Scripting News: 3/19/2005: "Without heroes, is there any point to Major League Baseball? After all it's just a sport. In some sense we measure ourselves against our past selves through men like Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, Hank Aaron, and the current crop of pretenders, McGwire, Sosa and Bonds. If we apply the test, even though Ruth was surely flawed, and Maris tragic, we lose."
I've never really had the sports Jones. As a kid I sort of followed the Detroit Tigers, but Al Kaline was the last player I really followed. Ok, maybe Denny McClain.
The Sacramento Kings were a client and I once stood this close to Chris Webber. Since I wasn't an idiot about it I was able to do the work and not drool. And you won't find a more cynical group of people than professional sports staff when it comes to the athletes.
And it's not that I'm immune to fan-dom. I yelled at Henry Winkler across an airport lobby once. I was young. I confess. I repent.
But professional sports are so far from their origins that I can't imagine holding any of the current crop of drug addled "atheletes" in any kind of high regard. And, the 'amatuers" don't do much for me either.
The cure for steroid use among young ath-e-letes is to teach them to chose more appropriate heros.