The Asterisk

Barry Bonds of the Sanfrancisco Giants holds the record for the most homeruns. He has overcome Hank Aaron’s record of 755 with a whooping 762. His record-breaking ball was voted to go into the Baseball Hall of Fame but with an asterisk on it. The ball was original caught by New York resident Mark Murphy, who sold it on an online auction for $752,467 to fashion designer Marc Ecko. Marc Ecko then set up a website where fans could go and vote on whether the ball should have an asterisk on it or just be sent to the Hall of Fame untouched. The asterisk shows in Ecko’s statement as “this was shrouded in a chapter of baseball history that wasn’t necessarily the clearest it could be.” This asterisk shows that the record-breaking home run may have been tainted due to suspected steroid use of Bonds.
Steroids have been an increasing issue in sports and consequences are starting to be more intense. Why did Cooperstown accept the ball with an asterisk? The hall of fame president Dale Petroskey said they accepted it but didn’t endorse the viewpoint that Bonds used drugs. This sounds like an easy way out of avoiding controversy with fans that are die-hard Bonds fans. If I were Barry Bonds I would be really pissed by the asterisk. It is almost saying that he cheated to break a record. I think the Hall of Fame should have either accepted the ball or not. Don’t give it a mark and then put it in that’s just dumb.

Added Pressure?

Out of the 32 teams in the NFL 5 of those teams have black quarterbacks who started the season off. Donovan McNabb, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, stated in an interview that black QB’s face added pressure and criticism because there are fewer black quarterbacks. McNabb also says “There’s not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra because the percentage of us playing this position, which people didn’t want us to play… is low, so we do a little extra.” Philadelphia fans do have the reputation of being very passionate sports fans so maybe the criticism from Philly has made McNabb believe that all black quarterbacks are treated differently.
I am from Philadelphia and I can definitely say the fans turn on players quick. It’s a love hate relationship. How can McNabb speak for other black quarterbacks and know how they are criticized? Maybe McNabb is saying this now because he played horrible the first two games of the season and is feeling like he needs to say something to cover his ass. There is also a statement going around that McNabb is going to be traded to the Chicago Bears. Maybe knowing that McNabb isn’t afraid to say whatever he wants considering Chicago fans won’t be as brutal to him as Philadelphia fans are. Could the added pressure McNabb is talking about just be influenced by the fact that the Eagles picked up a new younger QB, Kevin Kolb, as there first round draft pick? But if McNabb’s statements are true then why don’t other black quarterbacks talk more about the added criticism?

Cheating

The Patriots last Sunday had a 38-14 win over their rival NY Jets. After the game the Patriots were accused of video taping Eric Mangini, NY Jets coach, signs and signals he gave to the offense and defense. This is a violation against NFL rules because the other team could watch the signs from the other coach and know when they are signaling a blitz, zone, etc. An NFL security man confiscated the camera supposedly used for cheating purposes and noticed the whole taping was on the Eric Magnini when he was giving defensive signals. Cheating could give the Pats a great advantage for their offensive and even could help them win the game. Another interesting fact is that this is not the first time Bill Belichick and his staff has been under suspicion for cheating. The first time was when the Patriots played Green Bay and won 35-0.
When growing up you are always taught that cheaters never win. Has cheating during sporting events become a bigger challenge to stop because of new technological inventions? How do you handle cheating in the majors? Bill Belichick was fined 500K and the patriots will have a draft pick taken away, what number pick depends on if they make the playoffs or not. Is this enough of a fine to stop cheating? I believe it is completely wrong to cheat no matter the circumstances. Cheating has never been accepted through my years of playing sports. Steroid problems are another form of cheating and you see more people getting caught ever month. Is cheating becoming a necessity in sports in order to win or have one up on your competition?

The Race Card

Gary Sheffield played with the Yankee organization from 2004-2006 before he was traded to the Detroit Tigers. He finalized a three-year contract with New York for 39-million dollars on December 17, 2003. Yet after being traded to the Detroit Tigers Gary Sheffield stated that Joe Torre treats black players differently from white players in the yankee clubhouse. Gary Sheffield said that Torre would treat his white players like men when he had an issue with them and call them into his office but with his black players, including Kenny Lofton and Tony Womack, he would call them out in front of the team in ways that seemed unneccessary. Gary also stated that "He (Joe Torre) had a message to get across to the whole team, so he used me to get the message across." I believe Gary was treated like ever other player on the Yankee organization and that is as a player whether black or white. Gary has been know before for his sharp word and this may just be another one of his outrageous statements. It also seems to be a real coincidence that Gary just started talking about Torre and his views towards blacks once he was traded to Detroit Tigers. With regards to Derek Jeter on the Yankees, since he is a great player who is also black, Gary said that "Derek is black and white", because Jeter is from a mixed-race family, so he is in Gary's eyes treated differently from an "all the way black" man. Gary Sheffield is a very outspoken person and whether this is true or not i believe Gary Sheffield was treated like ever other player on the Yankees and i don't believe Joe Torre is a man who would treat players differently because of there race. Joe Torre has been in the game of baseball for many years and is respected highly in the MLB. Why should he be critized by another player on the way he runs his team in the first place?

English

In high school i had a really bad English teacher my last year who really made me someone who dislikes writing papers. However, if I had to write I would prefer to write about topics I am interested in and know a lot about like sports. I consider myself an ok writer. When I usually have a lot of time to work on papers I have more success then writing a paper about a topic given in one day. In my papers in the past I usually had trouble with grammatical errors. But I am willing to change my writing style.