When Nuance Dies: Sammy Sosa and Phony Outrage
ESPN’s Howard Bryant is without question one of my favorite sports writers. His book Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball is one of the finest pieces of journalism I’ve ever encountered. That’s why his frothing take on revelations that retired Major League baseball slugger Sammy Sosa tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003 was both shocking and depressing. Call it “shock-pressing.”
In a piece titled, “Sosa news calls for special outrage,” Bryant writes, “This news should be greeted with the kind of outrage reserved for the worst breaches of trust because you, Mr. and Mrs. Fan, have been taken for a very special kind of ride.”
In a world of economic implosion and war, one might not ascribe “outrage” to the six-year-old drug test of a retired player, but Bryant has no patience for those of us who greeted the Sosa “revelations” with a yawn.
He goes on to mock those who would describe the steroid hysteria as a “witch hunt.” This despite the fact that people like Bonds and Roger Clemens are facing prison terms and track star Marion Jones did hard time, all of which certainly has at least the fragrance of a good old fashioned Salem bonfire.
Bryant also sneers at those who would ascribe steroid use to players "caught up in a culture." This despite the fact that Bryant wrote a 500-page book painstakingly outlining how that culture came into existence.
While he takes a passing shot at the “lazy” writers who let it happen, Bryant reserves perhaps his toughest condemnation for his good friends, “Mr. and Mrs. Fan.” “The fan has been the greatest enabler of the steroids era. Face it: Had the paying customer revolted, the institutional reaction would have been decidedly different.” There you have it sports fans. According to Bryant, you were both taken for a ride and you let it happen. I bet you didn’t know you had that much power.
For the man who wrote the profoundly nuanced Juicing the Game, this is painful analysis. It’s like seeing a great surgeon dispense with the scalpel and go right for the saw. It’s like seeing a ballerina go at it with clogs. It’s like seeing Michael Jordan swing a bat.
The greatest flaw in the piece is not what Bryant writes but what he consciously neglects exploring. Zero accountability is placed on the front office, ownership or management. Who was the General Manager of the Cubs when Sosa was hitting moon shots in Wrigley? Who were his managers? What did they know and when did they know it? Reading Bryant’s screed against spoiled stars, you would think Sosa had his own pharmacy.
Then there is the absence of any kind of context for why players made the decisions to put pharmaceuticals into their bodies. There is no look at the home of Sammy Sosa, the Dominican Republic, where most play without shoes, using cut-out milk cartons for gloves, rolled-up cloth for balls, and sticks and branches for bats. They dream of making it to the baseball academies, places where many Dominican kids first encounter three meals a day or an indoor toilet.
The Dominican Republic is attractive to Major League execs for more reasons than its sunny beaches and never ending supply of prospects. Steroids in the DR are legal. Top prospects can find ways to supplement their skill with a no-risk supply. But those not in the top-tier often take cheaper animal steroids. Minor leaguer Lino Ortiz took this route, went into shock and died.
The entire setup involves billionaires – or their emissaries - telling people from desperately poor backgrounds what to do or have fun in the cane fields. Sure they’re free not to juice. They are also free to go back to the ghetto or back to the island.
Sammy Sosa, before he was even a teenager, stitched soles in a shoe factory for, as he remembered “pennies, just enough to survive.” His choices, as he said, were the cane fields, the army or baseball.
I learned that fact from reading the book Juicing the Game. I learned it from reading Howard Bryant. Whoever wrote this piece, should do the same.
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At first I thought Tim Brown's yahoo article was a complete joke. He is talking about some 'hero' on a clock tower with a sniper rifle and an attitude. Sadly, Brown is for real. The gory details are all here:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AgPUxnDH9nilpRJB3epsUswRvLYF?slug=ti-sosa061709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Oh horror, think about the innocent fans! Maybe the caped crusader up in the tower will shoot to kill and save us all!
Thanks for speaking the truth here Zirin. With guys like Tim Brown having a national stage like Yahoo, we need someone out there keeping it real.
I read Bryant's article and just didn't get it. It read to me like a defense of the media. The same media that told fans the increase in home runs was because players started lifting weights and working out year round. Also, ballparks were smaller, pitching was bad, the ball was juiced, yada yada yada. The same media that heard whispers about sterioids but didn't investigate or report it ( complicit in the conspiracy maybe?). I thought his analysis was pretty weak.
Also, I'm having a problem with the increasingly Latino face that being placed on steroids. So far this year we've had ARod, Manny, Sammy, even J.C. Romero linked to PEDs. Most of the white guys I personally believe are strong suspects never get mentioned. Remember, there are still 102 names that may never be released to the public. You'd have a hard time convincing me Piazza, Bagwell, Finley, Garciaparra, the Giles brothers, Matt Williams, amongst many others, didn't use steroids. And don't give me the they aren't stars argument either. Piazza and Bagwell are borderline HOFers and Garciaparra was Mr. Red Sox for a while. Dave, let's be careful about making the steroid issue a poor, 3rd world country issue. Poverty may explain why Latin players opt for steroids but it doesn't explain why American players go for it just as much.
but no one cared. The fans wanted to see home runs and baseball provided them. Of course the club and club executives knew what was going on. No one believes they were that stupid. Sportswriters found steroids in McGwire's locker but no one cared--including myself.
No everyone acts shocked when another player is exposed. It is the acting surprised that is the hypocrisy here. In fact it can be argued that steroids helped to save baseball after the 1994 strike. People did not really start paying attention to baseball again until the McGwire-Sosa home run duel.
When and why did people start to care about steroids? When Barry Bonds started dominating the game. Then, all of a sudden, steroid use became criminal. I've always contended the hysteria regarding steroids was about media and public distaste (dare I say hatred) for Barry Bonds and not about cheating, drug use, etc. Steroid use wasn't perceived as cheating the game when McGwire was setting records. As Jeffrey Kohan states, people were drawn to the game when McGwire was using and repulsed when Bonds was using. Go figure!
...over PED's and sports is pure comedy these days. I suppose if millions of dollars are dangling in front of these naysayers, they'd be the first in line to juice up...ROFL!!!
Dave,
Instead of yawning and cutting down Howard Bryant, author of a stunning book published when virtually no journos were taking notice of the drugs plague, it would be more interesting and helpful to delve deeper into the links between drugs, greed, and corporate malfeasance in pro sports.
The juice and the noose
by Dave Zirin
http://www.isreview.org/issues/50/steroids.shtml
This is for Tiro :)
good catch; good article!
Sosa was also caught with cork but I'm sure sure there was a reason he tried to cheat there too? What about his lame attempt to pretend he didn't speak english in front of Congress, "the man's" fault? What about the fact that every cub fan I know absolutly hated him because he was a selfish,overrate and all about himself? Is that a cultural thing? Many teammates, especially towards the end, thought he was cancer on the team. They're probably all just corporate elites though, right? Sosa never was good as hyped and this proves that he never should have been.
Doesn't anyone here including Dave not have a problem with cheating? I'm well aware that a good percentage of players were juicing but as a fan of Griffey, Frank Thomas, Bagwell (as of now absoluty no suspision but that doesn't matter if it helps your opinion does it), Jeter and the countless majority of players not on steroids I have a problem with how you are enabling players to cheat. It's complete BS to blame anyone but these players for breaking the rules and getting caught. Sosa just like A-Rod, Barry, Conseco and McGwire knew the rules and they cheated. The owners didn't force them and the fans didn't encourage them to cheat. The vast majority of players have been willing to age gracefully without steroids but some how Dave and his followers have have made it acceptable to break the rules. You blast corporate America for cheating society but when it comes to the players it's ok that they are cheating the fans of the honesty and dignity of fair competition. A spade is a spade and cheating is cheating whether it's a owner or player. Stop blaming everyone but the players that get caught.
Dave and everyone else on this site needs to spend less time defending cheating, bad teammates and stick up for some players that deserve it. There are rosters full of them.
Jason,
The backlash opinion comes out. "I feel so cheated by these players." Whine, whine, whine. Well Jason - sometimes a lot of cheaters can be in on one big cheat and when it finally comes time to collect those dues, the people with the most power and money and rights DON'T get caught. I bet you're a working class dude, just trying to get by. Well if your boss tells you, directly or indirectly, to do a little something extralegal or questionable, a lot of people would do it. They have mouths to feed, lifestyles to maintain, and competitors (using the same extralegal tactics) to beat away. We get so caught up in blaming the individual, who are guilty (no one is saying they aren't Jason) by the way, we lose sight of the culture that helps create it. Much like 9/11 bombings we simply look at these people, call them evil, and demand revenge. Now, I'm not trying to compare 9/11 and steroids, but I am comparing the knee jerk reaction. Did we ever think that perhaps there were things that could have been done beforehand to prevent such things? Policies, rules, guidelines? Nah, that's thinking too much. Its easier to blame the simplest thing -the individual. To take on culture is too much for most. To take on policy is downright unAmerican. To have taken on steroids before this mess would have been anti-Baseball. And that's my point. It is exactly what they wanted. These owners made their millions and billions (with stadiums largely funded by YOU caused by increased ticket sales from homers aided by roids) with an image largely in tact. Sounds a bit like the recent bank bailout, doesn't it? Sounds like the big "C" as well.
Joshua
Good points - and your analogy to 9/11 is a valid one... the American body politic never asked the most important question. They asked who, what, where, and when - but they never asked why? And that's the rub - because asking "why" forces Americans to examine historical behavior, and in the act of that examination will come the discovery of guilt.
What really amazes me is that so many people were gullible enough to be shocked that Atheletes were, God forbid, using performance enhancers. Evolution doesn't work that fast and it ain't Popeyes Spinach either!
Just look at the body size of all sports players and their above average performance! A defensive lineman (6'8" - 350 lbs) can run the 40 yard dash in the same or better time of a offensive back of just a few years ago. Junior High students are taking Growth Hormones so they have a chance to compete.
I think former Dallas head coach, Tom Landry, said it best. "We couldn't even field a 300 pounder. Now, if a lineman by his Junior year in college doesn't weigh in at 295 lbs, the scouts throw his book away!
With the money and pressure involved there is simply no other way the vast majority of these people could survive OUR expectations. WE, as fans, are the enablers, the culprits.....the players are the victims of our drive for more, more, more!
It's the real world. Get over it and move on if you expect continued elevation of sports and records to be broken.
The human body has natural limits! So let's quit being hypocrites and see just where we can take our species! Or be satisfied with what would now seem like mediocre play!
I think the problem I have with your critique Joshua is that you believe that the owners were pushing players to take 'roids. I think they ignored the issue but that they didn't encourage them to take something they knew would be them in more a controversy. At least I haven't heard of any evidence of that. I'm from Chicago and we had a hall of famer in Frank Thomas that didn't take steroids and was out spoken about how they need to be banded. Why should he be punished cause he wasn't willing to break the rules? He'd probably have 600 home runs if he took steroids. Griffey might be the home run champ by now if took roids. If the culture was so strong for taking them why didn't they take them? Or Greg Maddux, who never had the best stuff, why didn't he take them to throw 100 mph?
I may agree with your "society" arguments when it comes to terrorism but I'm sorry that doesn't work for me when it come to steroids. It was against the rules and the players knew it. I understand everyone's "ask why" response and trying to blame someone other then their favorite athlete but that argument does fly because most athletes don't take them. If it was so societal then why wasn't the number of failed tests closer to 80-90%. Why doesn't basketball have this problem? Why hasn't football had a major steroid scandal like this for 30 years. As far as "evolution isn't that fast" while that ignores that fact that athlete didn't have the legal supplements, training programs and knowledge to get players stronger that they have today. Why would you watch sports if you think the culture of the sport is so corrupted? Shouldn't sports be about the best going up against the best within a set of rules?
I wouldn't have a problem with steroids if everyone got to take them but breaking the rules makes the playing field uneven. It's like giving certain players an extra at bat after they get an out. Are you advocating that all players be able to take steriods or just that they shouldn't be blamed cause their boss might have gotten tax payer money to build a stadium? I guess I don't understand how one thing has to do with another. So because I live in Illinois and my ex Governor may be a criminal I don't have to follow the law?
Are you saying steroids is a political reaction like terrorism? Maybe Bonds is the new Ghandi? Instead of fighting the owners with guns he chosen to take steroids to prove a point?
Jason:
You wrote: "I wouldn't have a problem with steroids if everyone got to take them...."
That rebukes your entire thesis of honoring those who do not. It's like saying 'I would not have a problem with George W. Bush if everyone was cleared to lie like him.'
As for your question why the NFL has not seen a major steroid problem, I think you are not paying attention. Most are the biggest athletes in the world, and they did not get all that size in weight rooms, or by gulping tapioca. There is juice in the NFL, and lots of it.
Babe Ruth's record was broken by a black man. Mark McGuire broke it too, but the latter was not chastised until Barry Bonds made his serious move to beat McGuire. You can argue that Jose Canseco was responsible for McGuire's disgrace, but Bonds was closing in fast, and that was the spark that lit the flame for steroid investigations, such as they were. Plus, ESPN does not like Barry Bonds.
Baseball is just like America, racism is there and fans are trained to look the other way. There IS a double standard. Ask Hank Aaron, ask Joe Morgan, or Mrs. Roberto Clemente.
My advice to you is to keep reading David Zirin, and learn more about this, because you blogging definetly needs refinement.
jMv9lK
I'm sorry but what you wrote makes little to no sense. First off it's McGwire not McGuire. Second Mark McGwire didn't break any of Babe Ruth's records, he broke Roger Maris' single season record that Ruth once held but that's it. Third, your GWB statement is comparing apples to oranges. It's not the issue of drugs I'm against personally I couldn't care less if these guys want to potentially harm their person. I have a problem when people break the rules or laws period. Also they all lie like Bush his were just the most most harmful. Fourth, how can you get off accusing that there is lots of "juice" in the NFL without any proof? By that standard I can say you take steriods or are a tax cheat and even though you have evidence that may prove otherwise. Cause NFL players are tested every year and while a few are suspended every year 99% tests turn up negative and of those that turn up positive the majority test positive for OTC substances that are banned but they fail to realize what they take. If evidence turns up otherwise then I'll say they are cheats and deserve punishment like Shawn Merriman.
Pujols, Jeter, Mariano Rivera are all minorities, they deserve your praise and recognition not a cheat like Barry Bonds. Don't defend Bonds just because he is black. Read "Game of Shadows" and tell me if you still think Bonds is a good guy that deserves your sympathy. Or would what him on your favorite team for that matter. Why doesn't ESPN not like Bonds but gusses over Jeter, Pujols, Kobe, Tiger, Jordan and countless other black athletes? Do ESPN and ex-ESPNers Joe Morgan, Harold Reynolds , Michael Wilbon, Mike Tireco hate Bonds because he is black?
Finally, how should steriods be treated then? No suspensions? Ignore?
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