Garciaparra Gets Punked By Bob “Atrocious Judgment” Ryan
In May, 2003, after saying he would “like to smack” Joumana Kidd, wife of New Jersey Nets guard Jason Kidd, Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan was suspended without pay for 30 days.
"It was, of course, atrocious judgment on my part," Ryan said at the time.
The month off rehabilitated Ryan’s image and his standing with his colleagues on ESPN’s The Sports Reporters, where he is once again a regular. But it has done little for his judgment.
Ryan’s latest offense is his April 22 column in which he doesn’t quite accuse former Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra of taking steroids. Ryan doesn’t have any evidence that Garciaparra took steroids other than the fact that he crossed paths with Jose Canseco and has been hurt a lot lately, most recently a season-ending groin injury last week. Instead, he does a lot of speculating about whether Nomar took steroids.
This is yellow journalism for sure—casting doubt about a player’s accomplishments without a shred of proof. But what makes it worse is that Ryan punked Garciaparra from a thousand miles away, safely beyond the reach of Nomar or the fans of the team he now plays for.
Dozens of baseball players have been suspected of taking steroids for years now. The fact that Jason Giambi got caught only meant that baseball has had to confront the issue, rather than sweep it over, as it had been doing for a decade.
But Ryan’s timing has more to do with Nomar no longer being a member of the Boston Red Sox. If Ryan is so sure Garciaparra has been taking steroids, why didn’t he say something four years ago, when the shortstop bulked up for a March 5, 2001 cover photo for Sports Illustrated? Why didn’t he say anything when Nomar got injured in 2004. Could it have something to do with the fact that he was hitting .321 for the Sox at the time?
Where was Ryan’s suspicious mind when David Ortiz, who never hit more than 20 home runs as a member of the Minnesota Twins, hit double that number for Boston? What was Ryan saying about Jason Varitek in 2001, when injuries limited him to 51 games, or in 2004, when the Sox catcher hit 24 points above his career average?
Ryan was in Boston, where readers would be calling for his head and players would be confronting him every day if he called their achievements into question. But now that Nomar has been safely shipped off to Chicago, and Ryan no longer needs quotes from him, he doesn’t have to worry about giving him a fair shake. Garciaparra didn’t just take the Red Sox curse with him; Ryan has conveniently made him the fall guy for any and all steroid use by Boston players.
The whole episode points out a larger problem in baseball, which is that steroids are now going to be the elephant in the room every time a player gets hurt, doesn’t get hurt, slims down, bulks up, performs well, or goes into the tank. Steroids have tainted every player in the game, whether they use performance enhancers or not. And the toothless testing policy the league has adopted to address the issue isn’t going to change anything.
As long as chicks dig the long ball, as long as ESPN does a special segment each night replaying every roundtripper hit in the previous 24 ours (but cutting the number of defensive Web Gems down to a more manageable five), as long as there is a designated hitter position for immobile sluggers who can’t play the field, baseball is going to reward home run hitters more than speedsters, slap hitters, and defensive whiz kids. And that means players have millions of reasons to cheat.
Unless these basic facts change, Bob Ryan will be able to write the same column about every player in baseball. Except those who happen to play in Boston.
"It was, of course, atrocious judgment on my part," Ryan said at the time.
The month off rehabilitated Ryan’s image and his standing with his colleagues on ESPN’s The Sports Reporters, where he is once again a regular. But it has done little for his judgment.
Ryan’s latest offense is his April 22 column in which he doesn’t quite accuse former Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra of taking steroids. Ryan doesn’t have any evidence that Garciaparra took steroids other than the fact that he crossed paths with Jose Canseco and has been hurt a lot lately, most recently a season-ending groin injury last week. Instead, he does a lot of speculating about whether Nomar took steroids.
This is yellow journalism for sure—casting doubt about a player’s accomplishments without a shred of proof. But what makes it worse is that Ryan punked Garciaparra from a thousand miles away, safely beyond the reach of Nomar or the fans of the team he now plays for.
Dozens of baseball players have been suspected of taking steroids for years now. The fact that Jason Giambi got caught only meant that baseball has had to confront the issue, rather than sweep it over, as it had been doing for a decade.
But Ryan’s timing has more to do with Nomar no longer being a member of the Boston Red Sox. If Ryan is so sure Garciaparra has been taking steroids, why didn’t he say something four years ago, when the shortstop bulked up for a March 5, 2001 cover photo for Sports Illustrated? Why didn’t he say anything when Nomar got injured in 2004. Could it have something to do with the fact that he was hitting .321 for the Sox at the time?
Where was Ryan’s suspicious mind when David Ortiz, who never hit more than 20 home runs as a member of the Minnesota Twins, hit double that number for Boston? What was Ryan saying about Jason Varitek in 2001, when injuries limited him to 51 games, or in 2004, when the Sox catcher hit 24 points above his career average?
Ryan was in Boston, where readers would be calling for his head and players would be confronting him every day if he called their achievements into question. But now that Nomar has been safely shipped off to Chicago, and Ryan no longer needs quotes from him, he doesn’t have to worry about giving him a fair shake. Garciaparra didn’t just take the Red Sox curse with him; Ryan has conveniently made him the fall guy for any and all steroid use by Boston players.
The whole episode points out a larger problem in baseball, which is that steroids are now going to be the elephant in the room every time a player gets hurt, doesn’t get hurt, slims down, bulks up, performs well, or goes into the tank. Steroids have tainted every player in the game, whether they use performance enhancers or not. And the toothless testing policy the league has adopted to address the issue isn’t going to change anything.
As long as chicks dig the long ball, as long as ESPN does a special segment each night replaying every roundtripper hit in the previous 24 ours (but cutting the number of defensive Web Gems down to a more manageable five), as long as there is a designated hitter position for immobile sluggers who can’t play the field, baseball is going to reward home run hitters more than speedsters, slap hitters, and defensive whiz kids. And that means players have millions of reasons to cheat.
Unless these basic facts change, Bob Ryan will be able to write the same column about every player in baseball. Except those who happen to play in Boston.
posted by John Rosenthal @ 11:45 AM
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