Saturday, July 21, 2007
AN OPEN LETTER TO BUD SELIG
Dear Mr. Selig,
You're blowing it, Bud.
Why are you not doing whatever you can to promote Barry Bonds' pursuit of the all-time home run record? You're the commissioner of baseball. Your position requires you to be an ambassador for the game. You need to be in the park -- whichever park it is -- when Barry Bonds breaks the record.
What are you worried about, Bud? That the image of baseball has been, or will be, tarnished in some way by Barry's holding the record? How could you possibly be worried about the tarnishing of the game? After all, you're the commissioner who did nothing to prevent the strike in 1994 that cancelled the World Series.
Fortunately for you, Cal Ripken bailed you out and brought the fans together again the next year with his consecutive-games-played streak. And then -- irony of ironies -- you sat in your commissioner's box with glee as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, one of whom was already embroiled in a steroids controversy and the other of whom would suffer the same ignominy within a few years, captured the nation's attention with the home run chase of 1998.
Now all of a sudden, you're worried?
Is it because McGwire and Sosa were generally likeable guys, and Bonds is generally, shall we say, not?
Or is it truly because of the steroid issue? You do know, Bud, that Barry Bonds has never tested positive for illegal steroids. Don't you?
Clean-up on Aisle Common Sense!
Why can't you embrace the breaking of what just might be the most hallowed sports record of all-time? Why turn it into something resembling the aftermath of a car wreck? "Move along, folks, nothing to see here, it's nasty."
Bud, you've been a bad commissioner for years. From the strike, to your institution of the wild-card system, to your conflict of interest regarding your family's ownership of the Brewers, to your 2002 All-Star Game nightmare, you've been involved in things that have messed with the integrity of Major League Baseball on various levels. Now you're trying to make those of us who regard you with skepticism at best and scorn at worst forget about you and concentrate on someone else, some dastardly demon who is at the ready to do you one better (or worse, as the case may be)?
Forget it. You're a hypocrite. You once embraced a chase for a home-run record while a steroid possibility floated in the air, and now you've completely flip-flopped. Maybe because you figure since most baseball fans don't like Bonds, you're safe with this one, just as you were in 1998 when people enjoyed Mark and Sammy's on-the-field exploits and you went along with it.
Maybe Barry Bonds did use steroids once. I'm sure there are other great things done in baseball by great players who were on the stuff at the time. Why is now the exception?
Anyway, I can't write any words to you. You're making me focus on the negatives. Maybe that's what you want, for whatever reason. Barry's almost up again, and I'm going to be watching when Fox cuts to the game.
Sincerely,
E.K.
P.S. GO BARRY!
At 3:01 p.m. PDT, a further postscript...The fans in Milwaukee have been booing Barry Bonds during his at-bats and chanting such things as "Steroids! Seroids!"...but then when Ned Yost had Bonds intentionally walked in the eighth inning with a man on second, the fans booed the walk. Yeah, okay. You don't want him to break the record, but you still want to see him hit home runs?
We all know you want Barry to break the record. The fans at Wrigley Field stood up in awe and cheered when Barry went deep a couple of days ago.
We all know. You want it both ways.
Pick a side, fans. And stay there.
At 3:08 p.m., another postscript...Oh, you best BELIEVE I got a take on the Michael Vick situation. It's just that it's so disturbing that I have a difficult time thinking about it. Yeah, way more so than the Selig deal. If the charges are true, Vick makes Bud Selig look like 53 Santa Clauses (Clausi?). Maybe I'll delve deeper into this topic. But the subject of dogs dying is not a happy one for me. So maybe I will, maybe I won't.
OH....and by the way...happy birthday E.K. Nation. You turned four years old today. Four years I've been doing this? Sheeeeeesh. It sure doesn't seem like it.
You're blowing it, Bud.
Why are you not doing whatever you can to promote Barry Bonds' pursuit of the all-time home run record? You're the commissioner of baseball. Your position requires you to be an ambassador for the game. You need to be in the park -- whichever park it is -- when Barry Bonds breaks the record.
What are you worried about, Bud? That the image of baseball has been, or will be, tarnished in some way by Barry's holding the record? How could you possibly be worried about the tarnishing of the game? After all, you're the commissioner who did nothing to prevent the strike in 1994 that cancelled the World Series.
Fortunately for you, Cal Ripken bailed you out and brought the fans together again the next year with his consecutive-games-played streak. And then -- irony of ironies -- you sat in your commissioner's box with glee as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, one of whom was already embroiled in a steroids controversy and the other of whom would suffer the same ignominy within a few years, captured the nation's attention with the home run chase of 1998.
Now all of a sudden, you're worried?
Is it because McGwire and Sosa were generally likeable guys, and Bonds is generally, shall we say, not?
Or is it truly because of the steroid issue? You do know, Bud, that Barry Bonds has never tested positive for illegal steroids. Don't you?
Clean-up on Aisle Common Sense!
Why can't you embrace the breaking of what just might be the most hallowed sports record of all-time? Why turn it into something resembling the aftermath of a car wreck? "Move along, folks, nothing to see here, it's nasty."
Bud, you've been a bad commissioner for years. From the strike, to your institution of the wild-card system, to your conflict of interest regarding your family's ownership of the Brewers, to your 2002 All-Star Game nightmare, you've been involved in things that have messed with the integrity of Major League Baseball on various levels. Now you're trying to make those of us who regard you with skepticism at best and scorn at worst forget about you and concentrate on someone else, some dastardly demon who is at the ready to do you one better (or worse, as the case may be)?
Forget it. You're a hypocrite. You once embraced a chase for a home-run record while a steroid possibility floated in the air, and now you've completely flip-flopped. Maybe because you figure since most baseball fans don't like Bonds, you're safe with this one, just as you were in 1998 when people enjoyed Mark and Sammy's on-the-field exploits and you went along with it.
Maybe Barry Bonds did use steroids once. I'm sure there are other great things done in baseball by great players who were on the stuff at the time. Why is now the exception?
Anyway, I can't write any words to you. You're making me focus on the negatives. Maybe that's what you want, for whatever reason. Barry's almost up again, and I'm going to be watching when Fox cuts to the game.
Sincerely,
E.K.
P.S. GO BARRY!
At 3:01 p.m. PDT, a further postscript...The fans in Milwaukee have been booing Barry Bonds during his at-bats and chanting such things as "Steroids! Seroids!"...but then when Ned Yost had Bonds intentionally walked in the eighth inning with a man on second, the fans booed the walk. Yeah, okay. You don't want him to break the record, but you still want to see him hit home runs?
We all know you want Barry to break the record. The fans at Wrigley Field stood up in awe and cheered when Barry went deep a couple of days ago.
We all know. You want it both ways.
Pick a side, fans. And stay there.
At 3:08 p.m., another postscript...Oh, you best BELIEVE I got a take on the Michael Vick situation. It's just that it's so disturbing that I have a difficult time thinking about it. Yeah, way more so than the Selig deal. If the charges are true, Vick makes Bud Selig look like 53 Santa Clauses (Clausi?). Maybe I'll delve deeper into this topic. But the subject of dogs dying is not a happy one for me. So maybe I will, maybe I won't.
OH....and by the way...happy birthday E.K. Nation. You turned four years old today. Four years I've been doing this? Sheeeeeesh. It sure doesn't seem like it.
