 |
January 31, 2000 |
|
There are a wealth of things I can talk about. Today is baseball. I'm not only a baseball fan, but more specifically an Atlanta Braves baseball fan. For those of you who think that I might be a fair-weathered fan, I've been a fan since 1982 and have endured many miserable years. You may have also noticed that I have never, in fact, lived in Atlanta… Thank you for that keen observation. So I get the following message from my friend, Scott:
From: Scott XXXIf you're wondering where the rest of this message is… well, there wasn't any. I suppose Scott is anything if not brief, and yet he still manages to misuse "your" and "you're" as frequently as he happens to get it correctly. Curious.
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2000 5:52 PM
To: Frank Wong
Subject: What do you think of Rocker?
The reference, of course, is to John Rocker. The Braves' closer who said some racist and bigoted comments in an Sports Illustrated interview. I won't elaborate on precisely what he said for a couple of reasons. First, you can easily find an article that talks about it. Second, I don't want to risk misquoting what he said and in precisely the right context, so I won't try. Today there was news that the commissioner is suspending Rocker until May 1st, when the season starts early April. First and foremost… No. I'm not a fan of any kind of prejudice… particularly being a minority in about half a dozen different combinations. That being said, I think that his punishment is too harsh.
I'll be the first one to admit that I think Rocker has an inflated ego. However, I'm not entirely sure if he said these things openly or if he thought it was "off the record". Yes, he probably should've known better; when you're a celebrity, you're always "on the record". And whether or not he happened to be on the record, these are awfully ugly things to say. So let's just suppose that he was ignorant about his opinions being voiced, he still thought them…
Oh, boy that's a tough one. There are a couple of issues for me on this one. First, this sounds a bit too Nineteen-Eighty-four-ish to me. Where will we go when we start to police people's thoughts? Rocker is a public figure, and it gives baseball a "black eye" to have one of its popular players be so blatantly bigoted. I like Rocker as a player; I admit it. He's talented and he thrives under pressure. That's independent of whether or not I like him as a person; I think most people can make that distinction. The question becomes is he punished only for saying these things, or is he partially being punished for thinking them? Second, I think a big problem here is that this also serves to remind us that, as much as we would like to deny it, we, humankind, are not quite as sophisticated and as polished as we aspire to be. You know what? Let's face it… prejudice still exists, and each of us contributes to it in some respect or another.
Moreover, I didn't think that being a racist… even a blatant one, was grounds for suspension. I seem to remember hearing that Ty Cobb was a pretty blatant racist and don't believe that he was ever suspended for it. Are our standards changing now? Why?
Other issues, is it the responsibility of the league or the team to discipline Rocker? Keep this in mind, he didn't say this during the game or on the field. My opinion, it is entirely up to the Braves to decide what should happen to Rocker. I'll tell you why… I see this as a bit of a parent-child relationship. Let's say a child happens to break one of your windows. Do you demand the child to fix it or do you approach the parents about what their child did? I mean, parents are still accountable for the child's actions, and presumably they're the ones who should be deciding what the appropriate action should be. Of course, things would be different if he were on the baseball field. Or maybe you happen to believe that an interview qualifies as being under the scope of influence of the commissioner (much like a school playground and its principal), which I don't.
Lastly, this is not consistent with the way baseball is being run. Baseball umpires do not use cameras to decide on any calls. They certainly can; the technology is there. The consensus is that the game should be played "between the white lines". The foul lines, for those of you not familiar with baseball. If that's true, then stating that you'll suspend someone based on off field comments seems hardly fair. The game is played either strictly on the field or it includes other off field elements (like cameras and interviews). You can't have it both ways.
Then again, I'm not sure how much of this is political grandstanding. That aspect of it, I'd rather stay away from.
I called Scott to ask him if he'd like to get dinner together. He referred to my e-mail as a dissertation, but I suppose that comparatively maybe it seems that way. [Thank you, Scott…smartass] We went to Crossroads' food court for dinner. We had not seen each other since last year. We caught up on what each of us had been up to. Then we went to the Wizards of the Coast store (affectionately known as WotC).
Oh, and WotC. Yes, we looked at the different things they had on display. I ended up buying a book, Guide to Hell by Chris Pramas. Now, if you're not familiar with WotC… No. It is not a store on the occult; it is a gaming store. The book happens to be an Role Playing Game (RPG) accessory; more specifically it is an Advanced Dungeon & Dragons (AD&D) accessory. Yes, I'm somewhat of a gamer and still play occasionally. Did I think I'd be needing this book in the near future? Not really, but I did find it a bit interesting, and as always, I found the illustrations fascinating.
And if you're wondering if I'm religiously opposed to reading this kind of material… I'm agnostic, so not really. Naturally, it would amuse me immensely to say that I purchased it as a travel guide… [Insert evil laughter here!]
January 31, 2000