Erasing the Games

JW,

I read with dismay your claim in Friday's post that "as far as the NCAA and [the University of Michigan] itself is concerned, those Final Four appearances in 1992 and 1993 didn't happen." Seriously, enough with the jokes.

After all, you can't possibly be arguing for the punitive value of the most ridiculous "discipline" in all of sports. You can't possibly believe that Michigan fans stopped celebrating their Final Fours when the verdict came down, or that Webber, Howard, and Rose felt any less proud of what they'd achieved. Yeah, the program took some hits several years later. Sure, they wiped away some records and took down a banner or two. But isn't it true in the end that the Internet is the real record book? That the banners hang in our hearts?

A stupid line, maybe, but not a false one. Consider, for example, the fate of my beloved Memphis Tigers, whose close call in 2008 remains the most vexing, intolerable moment of my sports-watching life. Take away Mario Chalmers' three and we're national champions, and I'm here to tell you that the NCAA could dismantle the program piece by piece (and they might) without altering my happiness one bit. A Final Four banner? A scholarship or two seven years from now? A season of postseason ineligibility? All would pale in comparison to that win.

Of course, my position is based on the assumption that college sports are hopelessly corrupt, and that college athletes are amateurs only to the extent that they aren't directly paid by the NCAA. Change that and I might sing a different tune.

-GM

GM,

I admit that I view the Fab Five differently than steroid pushers, and almost anyone would have to admit as much. On the court, Chris Webber, Juan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, and that other guy (I never remember the other guy) were good enough to get to the Final Four two straight years. Maybe they wouldn't have been at Michigan were it not for the corruption, but it takes a greater mental stretch to deny them their accomplishments than it takes to deny David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez theirs.

I did mention Ben Johnson and Floyd Landis, and those are completely valid comparisons. Those guys probably won because they cheated, and they cheated. So the respective governing bodies thought it over and, without hesitation, stripped the sprinter and cycler of their awards. All of a sudden, though, because baseball doesn't operate with a clock and because nobody knows for sure which home runs were the result of the juice, some folks are willing to just ignore the offense altogether. I refuse to be in that camp, though. Can we safely assume that steroids provide unfair advantages for those who cheat and at the expense (in this case, a literal expense) of those who play by the rules? Yes. The penalties should logically follow. "Oh, you cheated? Yoink! I guess that trophy isn't yours after all."

When I watch baseball, I can usually manage to look past the fact that many of the players are cheating on their wives. I can briefly forget that they're making staggering, undeserved sums of money because fans don't know when to say no to absurd ticket prices and corporations get a kick out of see their names on ballparks. I want each swing to be real, though. I want to know which players are great, which teams are better, and who really is capable of amazing physical feats. Without that small assurance, we're just watching overpaid circus freaks run around a square.

-JW