That's Entertainment

Over the summer, I got into an email discussion with a Chicago sportswriter who was upset with the fan noise being pumped into empty ballparks. This gentleman on occasion has referred to sports as a form of entertainment. “What’s the big deal?” I asked. If sports is just entertainment, artificial crowd noise is just another special effect that goes into the work. The same with steroids. Robinson Cano of the Mets was hit with a 162-game suspension by Commissioner Rob Manfred after testing positive for steroids; it’s the second time Cano has been caught in the past three years. That’ll make the claim of ignorance a really tough sell, I’m sure. But what does it matter, if it’s all just entertainment? By that standard, Cano was simply getting into character as a baseball, the way Robert DeNiro did playing the boxer Jake LaMotta, thin at the start of the film, fat at the end. Did anyone give DeNiro grief for his fluctuating weight or how he accomplished it? I don’t recall any criticism. So, we face a choice as sports’ fans: Do we want to watch an athletic contest or a Hollywood product (sit-com, tragedy or farce when talking about Chicago teams)? I say contest, which means Cano broke the rules and should be punished. On a related note, the timing of the announcement was interesting, coming just two days after the release of 2021 ballot for the Hall of Fame. What a nice message, conscious or subliminal, to send voters: Cano got punished, why not Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens? I second that emotion.