April's Sports ViewWritten by Leigh Douglas
SPORTS VIEW By Leigh DouglasAs ‘madness’ winds down, I find myself having to eat crow. Illinois is for real (I still stand by Carolina winning it all) but fighting Illini are a much better team than I had given them credit. As NFL draft approaches rumor mill spins out of control. Two rumors making rounds that I like however are proposed Philip Rivers to San Francisco for number one pick; and Vikings trading first round spots with Browns. The Niners-Chargers deal will never happen, for financial reasons more than anything. The Chargers just gave Rivers a Bonus of 6 million dollars, and then would have to pay another bonus for #1 pick. Expect Chargers to take one more year to assure themselves of Brees value, and then decide which one to hand long term reigns to. The other deal makes a lot of sense. Cleveland would trade down from number 3 to number 7 collect additional picks, and still likely get quarterback they would have taken at #3. If Minnesota does this deal then they are definitely targeting defensive help (Derrick Johnson?) over a receiver.
| | Making Bonds: The Steroid ScandalWritten by Gary Whittaker
Public opinion these days seems to be swaying towards an acceptance of steroid use in baseball. People are not asking so much about if it is being done, but rather how can you actually prove it. There is very little debate over consequences of being found out, this is a sport where statistics are king. For baseball enthusiasts, numbers like 500, 30-30, 50-50, .300, .400 need no additional information. We all know what they mean, and their significance is based on premise of fair play. Barry Bonds, media’s favourite whipping boy, is at center of this controversy, even if recent hearing on this matter excluded him. Barry Bonds has not only broken McGuire’s single season record, but he is about 1 juiced season away from becoming all-time leader. There were allegations and positive tests before, in newspapers and on television, but these rumours turned into air after a few days since it was not considered cool to go after Sosa and McGuire during their historic Maris-breaking single season event. McGuire himself is in best position. He was only caught taking Andro, a substance that was banned after fact. He has been out of baseball now for a few years, and there is virtually no way to do any kind of testing that would conclusively prove he was juiced during his Hall of Fame making seasons. Voters who choose not to select into Hall of Fame will be doing so simply out of principal. In fact, if McGuire was part of an ethnic minority, he could easily gain instance entrance if he publicized fact that bias would be based on race. Bonds pulls race card on a daily basis, not caring that his personality makes him hated by people of all colors. To me, there have been some really sad events that have happened as a result of all this: •Politicians using scandal to get their faces on camera so that they can spout written speeches about state of game, and even more useless, asking players ridiculous questions that they are in no position to answer
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