By Matthew Hurley
In the wake of Rafael Palmeiro testing positive for steroids, followed by Ryan Franklin joining Baltimore’s potential Hall of Fame candidate in a ten day suspension, I found myself grinning. Don’t misunderstand my giddy sneer at Major League Baseball as anything but a much deserved wake up call to all the sports writers who denigrate boxing and refuse to acknowledge its very existence unless something negative has happened.
That coupled with the unwavering arrogance of the majority of players in both the National and American league, I couldn’t be happier that the spotlight is shining on all the crap hidden beneath the rock that has been overturned on the ‘Boys of Summer’ instead of the sporting world’s truly hardest profession. How does it feel Mr. Selig? Welcome to our world.
Baseball has long been my second favorite sport but as I’ve grown older and been privileged to rub shoulders with many fighters and I’ve come to realize that boxing, despite it’s devolving stature in the mainstream, is still the sport of the everyday man. For the most part fighters are not rich or spoiled brats who charge their fans for autographs. Of course there are exceptions to every rule but in boxing only a select few make the big bucks and even fewer manage to hold onto their money. The majority of these guys came from tough, punishing backgrounds and chose the sport of boxing because it was the only road to a positive, fresh start. Bernard Hopkins is a perfect example of that.
The hardships led on the streets or in backwater towns where jobs were scarce, humbled them. Most fighters don’t forget their roots. That’s why they adore their fans and always seem more than willing to sign a piece of paper or stand patiently for a photograph.
Contrast this with the arrogance of baseball players and it becomes easy to lift a middle finger in the direction of a Manny Ramirez who bitches and complains every year about wanting to be traded from the Boston Red Sox. Here is a man, beloved by the entire city, but when two players on the team go down (pitcher Matt Clement and right fielder Trot Nixon) he still demands a day off because he’s “tired”. This is a guy overloaded with talent but who doesn’t run out a pop up to first base that ends up dropping in for a hit that scored the winning run in a recent game. This is a guy who gets paid millions of dollars and is one of the worst left fielders in the sport.
Manny isn’t taking any punches to the head or the body but he needs his days off anyway in spite of the fact that he’s not hurt and he’s playing a game ten-year-olds play.
And what is with these baseball autograph sessions anyway? When I visit the International Boxing Hall Of Fame in Canastota, New York, the multitude of fighters who mingle amongst the crowd love the camaraderie of the fans. It’s a virtual love-fest. You can either find them on the grounds or across the street at Graziano’s Bar and Grill. Hell, I was downing beers alongside Matthew Saad Muhammad, Leon Spinks, Aaron Pryor and Marlon Starling. Try to get an autograph from a ball player and you better have your wallet stuffed with tens and twenties.
I thought of that as I read about baseball’s latest woes and remembered how Tony Demarco draped his arm over my shoulder or when Carmen Basilio’s wife actually offered me her seat so I could sit next to her husband (I politely refused). One sport, at least in the past decade or so, has become filled with vanity projects who truly believe the world is owed to them, while the other remains a beacon of human interest and integrity. Boxing may have its seedy underbelly, but the fighters, the true noble warriors who carry the sport, are, for the most part, still heroic figures. To paraphrase Larry Holmes, “Baseball players couldn’t carry a fighter’s jock strap.”
Still, this latest ripple in Major League Baseball’s waters will flow to the shore and it will be forgotten. I fear most fans have gotten to the point where the mention of the word “steroids” elicits nothing more than a shrug. Most of the younger generation probably assumes the majority of athletes are on the juice anyway, so who really cares? Once this storm passes everything will resume to normal at the ballpark and boxing will return to its position as the sports worlds’ whipping post. But those of us who choose to see the big picture and still believe that the fight game is as major a sport as baseball know better.