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March 13, 2004
Fawkes
James Joyner of Outside the Beltway sent me a link to this Slate article by Josh Levin on why baseball is always dying.
I'm pretty immue to this kind of talk. 1994 Was the most potentially devestating year for baseball, and it survived that it will survive this drug scandal. Let me disagree with Levin's last paragraph, however:
Just because there isn't an obvious Babe Ruth doesn't mean that one won't emerge. Albert Pujols is young enough that he should still be improving. Who knows what kind of numbers he'll wow us with this year. Mark Prior and Josh Beckett are still not mature pitchers. Maybe their stikeout artistry will entrance us this summer. Most likely, we don't know who or what the savior will be. That's what keeps us in love with the game; there's always something new and unexpected. Comments
What a goofy article written by a person not only with little knowledge about baseball but also one that ignores what is going on in pro basketball and football. (By the way, I am a fan of not only baseball, but also football. I don't like pro basketball but love college basketball.) Some random thoughts on football and basketball: My understanding is that Monday Night Football viewership peaked years ago and has been declining since. This year's Super Bowl was certainly exciting but when was the last time that the NFL had a string of exciting Super Bowls to match recent World Series? Compare the baseball All-star game to the football Pro bowl; which is more interesting to watch? It is interesting to note that while NFL poobahs have been moralizing that they have cleaned up the drug issue in football, nobody has picked up on the fact that one of the pro athletes implicated in the BALCO scandal was a football player, Bill Romanowski. If football's drug screaning is so perfect, then how come Romo didn't test positive before the BALCO news? Are there other drug using football players also slipping through the NFL's 'perfect' drug testing system? Barry Bonds at 6'-2", 225-230 lbs., is said to obviously be on steriods because of his size. Bonds is the size of many NFL quarterbacks--Brett Favre, Steve McNair, for example. Are they obviously on steroids too? There are boatloads of 6-2, 240-250 lb. linebackers running around the NFL, but none of them use any performance enhancing drugs, right? Pro basketball is a dismal game to watch compared to college basketball. The NBA's biggest star--Kobe Bryant--is currently being tried for rape. Allen "We're talkin' 'bout practice?!" Iverson is one of the "stars" of the NBA, which is an indication of the NBA's problems, both on and off the court. Where are the current NBA's stars to match Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Dr. J, and Michael Jordon? Now to baseball: Somebody that sees baseball as potentially dying, is not watching the game, but is only listening to a bunch of self-serving owners and a dufus commissioner that don't know how to promote a great game, a gang of hot-air politicians, and a lot of know-nothing sports writers, like Mike Lupica (who wrote an AWFUL book after the 1998 season, ironically, about how great baseball is). The Black Sox scandal and the missed WS in 1994 were far bigger problems for baseball and the game bounced back from both of them, with the Babe and Cal Ripken leading the way, respectively. Baseball will eventually impose tougher drug testing, probably similar to the 'perfect' system in place in the NFL, and I strongly suspect that the quality of play in MLB will not be diminished in any noticable way. With the skills of players that are currently in the game, it is easy to see the possiblity of any number of players leading they way, as David notes. When was the last time MLB had a crop of SSs like ARod (currently out of position, but not for long), Nomar, Tejada, Jeter, and Renteria? Never, in my opinion. MLB currently has a bunch of great hitters, some of the best in the history of baseball. And, as was mentioned in a post yesterday, if the stats of great hitters like Bonds, Sheffield, Giambi, Sosa, Pujols, ARod, Vlad Guerrero, Manny Ramirez, Carlos Delgado, Todd Helton, Jim Thome, and others are all suspect, then are the stats of Mantle, Rose, Aaron, and other great hitters during the time when popping greenies was prevalent also tainted? Finally, while much of the focus in baseball lately has been on the hitters, what often gets missed is the number of great pitchers in the game--Pedro, Shilling, Hudson, Mulder, Zito, K. Wood, Prior, K. Brown, Clemens, Maddox, Gagne, Smoltz, M. Rivera--along with up and comers like Vazquez, Beckett and Halladay. Josh Levin should watch more games and read fewer sports columns. Then maybe he would undertand what he is missing. Then again, maybe he wouldn't. Posted by: eric at March 14, 2004 01:28 PM |
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