Upside Down

Somehow it’s all gone wrong and the world has been turned upside down. That’s the only way to explain universal support for a system that allows the rich and powerful to pummel individuals with no questions asked.

Open a newspaper, turn on a radio or sit in front of a television and you will be told that Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa are bad guys. Mark McGwire, too.

A handful of players are being dragged down for years and years of problems that were clearly known and ignored by everyone. I expect the Commissioner and the owners to try and float that idea. I also expect the media to sink it. It is absolutely ridiculous to think that any individual or group of individuals is responsible for problems that were burned so deeply into the game.

But the media doesn’t take its job all that seriously anymore. They do not champion causes for individuals because The New York Times and the Daily News and ESPN and FOX are big businesses. They are drifting too far into the corporate world to do what’s desperately needed: Shine a light on corruption and injustice and don’t just aim it where the people in charge tell you to.

We’re lucky that some hurdles have already been cleared because Jackie Robinson and Curt Flood and Hank Aaron wouldn’t have much of a chance today.