning, he was making trademark plays in the hole and getting a triple in the gap. The manager would come up to him. "Zoilo, what's going on? You looked terrible in the first inning, now you're playing your heart out." Versalles made a little fist. "Coach, I'm just concentrating."

Highly anecdotal, I know. But the point is inescapable. Even great baseball players have been taking pills to enhance their performance forever. You say amphetamines aren't like steroids. I disagree. People used to say, Speed kills. And performance-enhancing is performance-enhancing. The problem is widespread, and probably just as deeply entrenched/secretly-necessary as blood doping in bicycling. What do we do about it? Gosh, what do I know. Maybe cut some of the piety about professional sports? In any case, I'm glad Barry Bonds's persecution as a pariah is over.

Was Nifong Motivated by Duke-UNC Rivalry?

A great book came out last year called To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever, by Will Blythe (yes, a friend), about the undying rivalry between Duke and the University of North Carolina. The rivalry goes way beyond sports. It's class and culture. Duke the entitled, UNC the downtrodden. And yes it's racial, too.

I noticed during Nifong's testimony last week that he went to UNC. Is it possible that the Duke prosecution came out of this ancient and bitter rivalry? He was taking on rich Duke kids on behalf of poor black North Carolinians... Where are our cultural commentators?

Fewer Blacks in Baseball: Maybe That's a Good Thing?

ESPN did a great job on Sunday night baseball with the Jackie Robinson story. Great interviews in the booth with an elegant Rachel Robinson, turbulent and dignified Hank Aaron, and always-edgy Frank Robinson. All these people, and Dave Winfield, too, lamented the fact that just 8 percent of MLB players now are black. The Astros and the Braves have no blacks on their teams, Joe Morgan said.

I miss the black players too. (Frank Robinson changed my life in '66). But maybe it's a sign of something good. All kids dream of athletic stardom. Most of us get that dreamed knocked out pretty early. Desperate kids hang on longer. Is the absence of black players a sign of black progress? Is the black middle class growing? Do black kids now have more conventional choices than they did a generation ago? ESPN ought to consider these questions.

How Jews Change(d) America

This morning I feel proudly Jewish. Not my usual response to the news.

But today's Times has an unbelievable story by Alan Schwarz about dementia felling former NFL great John Mackey and many other former football players; and it puts the plight of these men and their wives on the front page. There's a simple description of this: great journalism. At a time when TV media, pro football, and advertisers would have everyone shut up about the issue, and talk about the best hits in yesterday's games, the Times has repeatedly gone after an important, ignored story: brain injury in football.

Why do I have an ethnic-chauvinist response? Because this is a traditional gift of my people to America, using media power to hammer away at controversial issues that can profoundly change society. Yesss!

The Racialism of the Super Bowl (and Politics)

Even as it disappointed on the field, the Super Bowl supplied racial drama. The historical celebration, that a black coach was finally coaching a Super Bowl team—and not just one, but both coaches, both teams—was all over the airwaves. Even ads brought it up. Hooray.

Time to get on my hobbyhorse. I gather that on the McLaughlin Group yesterday, they—warning, here comes Yiddish—kvelled about black advances, black power, and Pat Buchanan said, Talk about power, what about the Jews, 2 percent of the population, 13 members of the Senate. Etc. No big surprise, he didn't exactly start a conversation.

As a pluralist (I want all races and ethnicities to mingle and disappear in the great liberal bath of Humanity; alas, they haven't yet), it interests me that Buchanan broke a rule: some ethnicities and races can be openly described in our journalism, others spoken of only in coded ways. Chris Matthews, for instance, regularly welcomes guests named McCain, Kennedy, Murphy, McMillen with jokes about Irish night, or insights about Irish politics. He's a street smart guy, he loves ethnic politics. Matthews wants to talk about Jews as openly but he finds he can't go near it.

The other night, telling Ben Ginsberg that his scenarios about Iran "scare the bejesus out of me," Matthews said that Bush was still surrounded by "ideologues" who support attacking Iran, and that if Bush did attack Iran, Hillary would support him "for political reasons." All code for Jews. Now that Walt and Mearsheimer have broken the taboo, you'd think Matthews could say what he thinks: Jewish money is essential to Hillary Clinton's candidacy, Jews by and large support an aggressive response to Iran because of Ahmedinejad's anti-Israel rhetoric, the neoconservatives are rightwing Jews, many of whom have intimate connections to Israel's rightwing leaders.

Right now the Jewish press is the only press that will delve into this stuff. Presumably because while black-coaches-in-the-Super-Bowl confound stereotype, Jews-in-high-places confirms them. So the Times ignored Walt-Mearsheimer. I am of course for talking about Jewish power because I think it's politically significant, and the Mideast is a powder keg. Also, if we openly identify the simple fact that protecting Israel is part of our Middle Eastern policy, Americans will a, almost certainly support the policy, while b, they increase pressure on a centrist (Jimmy-Carter-James-Baker-John-Mearsheimer) agenda: Israel's hateful occupation of Arab lands is part of our problem.

The Suicide Question Re Corey Lidle

I'm surprised that everyone covering Corey Lidle's death has avoided the psychological question: Was depression or suicidal feeling a factor in the crash?

Let's go to the videotape: in his last appearance in the public eye, just four days before his death, Saturday October 7, Corey Lidle came into the Yankees' most important game of the season in the third inning. The Yankees were losing the game, 4-0, and Lidle then closed the door in the third and fourth, but couldn't get an out in the 5th; he gave up three runs. When he was lifted, the Yankees were down 7-0. Yes, Jaret Wright lost the game; but Lidle put it out of reach. The Yankees departed the postseason, 8-3.

I'm blanking on his name, but at least one MLB pitcher who screwed up committed suicide in the off-season. Athletes in other sports have, too.

I don't mind Katie Couric oozing a widow's sympathy last night when she asked her reporter, "And what about his family?" But I'd like to hear some other questions: How did Corey Lidle respond to his dramatic failure on Saturday? Did he hold himself responsible for the Yankees' demise? How fit was he to get in behind the controls?

ESPN Promotes Violence in Football

The Halftime show on Monday Night Football on ESPN is featuring something called "Jacked Up," showing the five biggest hits of the previous weekend's action and asking people to vote on which was the best one. The hits are blindside collisions, typically, cornerbacks hurling themselves at receivers, linebackers slicing into quarterbacks. Football is violent enough without this shameful promotion of its worst feature. What's so funny about spinal injury? I'm not surprised that goofball Chris Berman is yucking it up through this crap, but what excuse does Steve Young have? Tony Kornheiser needs to say something, now.