Baseball has long been my favorite sport. Mostly because it was the only sport white dorks like myself could have any possible chance at being successful in. Growing up, I loved little league and relished in being a short stop like my hero Cal Ripken Jr. To me, baseball was pure and when you are a young whippersnapper, you aren’t very interested in the dirty laundry associated with the “business” end of it. Why would that interest a child? We just liked watching our idols belt balls into the bleachers and watch the mascot trip and land on the bat boy. Baseball used to be (to me, anyway) innocent and playful.
In recent times, however, the sport and its athletes are in a constant struggle to regain the public’s acceptance and respect. The opinions of the “organization” as a whole are largely in the toilet and on the surface, it’s easy to see why. Steroids have tainted the game for the past few years and now with the release of the Mitchell Report, the ugliness behind the sport can no longer be avoided (at least according to George Mitchell and Jose Conseco). Obviously this scandal has proved to be very bad for baseball’s public relations, but in the days following this report I picked up on something that has long been my theory as to why the fans are no longer backing baseball the way they used to.
Roger Clemens was without a doubt the biggest name mentioned George Mitchell’s investigation (Barry Bonds doesn’t count; no one had any doubts about his appearance on that list). Not surprisingly, he denied the allegations ferociously. His name was mentioned numerous times throughout the report (the most of any other player I believe) for injecting needles into his posterior for help with his pitching, according to Radomski (the former Mets’ trainer who is the focal point of the accusations in Mitchell’s accusations) and several others. What was disturbing to me, however, was not that Clemens was mentioned (anyone entering their prime at forty-years-old is suspicious). What is annoying to me is that Clemens denied these reports through his lawyer. And there inlays the problem with professional athletes these days. Because it is a business more than it is a sport, baseball is constantly defending itself through the mouths of lawyers and agents. This constant distance from the players continues to destroy the sport’s reputation and image within the public arena. Rather than man up to his responsibility and attempt to squash these claims himself, Clemens has his lawyer speak for him, which only reinforces his guilt in the eyes of the fans.
Now, obviously, since speaking openly about this report has legal ramifications, Clemens (and the other players that will soon be spending the rest of their days proving these claims as false) can’t really be as discrete as he possible could. But let’s not kid ourselves here…this is far from being the first example of players staying behind the curtains while their financial representatives tell us what we need to expect out of the players and the sport. They tell us the “truth” behind rumors and spend their days counting their clients money while we grow increasingly frustrated with the fact that our favorite players just can’t speak to us directly. Everything is top secret in the sport and the fans are forced to decipher their instincts and intuitions from the press releases of people that are more interested in maintaining a profit than defending the sanctity of the game.
What’s so disheartening about this aspect of the “game” is that the players don’t even seem to care about this barrier. No one seems to make an effort to address the fans and let them know what their story is. If Clemens had come out and told the public HIMSELF that he was innocent, we’d be more simpathetic to his case and be more graceful with our insults. By making his lawyer do all the talking, people will continue to blast his reputation and unless he actively convinces us he is not guilty, we will continue to doubt him unconditionally. Because, well, why wouldn’t we? As far as we’re concerned, he’s just another rich athlete that cheated. There is no personal level that we can relate to him on. Ditto for all of the other players mentioned.
It’s why people hate Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. They are constantly reinforcing their mistakes by not addressing them. Each time they avoid the interview or avoid the camera, they are only making themselves seem cold, distant, and isolated from the fans of baseball. Which, understandably, pisses the fans off. And, as stated earlier, the players don’t seem to care that it pisses us off. Which is, again, another ingredient to the overall problem with baseball today.
Next time some overpaid clown tries to deny steroid use through someone other than himself, he shouldn’t be surprised when the public refuses to accept their side the story. Act like a man and tell us yourself. Then, maybe, we will begin to love the sport again.
(Ed. Note: There is an exception to this argument…Curt Schilling. He has a blog called “38 Pitches” that he writes himself. It’s a great way to get to know him both as a player and as a person. Now, if every famed player followed suit, we’d be set.)
