ROME ALONE
It was one thing when a kook like Turk Wendell fingered Barry Bonds, but quite another when former teammate Andy Van Slyke did it recently. Saying, "unequivocally, he's taken them, without equivocation he's taken them…now I never saw him put them into his body but look, the physical evidence is there."
If Van Slyke doesn't have any proof that Bonds did it, then he shouldn't be saying "unequivocally" that he did. That's irresponsible. Still, another horrible week for Bonds, and it's probably going to get worse before it gets better. It may never be proven that he has taken any illegal drugs, but make no mistake, his legacy has already been tainted. There will always be the "yeah but's" at the end of his name. As in 'Bonds is the game's all-time leading homerun hitter, yeah but.' And nothing that happens from here on out is going to change that.
Gary Sheffield's attorney Paula Canny uttered the most ominous statement of the week, when she said, "Gary Sheffield has never knowingly ingested a steroid…and Gary Sheffield has never knowingly applied an anabolic steroid cream to his body." How's that for a denial? Not, 'My client has never taken steroids, but rather 'My client has never knowingly ingested a steroid.' She's laying the groundwork that the master himself, Bill Clinton would be proud of. It depends on what your definition of 'is', is. It depends on what your definition of 'anabolic steroid cream' is. Don't tell me the world's best athletes don't know what they put in their bodies; I'm not buying it.
Jose Canseco's tryout with the LA dodgers was every bit as horrible as predicted and worse. A former MVP and border line Hall of Famer, and he looked as if he had never even picked up a glove before. It was embarrassing. The Dodgers have already said they won't offer him a major league contract and he says he won't accept a triple a deal. Good, because triple-A is a pretty advanced level of ball and judging from what I saw he's not up to the task. Besides, he wasn't there to swing it, he was there to promote his still to be written book. And what better way to thank the sport that gave you everything than blow a giant hole in it.
Pete Rose may have officially bottomed out. Now comes word that he is going to be inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment hall of fame later this month. I'm sure that will mean just as much to Pete as a trip to Cooperstown. Getting enshrined with the likes of Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant has to be every bit as good if not better than going in with Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Right? Probably not. I don't think Nolan Ryan would be willing to trade places with Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan.
Worst of all, is that Pete is going to be paid to appear at his induction ceremony. Of course he is. Why else would he be there. Rose came this close to being reinstated and ending up in Cooperstown where he belongs. Instead, he's been relegated to making paid appearances on behalf of the WWE. Brutal.
Finally, sports movies only work if the actors have some game. Take Wesley Snipes. He could ball a little, which is one of the reasons White Men Can't Jump did work. Apparently he has taken it a step further, reportedly fathering a kid out of wedlock. Talk about getting into a role. He is a wanted man after twice refusing to submit to a paternity test. Former prostitute Lanise Pettis says Snipes fathered her child in a crack house. Hey Wes, it's your deal, but if a former prostitute accused me of fathering her child in a crack house and I didn't, I go Gary Sheffield and demand a syringe and pee cup. A piece of unsolicited advice: stop denying that you impregnated former drug addicted hookers and just because you played an athlete in the movies, doesn't mean you need to act like one.
Augusta national chairman Hootie Johnson is on the rise. Martha Burk says she not going to return to Augusta this spring to protest the club's all male membership. Incredible. Ol' Hoot didn't give an inch and never yielded to the pressure. She attacked, he didn't blink. She threatened to go after his sponsors; he televised the event without commercials. I still think what they're doing is wrong, but scoreboard to ol' Hoot. The boys will still get to hang with the boys.
Wilt Chamberlain pumped in 100 points in an NBA game this week in 1962, to me, still one of the single greatest athletic achievements ever. A record that will never be equaled. Even more remarkably, it's still only his second most impressive statistical achievement. The Stilt bagging 20,000 women actually makes his 100 points in a game seem like a bad night. When asked if he really got with 20,000 women, Wilt said, "Yes, that's correct, 20,000 different ladies. At my age, that equals out to having sex with 1.2 women a day, every day, since I was 15 years old." Uh, props, I guess.
Davis Love III suffered the meltdown of the week in the match play championships against Tiger Woods. Leading 1-up halfway through the 36-hole final, Davis became badly rattled by a heckler that he had run from the course. He failed to win another hole after that, losing 3 and 2. I understand that golf has a different etiquette than other sports, but this is on Love, not the fan. He's always had a pair of rabbit ears, and he got hooked once again by a fan. A fan, who by the way, really didn't do anything wrong. He didn't say anything in the middle of a shot or on love's downswing. He said, "No love" after a missed shot and "whoop" after a missed putt. That's nothing. He has to shake that off. Love may think he addressed a problem. He didn't. All he did was make himself a target.
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