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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (20549)	6/17/2003 1:45:56 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

jpg: Here's a letter to the Editor on 'the Sosa situation'...This was written by my brother's old boss at The Rotarian Magazine. _____________________________________________ Sosa cheated? It's a sports tradition The Chicago Sun-Times June 16, 2003 suntimes.com The Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa got caught using a corked bat in a regulation baseball game. Because that's cheating, he was punished by having to miss some games. That's fair and understandable. What isn't understandable is the tidal wave of moral outrage that has followed. The national pastime has been shaken to its core by the fact one of its marquee players got caught cheating? Since when? I would think sports journalists would have been paying closer attention to the competitions they're paid to report on. Cheating is rampant in sports at nearly every level. I'm talking about individual athletes who make the conscious decision to cheat, and we don't bat an eye. What high school football player cannot recall some early-season practice in which an assistant coach takes the offensive linemen aside for a mini-workshop on surreptitious clutching and holding? That's cheating. When was the last time you ever saw a team-sport player at any level above grade school confess to a rules infraction or a call that the officials missed? The base runner who says, ''Ump, he tagged me. No run''? The receiver who says, ''My bad--no touchdown. I stepped out of bounds at the one''? That's cheating, folks. Basketball? NBA referees have long admitted that they can only call so many fouls because infractions--holding, slapping, elbowing, charging and other attempts to gain unfair advantage--are rampant on the floor. Did Michael Jordan ever demand that the refs call a tighter game because he knew he was getting away with murder? That's cheating. There have always been big-league pitchers who take pride in their ability to deliver spitballs and other doctored pitches. They brag about it (usually after hanging it up). Heck, one of the greatest baseball movies ever, ''It Happens Every Spring,'' is based on the premise that cheating is OK. That's how the fictitious St. Louis team made it to the World Series: on the strength of the unhittable, scientifically enhanced pitches hurled by Ray Milland's character. Chicago White Sox announcer Ken Harrelson was recently quoted as saying that cheating was commonplace when he was a player in the 1960s. Hitters routinely used corked bats against illegal pitches. A suspicious ump might warn you that you better bring a legal stick to the plate for your next at-bat, but that was about it. So suddenly Sosa gets caught wielding a corked bat, and the sports world implodes. Yes, it was a dumb thing to do, but it was certainly in keeping with a long tradition that's part of the very fabric of American sport. Wayne Hearn, Uptown