It’s Still 1995 at the L.A. Daily News
If you want to have your intelligence insulted, please read this column by Doug Padilla. I’m pretty sure he just switched the word steroids in for the phrase canceled the World Series and ran the same column. I won’t break this down FJM-style (totally), but here are the money quotes on why a $6 billion a year industry is in grave trouble:
Like a tired fashion model with pimples and no makeup, Major League Baseball now will have to roll out of bed for its latest close-up, and it is not a pretty sight.
Horrible imagery. There’s also this:
You try grinning with the missing tooth that is the offseason Hall of Fame voting process, now that suspected drug cheat Mark McGwire is on the ballot.
And you try looking confident with the stitched up incision that came from the do-it-yourself plastic-surgery operation of the Mitchell Report.
Yeah, because no NFL players do steroids. They don’t have a problem in that league at all. Also Michael Vick, Pacman Jones, Spygate — these things apparently never happened.
Is it right that baseball has been forgiven more times than the family dog? Probably not, but it continues to happen. Baseball has been down the road of controversy enough times to prove its survival is no fluke.
I love this. It completely ignores the great things baseball has done in American history. Please suck on some Jackie Robinson. While we’re at it, how does a league that’s predominantly black like the NFL have like three black coaches in its history and still stay completely teflon. My theory: football fans in general aren’t particularly smart or socially conscious.
Baseball has a better “I could do that” quotient than football or basketball. You can see yourself running down a fly ball or working a walk with the bases loaded. It’s hard to picture yourself outrunning a defensive back who has 4.4-second speed in the 40-yard dash, or finishing the fast break with Yao Ming in the lane.
This is just flatly ridiculous. My god. A better “I could do that” quotient. Other than maybe getting your card on the PGA Tour, hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things to do in sports. It doesn’t have an “I could do that” quotient at all. Jesus, at least I can hit a 3-pointer or catch a football. I’m not delusional enough to think I could turn on a 90 mph fastball or fly into the gap and make a diving catch like Coco Crisp.
On the contrary, it seems despite all of the negative attention and the so-called “black eyes,” baseball has quite a bit going for it.
It’s avoided becoming a niche sport like the NHL or NBA. It’s embraced the internet and live streaming webcasts of events like no other sport — something that will serve it well in the future. It’s been open about its past problems (even if it took awhile). Attendance is at an all-time high. The fantasy game is booming. It’s pretty much the only affordable professional sport to attend regularly now. Even the negative attention is a compliment. The NFL may have surpassed MLB in the TV ratings, but it hasn’t supplanted baseball culturally. I mean that’s the reason people care enough to write columns like this, isn’t it.
No, it seems like baseball is doing just fine, thank you. And if you think 1995 is great Mr. Padilla, just wait until 1998!