The infamous "Black Sox Scandal" of 1919 kept one of the greatest players of the early baseball millennium out of the Hall of Fame–"Shoeless" Joe Jackson, to be precise.
Word today that homerun king (?) Barry Bonds has been indicted by the Feds on perjury and obstruction of justice charges stemming from his testimony about using/ not using steroids brings to mind that 1919 scandal that cost Jackson his rightful due and put Kennesaw "Mountain" Landis in the commissioner’s office.
Now, what I’d like to see come of this new scandal is threefold–strip Bonds of his records (single-season HRs and total HRs), keep aforementioned player out of the Hall of Fame on character issues, and get rid of Bud Selig in favor of a real commissioner who is not an owners’ puppet.
Let’s face it. Selig sat back and smiled the whole time steroid monsters Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chased Babe Ruth in 1998–and then kept smiling as the power ball took over the sport and attendance soared.
Selig knew–and don’t let him kid you otherwise–that the proximate cause of the homerun binge was steroid use, but he was there to pad the owners’ (and hiw own) coffers, so he did nothing and now wants to shift all the blame to the players as personified by Mr. Bonds.
I have no sympathy for Barry Bonds, but I have nothing but contempt for the phoniness of Bud Selig.
You Might Also Like:
- The Two Bud Seligs: Both Hypocritical
- Dump Selig and His Silence of the Sham
- This Means You, Barry Bonds (McGwyre, Sosa, et al.)
- Door Creaks Open on Silence of the Sham
- Collusion of Common Sense
Posted in Almanack Musings |
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