Two sports stories dominated the weekend, Manny Ramirez, baseball slugger, retired from the game and Tiger Woods, former immortal golfer, is showing signs of his old prowess. The tie that binds, right now they are both more notorious than they are famous.
Allegedly Manny has tested positive for "Performance Enhancing Drugs" for the second time in his career. In professional baseball, these drugs are either steroids or the drugs used to mask the use of steroids. They make good players great and great players the greatest of all time.
As for Tiger, it's not his game that suffered, it was his marriage and his bank account; and ever since those took their hit his game did suffer. This weekend he showed signs of the old Tiger on the links and the TV ratings for last weekend's Master's Golf Tournament spiked accordingly.
The question that has dominated sports talk this weekend is "Should people root for these men?" They are greats in their sports; and both cheated, one on his sport and the other on his wife. I've been decidedly Old School about the matter, both cheated and neither should prosper. It seems pretty easy until you look at other sports immortals.
Ty Cobb was a racist and used his spikes to break up double plays and other players. Babe Ruth was a drunk and womanizer. Lawrence Taylor is on probation for "patronizing" an under-age hooker. OJ Simpson needs no introduction. What do these men have in common? They are in their sports' Halls of Fame.
Some say that players in Major League Baseball's so-called Steroid Era should go into the hall with special notes on their induction plaques explaining their places in the game. Some say players like Manny, Roger Clemens, and Barry Bonds should wear the "Scarlet S" on their bust in Cooperstown. Some say they should be in a special place in the Hall of Fame so we can celebrate their achievements while not forgetting their indiscretions.
But maybe this is unnecessary; if we don't forget Ty Cobb's short comings we won't forget Manny's. Maybe.
It is said America celebrates the scoundrel. The shame is the truth in that statement. It's true in sports. It's very true in politics. It is said that those who have the deepest talent also have the deepest flaws. That sure seems to be true too.
Yesterday I heard someone on the radio say "You can have the pretty good moral people and I'll take the deeply flawed star because the stars are more fun to watch." I want to say that's horrible. It's giving up on being better. It glorifies a status quo that has no choice but to fall deeper and deeper into its own despair.
But I must acknowledge this, I have no real good idea about how deeply I live into that same hole myself with the stars I love to watch. It's the glass houses thing. Everyone loved Kirby Puckett and then we found out he had a mistress for eighteen years and he shoved her in the apartment where he hid her from the spotlight.
What I do say is that as Christians we are held to a higher calling. We should root for stars who do what they do the right way. We should never hold to the "if you ain't cheating you ain't trying" perspective and we should root for people who live their lives the same way. We should also remember that as Jesus once said, "Let he who is without sin..."
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