Spotes Notes, 1.24-25.08: Kelly Tilghman’s Apology; Something New-Old from MLB’s Steroid Frontier; Dirty, Dirty Seymour; Tilghman Speaks - from the 18th at the Buick; Knoblauch Disappears; Jo-Wilfred, Jo-Wilfred (more to come)
January 25, 2008
Tilghman’s apology
Kelly Tilghman issued this new apology:
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=PulG_EqDDog]
Better late than never, I guess
George Vescey of the New York Times has written an article (you might need to login to access the article) on a 1994, 12-page proposal for drug testing that MLB Commish Bug Selig allowed to collect dust. Sure there was a lockout that season and there was collective bargaining to consider. The question I have is, outside of a mention in Howard Bryant’s otherwise weak effort, Juicing the Game, how did this document stay into the “unwritten about” bin for so long? At least mainstream media types are talking about it now, huh? Some poignant excerpts from Vescey’s piece:
Sometimes, our instincts are more right than we know — or want to admit. I giggled when Lenny Dykstra reported to camp in 1989 wearing King Kong’s neck, but I didn’t take the subject seriously for nearly a decade. So, mea culpa. Then again, what about the owners and the union?…
The owners are obviously not embarrassed, because they just extended Selig’s tenure through 2012, even as two stars of the past generation, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, face inquiries.
Just last week, we learned that the number of players claiming to have attention deficit disorder leapt to 103, from 28, in one year. Do you think the veritable plague has anything to do with the stimulants prescribed for that condition?
After somebody gave me a copy of that 1994 proposal, I asked Manfred on Wednesday why it had been written. “We wanted to get a full collectively bargained program,” he said, noting that baseball had had a number of players connected to cocaine in a scandal out of Pittsburgh in the mid-’80s. As for performance-enhancing drugs, Manfred said he had “watched the issue” in other sports, particularly track and field, in which the sprinter Ben Johnson lost his gold medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
Using drug expertise from other industries, Manfred produced the 12-page proposal, “Prevention of Drug Use and Distribution,” which specified marijuana, cocaine, opiates, phencyclidine and amphetamines, as well as “steroids or prescription drugs which the Player uses or possesses without a valid prescription.”
On Wednesday, Manfred said, “We didn’t think we had a pattern with steroids” but felt “it would be best” to include steroids.
“It’s better to be ahead of the curve,” Manfred said. “It’s easier to make a deal beforehand before people realize you have a problem.” He quickly added that “in my heart of hearts,” he could not say baseball had a problem at that time.
In the proposal, detection would be based upon “reasonable suspicion testing,” which was probably never going to happen because it would involve clubs turning in their productive users. Ha!
Well, we know Selig had a drug policy posted in every MLB clubhouse by 1997, three years after the study. But the policy was ignored - by everyone, including Selig. The real question is, what transpired in those three years to make Selig take the almost-step of drug testing by posting, but not following through on a policy?
If that question can be answered we might really be able to get to the root of MLB’s evil.
Dirty, dirty Seymour
New Englanp Patriots defensive end, Richard Seymour, has been accused of all sorts of malicious behavior by San Diego Chargers center Nick Hardwick. The Chargers are not know to be the most gracious losers - or winners, for that matter - so it is difficult to know how to take Hardwick’s statements. Here are a couple:
Seymour is “a dirty, cheap, little pompous (expletive). He’s cheap and dirty, and the head man just let him get away with it the whole time.”
But apparently, Seymour has also been accused of headbutting a San Diego assistant. Judge for yourself.
[youtube= http://youtube.com/watch?v=iYBYNMitixk]
Jo-Wilfred, Jo-Wilfred
Finally. Someone has come along who can play serve-and-volley tennis, who can attack from the ground, who will hit short shots and draw his opponent to net, and who is athletic enough to be strong and quick enough to come along to obliterate Rafael Nadal. Is he Roger Federer? No.
He is Jo-Wilfred Tsonga of France.
Tsonga, whose father is from the Congo (his mom is French) was one of the best juniors in the world five years ago. He was know to be high-strung and a bit too vulnerable to his emotions to make it. Then Tsonga, now 22 years old, got injured in 2005, had to take nearly the entire year off, got his head together, and yesterday crushed Nadal, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals of the Australian Open.
To put this into perspective, Nadal committed only 12 unforced errors in the entire match. The equates to one game of errors per set. Rarely, if ever does a tennis player play that clean a match and lose. Not only did Nadal lose, but Tsonga broke Nadal’s serve five times!
As I have said so, so many times, Nadal is a non-trick pony and the first time a player comes around who is committed to the all-court game and who is physically unafraid of Nadal, “Raffa” would be exposed.
Well, it just happened in Australia. Now Tsonga awaite the winner of the Roger Federer-Djokavic semifinal match.
Meantime, take a good look at Tsonga’s face. You’ll be seeing it quite a bit from here on out.
Tilghman at the helm
Kelly Tilghman just gave the sports world the lead-in to the Golf Channel’s coverage of the Buick Open. So, her suspension is done. There was no mention of “the incident,” not that there needs to be one.
The entire introduction dealt with Tiger Woods. Her words included these:
“More fit than ever, more free with his thoughts.”
Wait wait wait. Not fitter than ever and freer with his thoughts. More fit and more free…. Besides the fact that there was absolutely no context for the “more free with his thoughts” (he was shown using body english to coax a putt in the hole, rather than speaking into a mirophone or being interviewed) reference, I am now worried that the charge of “ignorance” might just have some merit when it comes to Tilghman.
Not cultural ignorance - but real ignorance; stupidity. I mean, she went to Duke and today, at age 38, she misuses the comaparative more, placing it before “fit” and “free” instead of simply using “er” at the end of the adjectives?
Maybe she is just a stupid woman with a below-average IQ who understands neither the principals of grammar nor racial mores in speech.
And Tiger sure is “more free” with his thoughts. “More free” to exonerate Tilghman, and More free to whine, people expect me to speak out on every issue (sniff, sniff).
Whatever…
Knoblauch disappears
The feds have attempted to serve Chuck Knoblauch with a subpoena to appear in front of Congress - but the former New York Yankee is suddenly nowhere to be found. Legal analyst Roger Cossack, on ESPN’s Outside the Lines, said of Chuckie’s disappearance, “This might be one party Knoblauch doesn’t want to attend.”
Wow.
What if Knoblauch is purposely chillin’ somewhere on an island right now so that he can avoid testifying? I can see it now.
Roger Clemens to Knoblauch: Yo Chuckie, there’s a seroius wad under the front seat of your car, a brand new passport, and some plane tickets. Have a nice vacation, brother.
Comments
19 Responses to “Spotes Notes, 1.24-25.08: Kelly Tilghman’s Apology; Something New-Old from MLB’s Steroid Frontier; Dirty, Dirty Seymour; Tilghman Speaks - from the 18th at the Buick; Knoblauch Disappears; Jo-Wilfred, Jo-Wilfred (more to come)”
Got something to say?
-
USA Today Sports- Major League Baseball likely to change, not ban, maple bats
- Phillies' Utley could miss start of season after hip surgery
- Cowboys say Pacman Jones reinstated
- Browns' Quinn has broken finger, will try to play vs. Texans
- USOC removes USA Boxing from probation
- Kenseth seals multiyear deal, stays with Roush Fenway
Grammatical stupidity is par for the course (pun semi-intended) in announcing, D, even if you did go to a good college. If you count the misuse of “less” and “fewer” in sports telecasts, your head will explode.
S2N-
Mistakes like more free are made more and more often - wait, “oftener” - in everyday speech…. like this one that began as a joke because Gabriela Sabatini’s English was poor: “I was more concetrated than she was.” Sabatini said that after at U.S. Open win at a press conference and was the butt of jokes for years….. now, though, “concentrated” used in that exact context is almost normal….
Yeesh…..
LMAO!! Sorry, Dwil, I know these are serious topics — nooses, cheating, self loathing and all that — but I can’t stop laughing. I’m doing green tea spit takes at my computer. What the hell is going on here??!! What dimension are we in??!! It’s like a gong show. Pitchers running from congress, an American anchor who can’t speak proper English, a black man who really just can’t be bothered with the whole black thing …wow.
grace-
If this was a sit-com, it would make a mint….
Dwil, Tsonga is being nicknamed ‘Ali’ by the press — guess why? Does he look like a young Cassius Clay to you? A little bit. I guess. But he loves when they do it! When asked by a reporter how he feels about constantly being compared in looks to Muhammad Ali, he said he loved it! And, he added, “…I just hope I can match his charisma and his aura.” Love this kid.
We’re finally filling up those tennis ranks — Venus and Serena won’t be around forever — We got Jo-Wilfred, Scoville Jenkins (my pick over Donald Young) — now where are the little sisters.
And there is Gael Monfils, Tsonga’s best friend. Monfils was a friend of Djokavic’s, too. Until Djokavic screwed him at the U.S. Open. Monfils might well be where Djokavic is right now if he had won that match.
Djokavic admitted to cheating his “good friend” to win the match by abusing the injury timeout rule and being allowed to gat away with it. Monfils was unconsolable and huirt that his “friend” would resort to such tactics just to win a tennis match. Djokavic was criticized heavily for his actions, initially, then as he rose in the rankings, everyone conveniently forgot about that incident.
Djokaciv and Monfils are no longer friends…..
But.
When he regains his health, watch for Monfils, too. He is actually a better athlete than Tsonga.
I’m really, really, enjoying-er looking at Tsonga’s face-age.
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3212616 video of Kelly’s apology.
That Knoblauch story is the funniest shit that I’ve ever heard. All he has to do is spend the next few weeks in somebody’s basement. I love it!
As for Tsonga… is he on a ridiculous hot streak or is he here to stay?
oh and BTW, perhaps I could hire you as a writing coach dwi cuz I still have no idea where to place my adverbs half the time… I generally go with the “which sounds more correct” technique… or is that “which sounds correcter”?
Thank God for Jim Brown….
I wish there where more (moderen) versions of him
I wounder if Tiger will be treated with such forgiveness when he has a more troubling nigga moment..
I watched the majority of the Tsonga-Nadal match before going to sleep last night. He is a sick customer. If Federer wins and goes to the final, it will be an interesting match.
Illaim’s comment has me thinking: Would it be “better” for future black athletes… for guys like MJ and Tiger to get taken down by the white media on some old bullsh*t?
Like right now, almost every next great black athlete (LeBron, Kevin Durant, even going back to Ken Griffey Jr.) is pretty much basing their persona on the MJ template. They know that if they play the game, and stay apolitical, not do anything to scare white America, etc… they’ll be left alone by the media, and in turn be cherished by white America. But if they choose to try to do something outside their constraints… if they try to follow the lead of Jim Brown or Muhammad Ali… they’ll get crushed by the system. Sure, you’ll get your Barry Bonds (or Albert Belle) every once in a while, descendents of Jim Rice who followed his path willingly. But for the most part, the top black athletes will try to emulate the MJ template.
Now, let’s say something happens to MJ, or to Tiger, and the media goes witchhunt on them. Pulls a Bonds/Vick on them.
At that point, future black athletes will probably re-access their situation, and realize that there is no good outcome; it’s a lose-lose scenario no matter how they choose to go about their fame.
So then you’ll have more athletes saying “F*ck it”, and just choosing to be vocal, choosing to speak out, choosing to try to make more of an impact.
So I guess the basic question is this: Is it better for black athletes to have an out, but it’s only this one out, which is to follow the MJ template laid down for them, or is it better to have no outs, which in turn might lead to more freedom?
Just a thought. My socialistic side always ponders whether having no choice equals more freedom than having very limited superficial choices in life.
sml-
The deal is none of those cats have an out, no matter how quiet they are. See, they are constrained behind the scenes as much as they are in the public eye. And that’s why people say, look you have money for forever, so speak out.
Some people don’t have it in them, some are social and political conservatives. Okay, no problem, that’s why we don’t have a monolithic voice. However, it doesn’t take much to speak out about someone using the word “lynch” live on television. Nor does it take much to say, hey, that magazine cover is offensive to me and to every black person, no matter their ideological leanings.
StopMikeLupica: Good question and not one with a real quick answer to it for me.
The oppoortunity to earn 6 or 7 figures is short and at the beginning of ones career it would be foolish to get labelled as a malcontent. The MJ template that you wisely describe makes huge sense praticularly in many of these kids lives ,menial labour is the only other job they are qualified for.
Ken Griffey and the media peception of him through time I find quite interesting. From the kid with the smile,the next Willie Mays,to forcing his way out of Seattle due to a ballpark taxpayer paid Safeco that he hated,with national media scorning him.
Off to Cincinnatti taking a hometown discount initially loved by the locals,viewed somewhat as a prima donna nationally, the locals turn on him through injuries.
Rehabbing playing well,and the media rediscover the nice Ken Griffey {much larger than the Seattle kid} and proceed to anoint him the real legend in a contrast and compare with public enemy number 1 Barry Bonds.
The lovefest by the media is so great Griffey Jr. returns to Seattle last year as a hero. The dissing of the city by Ken isforgiven and forgotten.
The pre steroid Sammy Sosa with his Chicago departure has a 180 degree turn by the media also.
My opinion of the media trying to fill a 24 hour news cycle is it wants stories , and anything they can ride with that they can create a contoversy with, they will,as long as their target can be placed easily and quickly accepted to warrant humiliation from the public.
Try as hard as an athlete can it is very hard to their personal MJ template broken if their career reaches 10 years.
On the Bulls 2nd three peat Dennis Rodman made sure he was going to get ALL the bad press ,and made that team very easy to cover–winning, a legendary athlete,coach and a nut case ,what more could a reporter want ?
sml -
Chances are now that the only athletes that you are gonna have to speak up are the ones lower on the totem pole. The elite ones, they’re so worried about image and making money, that they aren’t going to do something like piss off a certain segment of the population, who might not buy your gear. Also, now you’ve got the commissioners of the various leagues taking an interest in how their league is being presented. I can see them cracking down if someone tries to speak out. Let’s also not forget about Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. That brother could still play and he got black-balled for not saluting the flag. I remember hearing last year how LeBron James wouldn’t sign a petition that Loul Deng started asking for U.S. intervention in Darfur. He said he had to study the situation more. Yeah right! I can hear him or his business manager now: The Janjaweed wear your apparel too!
Today’s black athlete has to take an opinion poll before speaking out on an issue. You have the four-letter network to keep happy, Republicans buying your shoes to keep happy, the kids in the hood obsessed with “street cred” which might even be a term that street kids didn’t even come up with…..
Being a black athlete is a tough job.
Maybe it’s better to be Cablinasian and please everyone and count your stacks.
Back in the 1980’s, being Cablinasian wasn’t cool. It meant you were Jennifer Beals and sort of an oddity.
Thanks, Eldrick!
To go with ILLIAM’s post, Jim Brown did an interview with the Stews last week and he spoke very bluntly about his opinion on the Kelly Tilghman situation.
Forgive me if the link doesn’t come up right but just copy and paste if not…peace
[html]http://www.790thezone.com/vdDynamic/AudioBits/1-audiobit4355.mp3[/html]