Subject: Would you quit watching?
Posted by: BxBarracuda
Date: Aug 23 12
Let me preface this by saying although I live in the Bronx, I have been an Orioles fan for the last 35 years and I am huge Cal Ripken Jr. fan. There is no player in the major leagues that has drawn my anger though the years then the current Yankee shorstop. One of the reasons I think I quit buying newspapers was I grew very tired of seeing him on the back page every day getting credit for a Yankee win, even when he went 0-5 with an error. I also never doubted he was a first ballot hall of famer and my mood has softened on him though the years. Now for the current topic of the day surrounding him.
Skip Bayless posed a question in regards to Derek Jeter's current offensive power surge.
The same question that has plagued all great athletes in the last 15 years.
The one which has hit the integrity of Baseball hardest of the 4 major American sports. (Ken Griffey Jr. doesn't get enough credit for taking the criticism he did and not going the road many others did at the time.)
The question related to, Is it fair to wonder if Derek Jeter is taking a performance enhancing drug?
I think it is fair to ask the question.
I don't think it is true that he has taken a performance enhancer.
Most importantly I ask the question, "If Derek Jeter is found to have taken a performancing enhancing substance, is Baseball forever changed and the game we knew no more?"
If it is found to be true, which I already said I don't think it is, I do think Baseball will be forever changed and I don't think it will ever recover. The fan base of Major League Baseball could ride on the intergrity of this one player right now.
To answer my own question, if it were true I would watch a lot less of baseball, though I don't think I could completely give it up just yet.
Posted by: BxBarracuda
Date: Aug 23 12
Let me preface this by saying although I live in the Bronx, I have been an Orioles fan for the last 35 years and I am huge Cal Ripken Jr. fan. There is no player in the major leagues that has drawn my anger though the years then the current Yankee shorstop. One of the reasons I think I quit buying newspapers was I grew very tired of seeing him on the back page every day getting credit for a Yankee win, even when he went 0-5 with an error. I also never doubted he was a first ballot hall of famer and my mood has softened on him though the years. Now for the current topic of the day surrounding him.
Skip Bayless posed a question in regards to Derek Jeter's current offensive power surge.
The same question that has plagued all great athletes in the last 15 years.
The one which has hit the integrity of Baseball hardest of the 4 major American sports. (Ken Griffey Jr. doesn't get enough credit for taking the criticism he did and not going the road many others did at the time.)
The question related to, Is it fair to wonder if Derek Jeter is taking a performance enhancing drug?
I think it is fair to ask the question.
I don't think it is true that he has taken a performance enhancer.
Most importantly I ask the question, "If Derek Jeter is found to have taken a performancing enhancing substance, is Baseball forever changed and the game we knew no more?"
If it is found to be true, which I already said I don't think it is, I do think Baseball will be forever changed and I don't think it will ever recover. The fan base of Major League Baseball could ride on the intergrity of this one player right now.
To answer my own question, if it were true I would watch a lot less of baseball, though I don't think I could completely give it up just yet.
12 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
kaddarsgirl 
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Personally, I love Derek Jeter. I'm not by any means a Yankee fan. My family hails from Boston so we're Red Sox fans. I consider myself first and foremost a Reds fan, however. The only reason I care about Jeter is that he is the only player that remember from my youth. When I first started watching baseball as a kid, in Columbus, Ohio, Jeter was playing shortstop for the Clippers. I even have his bobblehead and a Jeter Bear. I don't know if takes performance enhancing drugs or not. I don't think it has anything to do with me, and I don't really care much about it one way or the other. People use steroids, and they keep coming up with new ways that beat the current system of detection. I also don't think, if he is found to be using, that it will be the end of baseball as we know it, and I won't watch any less baseball because of it. I don't think most other people would care either. The majority of baseball fans hate the Yankees and hate Derek Jeter. Besides, there's a long history of historic players using steroids, and there's still a HUGE fan base for the sport. The one player that I DO have a problem with is Barry Bonds, who DID use steroids. I don't think that his Home Run record should count. Henry Aaron hit all of his homers without steroids, and I think it should only be beaten by a player who can do it WITHOUT steroids. P.S. Hank Aaron is my favorite ever baseball player. Reply #1. Aug 23 12, 6:18 PM |
MikeMaster99
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Interesting question! Having lived in New York state and Canada for long periods over the last 2 decades I've grown to love baseball (almost as much as cricket, but that's another story). I think that anything that unfairly tampers with the balance of bat vs ball detracts from the game and besmirches the achievements and memories of yesterday's heroes. Be it drugs, illegal bat materials or spit-balling, it's all against the spirit of the game, I'm definitely an 'anyone but the Yankees' baseball fan (with allegiances to the Red Sox and the Blue Jays) but I don't want to specifically comment on Jeter. However, it does bring up the issue of how do performance enhancing drugs help? Is it simply power, or can some drugs counteract the effects of aging by improving reaction times a little as well. No point in having awesome power if you can't ever catch up with that fast ball down the pipe. The idealist in me wants to see sport played on a level playing field where outcomes are decided by skill, courage and some luck; not by who has the better pharmacopia. Cycling is obviously the most prominent sport dealing (or in some cases failing to deal adequately) with performance enhancing substances. It is a tragedy for that sport, which I love, to always and understandably have questions asked about any high quality performance. In a different manner, swimming has decided to ban those super body suits as they gave an unfair advantage to the swimmers using them. Interesting decision, and one that I applaud, because at the elite level, everyone had access to these suits so it wasn't creating a system of disadvantage. However, it did go against the spirit of the sport. I didn't care at all that some of the times at the London Olympics were not as fast as those with the 'suits'. It was a great spectacle and fantastic competition. To finally return to the initial question, yes, I still will watch baseball - including at zany hours of the day/night here in Oz, but further evidence of systemic drug taking will decrease the value of all achievements and that truly is a sad thing. ...gets off soapbox.... Reply #2. Aug 23 12, 6:26 PM |
Greatguggly
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I stopped watching baseball a long time ago, not because of steroid use but I just stopped caring. I care quite a bit more now that Washington has a team but if as many players as Canseco and others say are using steroids is true then I think the game has been destroyed. Reply #3. Aug 23 12, 10:43 PM |
Anton
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"If Derek Jeter is found to have taken a performancing enhancing substance, is Baseball forever changed and the game we knew no more?" No. Jeter will be forever changed and the Jeter we knew will be no more. Derek Jeter is not the center of the baseball world and neither are the New York Yankees. Reply #4. Aug 24 12, 1:07 AM |
Aussiedrongo
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Rather timely considering the latest on Lance Armstrong. Is his refusal to fight the doping allegations levelled against him an admission of guilt or is "enough is enough" a valid reason not to? With seven Tours de France at stake I would have thought clearing your name would be the only way to put the matter to rest for good. I love the Tour de France and I know that every year there are riders who are guilty of doping, unfortunately it is rife in cycling, but this won't stop me from watching as long as officials are weeding them out and banning them. I agree with the sentiments of Anton, no one athlete and no one team is bigger than the sport itself. Reply #5. Aug 24 12, 3:30 PM |
| BxBarracuda
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I agree no one player is bigger then the league, but each generation a player can come along that embodies everything good about the sport and with just about every great player in baseball under suspicion these days, Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols were about the only two stars taht before recently wouldn't entertain the idea that they were using performance enhancers. So that is why I use him as an example. I can't begin to voice my disdain for Mr. Tygart and his vendetta against Lance Armstrong. The USADA, which Travis Tygart heads has no standing to strip Armstrong of anything, they can only recommend. I am dissappointed in Mr. Fahey of the WADA as well, who is declaring that by not wishing to waste anymore of his own, and the people of America's, money and time to once again defend himself against doping charges, that Armstrong is automatically guilty. There is no blood evidence, not even from the Olympics, which Tyler Hamilton recently learned gets tested around 10 years after the games using more modern testing techniques. Yes I'm going to say it, Travis's last name might as well be McCarthy with the ethics he has shown. Reply #6. Aug 24 12, 4:01 PM |
| Greatguggly
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Bx, I haven't followed Armstrong's case very closely but it sure does seem like he's being railroaded. How can they do this to someone without any evidence? Reply #7. Aug 26 12, 11:07 AM |
ga_jam831
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One of the attributes which set baseball apart from other sports was the importance placed on records. Records were set and thought to be unbreakable. Some, such as Cy Young's 511 career wins, will never be broken. The Babe's career home run record was thought to be untouchable until Hammerin' Hank broke it. That was thought to be unbreakable. Steroids have already ruined what made baseball special no matter who is caught using chemical enhancements. The taint of drug use hovers over all of baseball, including those who don't use or just haven't been caught. I will always wonder about any of the recent ballplayers, no matter how clean they seem. Reply #8. Aug 28 12, 7:17 AM |
paulmallon
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Nothing surprises me any more, I still watch, occassionaly, the game I used to watch passionately. But not so much because of the PEDs which I suspect everyone of using to some extent (tongue in cheek), but because of the lack of emotional attachment to a team because from one year to the next, you never know which star from your favorite team is going up and leave because some other city "has a better school system for my kids"...about the money, of course not (there's my tongue again). I'm, an old GHil Hodges/ Brooklyn Dodger fan so I should hate the Yanks, but I don't because they have (at least this year) some players I like: Jeets, Tex, Cano, Mariano. Deep down I don't believe DJ is on anything anymore than I think David Wright is, but if should come to light that I'm wrong I will not be shocked...just disappointed in them for further tainting the (once) great game of baseball Reply #9. Aug 29 12, 1:18 PM |
| BxBarracuda
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Quick update the side topic that popped up in this thread regarding Lance Armstrong. The unsavory individuals at the USADA have yet to send their files and findings regarding Lance Armstrong, which they based their witch hunt on, to the UCI for them to review and make any decisions on. Reply #10. Sep 22 12, 6:51 AM |
Ceistenna
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I'm a massive rugby union fan and love the Heineken Cup which is a European tournament with teams from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France & Italy. The channel which has exclusive rights to broadcast the tournament is English based and so biased it's not funny. In thier opinion if an English team loses it's because they've had a bad day rather than the fact that the other team were actually better. As I tend to go to a lot of the games I'm not subjected to the commentry but have to admit I haven't stopped watching- just have the volume down low! Reply #11. Dec 20 12, 6:07 PM |
shorthumbz
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I think Derek Jeter has always been clean. On the other hand, as we know now, Alex Rodriguez ranks well below pond scum. Full disclosure: I am not a Yankee fan. I am a cancer patient; and I think the duplicity of Lance Armstrong ranks even below A-Rod. A-Rod did what he did for his own misplaced personal aggrandizement; Armstrong took thousands with him down the road to ruin, dashing their hopes in the process. Despicable. Reply #12. Oct 26 13, 12:37 PM |
12 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
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