Why is it that there are a lot of people in the media that want to molly coddle the guys that break the rules? Poor, "down and out" Ryan Tucker - huh? This is the guy who, a few years ago on Cleveland talk radio, talked about the fact that he'd do 'roids if they were legal. So he made his decision. Live with it. I get the need to compete. I get the need to excel. I also get that if you don't play by the rules you get penalized. Deal with it. He's fortunate that he's only getting four games off - I'll explain in a minute.
Same goes for Bonds. Please don't ever try to convince me that he's not juiced. At the start of his career he looked like the guy in the old comic books getting sand kicked in his face. A few years later and it's "Olive pass the spinach. " Anyone believe he didn't know the rule? If he did, and he most certainly did, he chose to either 1) ignore the rule, or 2) believe that the rules didn't apply to him. In either case, it's the same behavior you see from criminals and drug addicts.
Add to the list the following: Tour d' France bikers, Pete Rose, Tim Donaghy (NBA official), Ronny Thompson at Ball State, and you can fill in the rest. No sympathy. No excuses. No BS.
Here's a departure from the status quo (and why I think Tucker is fortunate) - as long as you benefit from your illegal activity (think muscle mass from steroids) you shouldn't play, get paid, or aid your team in any way. If you commit an ethical violation (gambling), you're done. And don't expect your name to show up in the history books except under knucklehead.
Look, sports are one of the last bastions of what is good about living a good life. We expect our athletes to be honest and pure in terms of their athletic performance. They don't have to be great people (role models should be parents and preachers, not sluggers and slammers). Pro and big college sports are polluted with money and politics. The athletes themselves have to rise above and excel in competition. The rules say that the field is 100 yards long, the basket 10 feet high and the mound is 60 feet 6 inches from the plate. The players have to conform too.
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The official 'blog of the Lorain County Sports Network.
1 comment:
Very nice Mr. Vincent! "Olive pass the spinach", classic! It's quotes like that, that make you one of the areas FINEST announcers for calling play-by-play! And after all... where else should one of the areas finest announcers be announcing than the stations that speak to the athletes that play the game? Keep up the tremendous work! "I think I'm supposed to say, Thank you, I'm out!"
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