So, the TV in my bedroom is set to come on every morning at 7 am on ESPN so I can catch SportsCenter as I wake up. I used to have it set to turn on Saved By the Bell, but that's lame. Anyway, for the last week, it seems every morning there's been about 57 minutes of talk about the Mitchell Report (that exposed steroid use in major league baseball) and about 3 minutes of stuff I care about, i.e. people dunking. While I generally could care less about baseball, I don't really mind if SportsCenter plays baseball highlights, but this Mitchell Report coverage is driving me nuts.
First of all, the players who were named in the report are coming out with such lame excuses for why they had steroids. I heard a guy just this morning say he "only used them once," and then beg for forgiveness. Another guy claimed he bought them but never used them. I swear, these guys must have 15-year-olds for their publicists. I can see the conversation now:
MLB Player: "Jimmy! I got named in the Mitchell Report. What should I do?"
Jimmy, High School Sophomore and MLB Player's Agent: "Oh, dude. Just say you were holding the steroids for a friend. That worked when my mom found some cigs in my jacket pocket."
MLB Player: "No, they have a check with my signature on it."
Jimmy: "Well, just say you bought them but never used them."
MLB Player: "Someone's already used that excuse."
Jimmy: "Well, just say you only used them once and that you happen to have gotten caught the one and only time you used them. Everyone will believe that."
MLB Player: "Thanks Jimmy. You're a lifesaver."
Jimmy: "Alright, I've got to go. I'm going to be tardy for math."
When will someone just come out and say, "Yeah, I used a lot of steroids and I thought people would be too stupid to realize that getting older doesn't give you the ability to hit 20 more homeruns a season." I would honestly prefer that over "I used them once." That excuse is as obvious as a kid who got beat by his parents saying he "fell down the stairs" or an actress who got plastic surgery saying she "getting more rest and drinking more water."
This all brings me to my second point: everyone knew they were doing steroids, and we mostly didn't care. Yeah, it's a bad example for kids and it's probably unhealthy, but so is "My Super Sweet 16" and over-eating, and you don't see SportsCenter devoting 57 minutes to those. I think now everyone has to pretend to act shocked so they don't look like a bad person. We get it. Baseball players cheated and used steroids. It's common knowledge. I'm not saying its ok for them to use steroids or that they should keep using them. I'm just sick of reporters covering this story reminding me of the look on my sister's face when she would open a present on Christmas that she had found 3 weeks earlier: "I'm so shocked by this present! I had no idea! Really, I never thought you would get this for me!" To me, this story is like when Lance Bass came out of the closet and People magazine put him on the cover with a headline saying, "I'm gay." Yeah, I thought everyone already knew that. Is that really front page news?
So SportsCenter, if you're reading this, get back to showing nasty dunks and one-handed catches (probably made by guys on steroids) and leave the steroids stories in the old news section.
This is the video I made for the Christmas series at First Wesleyan.
Enjoy! (I hope)
I couldn't get motivated to do anything last night. Brooke was doing homework and I didn't feel like doing anything productive, so I decided to take a picture of 360 degrees around where I spent my night (on the couch, flipping between different basketball games I didn't care about).
I may start blogging.
Maybe not though. We'll just have to see. In a year, this might still be the first post. There's really no way to know.
The commercials for e-surance (that run non-stop) make me wish there was also a commercial writers strike. I have to resist the urge to throw something at the screen every time one comes on. They don't make sense at all. Special Agent "Erin E-surance" fights some sort of monster or races a car against a monster or plays basketball against a monster and I'm suppose to want to buy car insurance from e-surance?
Evidence:
Invasion of the Car Snatchers
My favorite part is when the male e-surance special agent says, "But everyone loves their cars! They'll never believe it!"