-- The United States elected a black President.
-- The Philadelphia Phillies won a World Series, beating the Tampa Bay Rays.
-- America's Olympic sweetheart is pulling bong hits at frat houses.
-- The nation's economy is in the tank.
-- Unemployment is skyrocketing.
-- A slut in a bikini with no musical talent made the first cut on American Idol.
And yet, with all of that, the only thing anybody seems to want to talk about is yet another overpaid, egomaniacal, professional baseball player taking steroids.
That's news?
Of course it is...any time ESPN breaks into its fifth re-airing of Mike & Mike In The Morning, it's got to be something of vital importance. And if it's not their goofy man-crush over Brett Favre, then it's gotta be really BIG news to make that programming change.
To catch you up on the details...New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was fingered in a Sports Illustrated special report last week as one of 104 players who tested positive for steroids back in 2003 when the organization formerly known as Major League Baseball did a random drug test as part of an agreement with the players' union to get drug testing in the sport.
As part of the agreement, the names were supposed to be kept secret and the results destroyed after a certain period of time.
For whatever reason, that was not done and some crack journalists at Sports Illustrated got the information and released it in a story last week.
Rodriguez was supposed to be baseball's golden child. Alleged commissioner Bud Selig (can anyone detect a hint of a possible negative air about my feelings for Major League Baseball right about now?) has held Rodriguez up as the exception to the rule of today's superstar baseball players who are setting, or working their way toward, records that may never be broken. He was the one that was going to hit 800 or more homers and make the all-time home run record that was prostituted by Barry Bonds (who is well on his way to a nice prison stay after lying about not using steroids) a clean record again, just like it was when Hank Aaron overcame his lack of size (by comparison to Bonds, Mark McGwire and Rodriguez) and the not-so-overt threats of racial hatred to hit 755 home runs in a remarkable career that spanned three decades.
Well guess what? it seems the golden child has a little tarnish on him that's not coming off. And don't think his admission on national television yesterday -- which came two years after he claimed he was clean while doing another television interview -- is going to get him off easy. While he won't face any penalties by the league (the drug tests he failed were done before penalties were put in place) or an interview with Congress (evidently, there's an economy in trouble that's just a little more important), he will have to face the court of public opinion. And after having to deal with Bonds, McGwire, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Giambi, Andy Pettite and whoever else has been caught juicing lately, I don't think he's going to find a very sympathetic court in any of the 30 big-league ballparks. Certainly not at Fenway Park in Boston...if you think the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry is an intense one, just wait until Boston fans see ol' A-Rod trot onto their home field.
So what have we learned from this latest made-for-TV controversy, boys and girls? We have two things to focus on:
1. Major League Baseball has become the 21st century version of pro wrestling.
Back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, athletes used to wrestle professionally, and did it without the benefit of bad story lines, steroid-inflated muscles and sluts with more paint on them than the fans in Madison Square Garden during a sold-out KISS concert. These were real men competing in a real sport, until somebody came up with the idea that it needed more of an entertainment push.
Until probably the mid to late 1970's, wrestling still had an air of legitimacy about it. They were still wrestling, but there was more showmanship to it and the beginning of some storylines that came with pre-determined outcomes to matches. Today, it's nothing more than a pathetic imitation of what it once was, complete with storylines that make porn directors cringe in disgust and an unscrupulous, pathetic leader who seems content with physically abusing people and then, when they no longer hold any entertainment value, casting them aside like yesterday's trash.
Funny...but Major League Baseball is resembling WWE more and more every day. The athletes, more and more, are fake. The stats they put up are fake. And their league is run by an unscrupulous, pathetic leader who seems content with pumping up the athletes, which in turn pumps up the stats, which in turn pumps up the attendance numbers, the memorabilia sales and the ticket prices. And when those "athletes" either break down or run afoul of the court of public opinion, they are cast aside and left to fend for themselves, regardless of which court they happen to be dealing with.
Bud Selig has absolutely wrecked this once great sport and has tarnished its legitimacy to the point that I'm starting to wonder why ESPN, Fox Sports and all the other sports channels waste even one moment discussing what once was America's greatest sport.
2. Our worship of celebrity has gotten way out of control
Remember the Gatorade "I Wanna Be Like Mike" commercials that showed kids trying to play basketball like Michael Jordan?
That's nothing compared to what we, as a society, do with celebrity these days. We build these people up, buy tickets to watch them, build websites and YouTube videos as shrines to their perceived greatness, buy anything they pitch in commercials...and then blow them up as big as day the first time they screw up.
Remember when everybody was fawning over Paris Hilton...until her porn video came out? How about Lindsay Lohan...until she started boozing it up and turned into a lesbian? And what about Britney Spears, the pop queen turned psycho nutjob?
Until A-Rod's recent coming out of the steroid closet, the sports world was all aghast at the pictures of Olympic swimming sensation Michael Phelps, who was photographed taking a hit from a bong at a college party in South Carolina. Oh what a big deal THAT was...until A-Rod's 'roid report.
We put these people up on pedestals and become so disappointed when something comes along and knocks them down. And when you get down to it, these are the WORST people we should be aspiring to be.
I don't want to be like Mike (although I loved watching him play). I don't want to be like Tiger (although I'm looking forward to seeing him reclaim his spot atop the golf world). Hell...there are times I'm not sure I even want to be like ME (usually in the mornings before I've rubbed the sleep out of my eyes...other than that, being me never sucks).
If I'm going to emulate somebody, I want to emulate people who have been successful in their lives and have set a good example for others to follow...like my parents, or my sister, or some of the educational and professional influences I've been blessed with. They aren't perfect by a long shot, but they've set some pretty high bars for others to reach, and those of us who have taken advantage of their talents and wisdom to excel in our own lives look up to them much more often than we'd even consider looking up to some overpaid, drug-riddled pro athlete or some other notable dingbat who is famous only for being famous.
And now, if you'll excuse me...I need to get back to watching our alleged representatives in Congress permanently screw up our nation's economy. This is important stuff we're talking about here...
That's it and that's all...until next time.
***
P.S. - Thanks to all who have offered prayers, words of encouragement and nice thoughts during our recent family situation, which delayed my restarting of this blog.
The good news is that everybody is fine and fit as a fiddle. Adjustments in medication have been made, promises of actual physical exertion have been offered, and my mom is back in top form (well, she's not getting any more dizzy than normal, anyway).
There will be some more additions to this blog, including some official Mikey C video entries, coming soon. And as always...if you like what you see, tell a friend, and if you don't like what you see, tell an enemy.
Now quit screwing around on the Internet and get back to work...
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