Off-Base Percentage
It’s not often that I have the urge to just find someone else’s commentary and suggest that everyone else read it, but on occasion it has been known to happen. This instance is one of those occasions.
...While perusing ESPN’s baseball homepage, I discovered a link to a piece by Keith Law entitled “Baseball Needs a Backbone Regarding DUIs” that poses a question which needs to be asked: Why are we more offended when a professional athlete tests positive for illegal steroids than we are when a professional athlete is arrested for drunk driving?
...Law’s column stems from the recent DUI arrest of St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, and how many fans have not only dismissed his arrest as a petty incident (one fan was more upset that the police didn’t let La Russa drive home drunk) but have literally applauded him for it (in his first spring training game after the arrest, La Russa received a standing ovation from the crowd). I can promise you that I wouldn’t have been one of the ones standing.
...Law’s column is worth reading, but his points (sadly) don’t shock me. I’m not a psychologist nor a sociologist, but I’m willing to bet that since a higher percentage of the American public at large engage in drunk driving more than engage in steroid use, people aren’t as willing to criticize getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. Their moral high-ground is to sooner go after performance-enhancing drug users while simultaneously looking at someone who can in an instant destroy dozens of lives and say, “Yep. I do that, too.”
Reference
▪ ESPN
...While perusing ESPN’s baseball homepage, I discovered a link to a piece by Keith Law entitled “Baseball Needs a Backbone Regarding DUIs” that poses a question which needs to be asked: Why are we more offended when a professional athlete tests positive for illegal steroids than we are when a professional athlete is arrested for drunk driving?
...Law’s column stems from the recent DUI arrest of St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, and how many fans have not only dismissed his arrest as a petty incident (one fan was more upset that the police didn’t let La Russa drive home drunk) but have literally applauded him for it (in his first spring training game after the arrest, La Russa received a standing ovation from the crowd). I can promise you that I wouldn’t have been one of the ones standing.
...Law’s column is worth reading, but his points (sadly) don’t shock me. I’m not a psychologist nor a sociologist, but I’m willing to bet that since a higher percentage of the American public at large engage in drunk driving more than engage in steroid use, people aren’t as willing to criticize getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. Their moral high-ground is to sooner go after performance-enhancing drug users while simultaneously looking at someone who can in an instant destroy dozens of lives and say, “Yep. I do that, too.”
Reference
▪ ESPN
