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SPORTS/tC(e C(r{iitte 9ot
Thursday, March 11,2004
Steroids iMil riw basebal a black eyeP Please
C. Jemal
Horton
For generations, Major
League Baseball has been
the most flawed and histori
cally misleading of the pro
fessional sports.
So all of a sudden the game
and its records are supposed
to be ruined by recent
rumors of a steroid scandal?
Give me a break.
Forget about what the so-
called baseball purisfs try to
tell you about all the grand
statistics we’ve been blessed
with over the various eras of
baseball. The game has been
tainted for years. The
records have been skewed
for more than a century.
What about the Dead Ball
Era, from 1900 to 1919,
when the game was rumored
to have been played with an
almost “soft” ball in order to
limit home runs?
What about the era before
1969, when the pitcher’s
mound was lowered from 15
inches to 10 to give hitters a
fighting chance against
hurlers like Bob Gibson?
And what about ^ the sta
tistical “records” established
before 1947, the year Jackie
Robinson (Brooklyn
Dodgers) and Larry Doby
(Cleveland Indians) became
the first black players in the
big leagues?
For any baseball purist,
player, manager, owner or
bat boy to imply that
ALLEGED steroid use by
Barry Bonds and a few other
modern-day players some
how overrides a legacy of
manipulating baseball’s sta
tistics is, well, sinister.
In fact, if there truly is
rampant steroid use in base
ball - and, as of early this
week, we didn’t have the
numbers to support such a
claim - then it merely is a
part of baseball’s long histo
ry of cheating.
It’s pretty firrmy, too, that
there suddenly is a small
debate among baseball afi
cionados about whether
there should be asterisks
beside all the most recent
home-run records.
Hey, you
will get no
argument
from me on
that one.
But while
we’re at it,
let’s just put
a big, fat
asterisk
beside the
words Major
League Baseball, overall.
You know, because of all
the other mess that’s gone on
in baseball over the years.
Certainly you’ve heard of
the Black Sox gambling
scandal of 1919 ...THAT
sapped baseball’s credibility.
The fact that baseball
purists still fondly hail Babe
Ruth, generally regarded as
a binge-drtrrking womanizer,
as the greatest player who
Bonds
Explorer an improved product
Winfred
B. Cro,ss
Test
Drive
When Ford’s Explorer got
bad press for having bad tires
a few years ago the industry
wrote it off. No way was this
thing going to continue to be
the best selling SUV in the
country. Heck, it isn’t even
best in class, so there.
Ford is so smart. The tire
allegations came just before
the new vehicle was to hit the
street so the company held
its breath and waited.
Breathe, Ford breathe. The
Explorer has not loosened its
grip on No. 1. The revisions
have been well accepted.
No, this still may not be the
best in class but that all
depends on what you want
the vehicle to do. As a
replacement for a mini van,
it’s fine. As a truck, it’s fine
because who actually uses a
$40,000 truck as a truck?
The Explorer’s new face is
about a year old now. It still
looks fresh because it’s basi
cally the same face on the
new F-150. The exterior now
looks more like the bigger
Expedition.
The interior gets the best
makeover. Ford uses high
quality materials and gives
them useable shapes. The
metal accents and textured
plastics work very well. The
dash is done nicely with big
gauges that are easy to read.
The rest of the interior is as
well appointed. The seats are
comfortable but adults will
find the third row of seats a
tight fit. But that’s what the
market calls for - the ability
to hold seven people despite
the vehicles size.
The Explorer’s ride is very
good thanks to four-wheel
independent suspension.
The vehicle doesn’t bounce
around as much and it han
dles all types of road surfaces
with aplomb. My test vehicle
was all wheel drive so han
dling was good also. This isn’t
the kind of vehicle you can
drive like a sports car - no
SUV should be driven as
such - but it felt sure-footed.
If there is a big gripe, it’s
the engine. It’s a 4.6-liter V8
with lots of torque. But all-
wheel-drive, seven seats and
lots of luxury stuff adds the
pounds and this version of
the Explorer feels a bit slug
gish on takeoff. Once rolling,
the vehicle zips along with
authority.
There’s not a lot to dislike
about the Explorer, much
more to like in fact. You will
see yourself coming and
going because Ford sells a
ton of these. That aside, the
Explorer is one of the better
trucks on the road. At
$42,980, it’s also expensive.
That does include about
every available option,
including a rear DVD enter
tainment system. Still 42
large wfll buy a lot of things.
The Explorer Limited AWD
would be a good investment.
Sheffield to return this week
By Ronald Blum
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TAMPA, Fla. - Gary Sheffield can play with
a tom ligament in his right thumb and will be
back in the New York Yankees’ lineup for
spring training games later this week.
The outfielder, who reinjured the thumb
last weekend, was examined Tuesday in New
York by hand specialist Dr. Melvin
Rosenwasser.
“Gary Sheffield obviously is one tough cook
ie,” Yankees general manager Brian
Cashman said. “He played through it before
without a problem, apparently.”
Sheffield, who was to return to Tampa on
Tuesday, originally hurt the thumb last Jifly
while playing for the Atlanta Braves, but he
never had an MRI exam and the tom liga
ment went undetected. He hit .327 after the
injury with 17 homers and 62 RBIs in 69
games.
He aggravated the injury Saturday when
trying to get to a fly ball by Tbronto’s Orlando
Hudson that landed for a triple. The Yankees
initially thought it was just a bruise, but the
team worried after an MRI exam and X-ray
revealed the tear.
“We’re not out of the woods on this, don’t get
me wrong,” Cashman said. “But today’s news
was certainly more encouraging, after the
hand specialist in New York saw him, than
ever lived ... THAT sapped
baseball’s credibility.
The fact that Mark
McGwire was embraced
after breaking Roger Maris’
37-year-old home-run
record, even after admitting
he used androstenedione, a
banned substance in most
professional sports leagues
...THAT definitely sapped
baseball’s credibility before
this year.
At least it should have.
Seriously, after so much
credibility has been
siphoned from the game
throughout the years, how
much is left today?
Yet people choose to paint
Bonds in vfllainy because of
the muscle mass he’s built in
his late 30s? Because Bonds’
trainer recently was indicted
for allegedly supplying ath
letes with steroids? Even
though there has been noth
ing beyond innuendo to sup
port the assertion Bonds has
used steroids?
Wow,
It’s amazing how conve
nient scapegoats become
when it comes to America’s
Pastime.
Let’s make this clear: I’m
not minimizing nor condon
ing the use of steroids. I’m
against it, and I think
abusers shorfld be punished.
That includes Bonds, if he’s
guilty.
But let’s also not make this
Watergate - which somehow
became the political scandal
of all political scandals in an
arena that is nothing but
scandalous.
For the moment, if you
look closely, the pastime is
being exposed for the joke
that it is.
Baseball people are trying
to knee-jerk their way into
convincing fans that the
game will be forever tar
nished if it is learned that
players used steroids.
There’s a bunch of hand-
wringing and posturing.
Meanwhile, have you
noticed that, while it was
learned that “5 to 7 percent”
of the game’s players tested
positive for steroids last year.
the league is adamantly
against revealing those
names and punishing them
publicly.
Have you noticed that the
MLB Players’ Union won’t
allow any of its players to
voluntarily take drug tests
and clear their names in the
court of public opinion?
Look, maybe Tm nit-pick
ing. But it seems to me that
if baseball were serious
about protecting the so-
called integrity and history
of the game, it would punish
all offenders swiftly and
harshly.
But as we know from aU
the looked-over-scandals the
diamond has produced for
generations, baseball history
is mostly Revisionist History.
E-mail columnist C. Jemal
Horton at
seejemalwrite@aol.com.
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yesterday’s news.”
Sheffield was at Columbia-Presbyterian
Medical Center at 6:30 a.m. for the exam. An
operation to repair a tom thumb ligament
typically requires two to three months of
recoveiy time.
“Based on the hand specialist’s evaluation
today, all the information provided - MRIs, X-
rays, Gary’s history, an onsite evaluation of
his hand - the recommendation right now
was that surgery wasn’t actually necessary,
but it still remains an option,” Cashman said.
“If we feel it’s not working, if Gary feels it isn’t
working, then obviously he’ll have to have the
surgery.”
But, Cashman added, “Most likely, he’ll be
fine.”
Last year, shortstop Derek Jeter tore a lig
ament in his left thumb during the AL cham
pionship series opener against Boston. He
kept on playing, taking numbing medication
for the remainder of the Red Sox series, and
the thumb healed on its own. Rosenwasser
examined Jeter in November.
“Some guys say operate, other guys say
rehabilitate. I stayed with the rehabilitate
guy,” Jeter said.
Sheffield is among nine Yankees 35 or older
- and that doesn’t include pitcher Orlando
Hernandez, who reached a preliminary
agreement on a contract last weekend and
took a physical Monday.
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