Snitches Get What They Want

Modern day sports journalist must listen to too much Ricky Rozay. That's the only explanation I can find to the recent rash of "snitch" accusations being tossed at people who are coming forward with information related to murky sports stories.

Yesterday, a Sports Illustrated story on player agent Josh Luchs was leaked to various media outlets. The agent claims to have paid a number of athletes from 1990 to 1996 while they were still in college, violating a number of NCAA bylaws. He gave names, dates and dollar amounts.

Today, on "Mike and Mike in the Morning", Luchs claims he did so because he didn't want his kids to look up information about him on their iPhones, or some other kind of self-righteous gobbledegook.

Quicker than you can say "Bawse", notorious tough guy Mike Greenberg had to ask the question that was at the front of America's mind. Guess what that was.

Not, "Are you (Luchs) aware of any other agents who engaged in such practices?"

Not, "Were you encouraged to this by any agency, and/or institution looking to funnel blue chip recruits?"

Not, "Of the athletes that declined your offers of money (Keyshawn Johnson, J.J. Stokes, and Dana Stubblefield), did any already have a similar situation set up with other agents?"

Nope. Greenberg felt that the most important question was, "Is this snitching?"

Bomani Jones (someone whose opinion I actually respect) has led a campaign the likes of the "Stop Snitchin'" tee-shirts that were popular back in 2005, aimed at folks who engage in Luchs' actions. He interviewed Luchs on his radio show, "The Morning Jones", and openly attempted to discredit him, not on things of substance, but the superficial. He chastised Luchs for offering a player tickets to a Janet Jackson concert, as though it made him less than a man. He openly laughed at him during his responses.

Jones tweeted that Luchs felt they would "attempt to make (me) look like an a-hole."

Jones' response via tweet, "I've made a comfy living off that schtick myself."

That's what "sports journalism" has come to be. Jose Canseco's revelation of the steroid culture in Major League Baseball. Floyd Landis' revelations about Lance Armstrong. The North Carolina recruiting fiasco, where Butch Davis' lost blue chippers Marvin Austin, Greg Little, and Robert Quinn before he even got a chance to fully exploit their talents for free.

We have only snitching to thank for our knowledge of these subjects.

Its a catch-22, though. You reveal the nefarious nature of a big budget sport, and you will be labeled a "snitch".

What's worse, the ones doing the labeling are the ones that should have been watching for these things in the first place. The viewing public is left to rely on snitches to remind these alleged journalists of exactly what their micky-ficky job is.

I'm a huge fan of snitching (yeah, I said it). In sports, and in real life. As long as there isn't any lying involved, I have no problem with it. I don't understand the fascination with protecting people who are doing something that they aren't supposed to do when you don't benefit from protecting them in any way.

That's what's good about a "snitch".

Everybody wants to say they "keep it real", and that's what a good snitch does. They don't lie, exaggerate, or fabricate. They simply tell it like it is.

"Did that guy do that thing that he wasn't supposed to do?"

"Yep."

While its cool to utter the phrase "Snitches get stitches", that isn't true. Not in Canseco's case, who got a best seller, a reality TV stint, and was just announced as a participant in next season's "Celebrity Apprentice". Generally, snitches get what they want; 15 minutes of fame, and maybe a small payday.

For that, they should be celebrated. What's more American than making a name for yourself without really doing anything other than talking?

Instead they're castigated by the media, and relegated to outcast by the zombie public, slaves to their cable news network masters.

So break the grip of shame. Be a slave to status quo group-thinking no longer. Free your mind, and your snitch will follow.

To MLB, or not to MLB

I got into an email argument recently. It's like a texting argument, only more queer.

The topic began somewhere, then evolved to ranking favorite sports to watch live. I had the audacity to rank NBA and MLB games above the hallowed NFL. This led to a bunch of baseball bashing, complete with the most commonly used cliche arguments against the sport. Its a boring, slow, simple game, played by non-athletic people who used to maybe use steroids. All BS, of course, but whatever...

Within that email thread, only myself and a Puerto Rican guy were willing to defend the game. We pointed to the history, the unwritten rules, the unique complexities of the different ballparks, the Ken Burns documentary, and all kinds of other things that made me realize that even I was beginning to bore myself.

How did we get here?

Many have and will point to the Steroid Era as what ultimately has done the game in. I can't wholeheartedly disagree. The media likes to point to the early 2000's as the height of the Steroid Era, but if you look closely at the numbers (and film) the case can be made for steroids being a part of the game as far back as 25 years. It matters because in a game that is so reliant on sheer numbers to impress an audience that admittedly has to endure a lot of inaction throughout the course of a game, having almost three decades of tainted play is a concern.

I grew up in the Steroid Era, pulling for a San Francisco Giants team led by all-time homerun leader Barry Bonds no less. An unlikable guy, doing unfathomable things, with unknown amounts of illegal assistance (allegedly). Time has come to reveal that the best player on my favorite team was far from alone in this. I more than understand the current hangover effect that may have set in America's conscious about the game.

As a fan though, I don't want it to be that easy. There are a lot of good things happening in Major League Baseball right now. Seventeen of the thirty teams are still in contention for either a division title or playoff spot. There have been five no-hitters this season, and it isn't even August. Washington Nationals pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg is showing to be worth the "Lebron-esque" hype he'd been receiving since being drafted. Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton may be the first athlete to pull the reverse "Lawrence Taylor", going from crackhead to Triple Crown MVP. The New York Yankees...wait...fuck the Yankees. But you get my point, right?

I have to believe that all is not lost. As the picture above alludes to, baseball is in a rough patch right now. The game is scuffed. It's unclear how, if at all, it will be able to pull through. Strip away all the ancillary stuff, though, and you still see the only thing you need to see, and that is the ball. In the end, that should be all that matters.