Banned Forever?
Pete Carroll's public support to welcome back the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez has drawn fire on his own facebook site today.
``Everyone deserves a second chance,'' Carroll wrote.
A follower wrote, ``I can't agree with you here Pete. He's a cheater. Not an advocate of winning forever in my book.''
Another said, ``Down with steroid users. They should be banned forever. If Pete Rose was, they should be too.''
Manny did not test positive for steroids. He tested positive for a female fertility drug. It was like he was on a short maternity leave. There is a sizable contingent of fans who, despite (or even "to spite") the moralizers in the media, do not care one way or another whether athletes use drugs, diet, or Jamaican Voodoo to improve their performance. Count me in that contingent.
Yeah. The same female fertility drug FSC used to "hatch" Yoda.
And the same drug people use as a masking agent to hide their use of banned substances from drug tests.
Ban him for life. Cheating is cheating.
I like to think in terms of 100-year cycles.
A hundred years from now, the 'roid scandal of the 90s and early 2000s will earn an innocuous blip in baseball history. They will still recall The Babe and possibly Aaron, but everyone else will fade with time.
World War I and II will earn mention, but Korea, Viet Nam and Iraq will get but a short paragraph.
The Depression of the '30s will always get significant play, and the Recession-Depression of 2009-2012 will a rate important analysis for how one once rich country's troubles can bring down the entire world community.
"drawn fire" has to be one the most overused vapid, yet incendiary, metaphors. Did Pete Carroll literally fired upon? Of course not. Did someone disagree with his opinion? Yes, and appeared to do so very respectfully. It's called an honest and fair disagreement. It happens everyday to everyone. But, it doesn't mean that we "draw fire" everytime another disagrees.