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This topic has been archived - replies are not allowed.
July's show focuses on major league baseball, looking at some of the year's biggest stories, including the Barry Bonds drama.
Commissioner Bud Selig is among the guests scheduled to appear, and Costas will go one-on-one with Boston Red Sox hurler Curt Schilling. Joining Costas in the popular and unpredictable roundtable segment will be Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith and comedian Chris Rock.
Among the features will be a look back at the Cannon St. All-Stars from Charleston, SC. In 1955, seven years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, this group of youngsters was banned from playing in a little league tournament because of the color of their skin. Discuss this show here!
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267
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(32 of 32)
Re: Steroids were against the rules
Aug 5, 2007 6:34 AM
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At any rate, I'd always considered Costas to be a little of a Streisand. But his report was articulate and courageous.
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267
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(31 of 32)
Re: Steroids were against the rules
Aug 5, 2007 6:31 AM
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You was unfair to Mr. Bonds and unfair to the game baseball." Your entertainment tonight type presentations belongs on a gossip page.
I think you were unfair to the English language
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8/4/07
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(30 of 32)
Steroids were against the rules
Aug 4, 2007 11:11 AM
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It's such a cop out to say that performance enhancing drugs were not against the rules. I really wish Costas would challenge his guests on this.
1. There was the 1991 memo from Fay Vincent.
2. There was the 1997 memo from Bud Selig.
3. It was illegal.
4. There are many things that are not in the MLB rule book that we know are cheating or not allowed.
5. If it isn't cheating, why the enormous effort by players to hide it or lie about it? Isn't that all the evidence that you really need?
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2
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7/16/07
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(29 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9, premieres July 24 at 10:00 PM ET/PT
Aug 2, 2007 7:08 AM
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I have been watching and reading and listening to all the hype about the steroid use in baseball and it's effect on "known users" breaking records that have stood for decades. I only have one simple question that disturbs me. Why now? Why be so concerned about this particular record? There have obviously been discussions about Mark McGuire breaking Roger Maris's record and his connection to steroids. My question is simple. Why the mention of questioning the fairness of Barry Bond's approaching Hank Aaron's record and if he should truly be entitled to this record due to what we know now about steriods, or should I say, what we are all finally willing to admit is a serious issue. We knew this was going on for years now. WHY IS MARK MCGUIRE STILL HOLDING ROGER MARIS'S RECORD? Is it because it has allready happened and no one decided to make an issue of it before now? Forgive me if I sound so simple on this one but fair is fair. Why do we have a Baseball commissioner if he isn't there to oversee this wonderful game? I hardly believe he is powerless to do the right thing and take that record back from McGuire and give it back to Roger Maris and his family where it belongs! All I can say is that the Maris family must have a tremendous amount of class. In all these crazy comments being made by people who don't even count in this matter, I have not once heard an opinion by the Maris family on this matter. It must be hard on them to hear this topic finally coming to a head now, long after Mr. Maris's record was stripped unfairly from him. And let's not forget the hell Maris went through as he approached Babe Ruth's record. I guess it was all too easy for us to get caught up in the excitment of it all. How obvious it was though, when McGuire took the single season homerun record from Maris standing at the plate looking like a red-headed "Incredible Hulk!"
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7/31/07
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(28 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9, premieres July 24 at 10:00 PM ET/PT
Jul 31, 2007 4:17 PM
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Anyone to speak of the "steroid era" in baseball or other sports in the past tense is being naive unless there are major changes to the sports governing bodies, ownership, participants, and the spectators. There are clear market failures in the pervasiveness of drug and doping reports and evidence of increased injuries to the tendons, ligaments and joints associated with physical transformations of athletes size, strength, and speed in limited time and compared to previous generations.
The incentives for financial reward or prestige continues to grow exponentially as entertainment demand overtakes competition as the main purpose of sports. Similarly, the supply of undetectable drugs gets more scientific as evidenced by BALCO. On this program, Bob even admitted in "damn straight" that he would take a pill if it meant he could make up a hypothetical $20 million earning gap against a similar sports broadcaster, Dan Patrick.
What is needed is independent authorities to test athletes at will without political and economic interference to protect social interests. From the Tour de France to the Olympics to the NFL to FIFA to the UFC, there needs to be a global standard of testing to have a business license that produces a zero tolerance policy.
How would this drug testing policy be funded? Institute a new clean and healthy tax paid by the owners who pay the athletes' salaries. This might be the new form of injury insurance as owners who have the self-interest of protecting their multi-million dollar investments to say little of protecting the integrity of the games.
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7/31/07
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(27 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9, premieres July 24 at 10:00 PM ET/PT
Jul 31, 2007 3:23 PM
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OK... I think the episode was great.
Bob Costas said it better than ANYONE...
1. Circumstantial evidence says that Barry Bonds did what A LOT of other players did during the past 25 years. This doesn't excuse Barry, but it does mean that no way in hell can you persecute him, but leave every other player/team alone. Lets not forget, MLB benefited GREATLY in general from the home run races and record breaking. Everyone involved in either of those has been accused of doing something wrong! So how is it remotely fair to pick on 1 player, but leave baseball unscathed?
2. Bonds gets a shorter straw because public opinion of him is lower that most player. But as Costas said, SO WHAT. That should NOT be a factor. McGuire is a happy go lucky guy that people like... that did everything Bonds is accused of. He's just one other player... if we want to start astricking and calling out players, then you may as well astriks the entire section of the rulebook... which I personally think would be MOST fair to history in general.
3. Ultimately its the individual fan's place to judge how you feel about Barry Bonds and Henry Aaron. Statistics in this case don't tell the whole story... its more complicated than that. When Barry gets his vote for HoF honor's the people alive at that time can judge his merit based on not just statistics.
In the end its a sad tale that has no real happy ending. IMHO Barry Bonds is going to break a record and deserves accolades for such. How he did it DOES NOT MATTER... as if it was really a big deal MLB wouldn't have ignored it for all those years BEFORE Barry started his upshift.
IMHO, its too late for baseball to critisize ANY of the players, who at the time, brought in HUGE amounts of revenue with all the record / home run title chases... IF MLB had been more concerned about the character of the game instead of its bottom line, this whole thing wouldn't have happened. But even after saying that, I won't say they were wrong in what they did... Had all the media attention not happened, what would baseball be like today? I'm sure die hard baseball fans would say they'd rather see baseball die out or diminish in viewership than see it tarnished... but realistically I'd rather see it florish and live to correct itself than die an "honorable" death... That's the nature of business in general.
Anyway, that's just my 2 beans. My kids will know all of the history... And for people that say BB is getting over on all of us... We'll let time settle that score... because IMHO, if he dies at 50 because of the cream... his life tragedy will be even more compelling. We'll just all have to wait and see.
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7/30/07
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(26 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9, premieres July 24 at 10:00 PM ET/PT
Jul 30, 2007 6:46 PM
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Chris Rock is funny. When he said can you commit adultry on your girlfriend? Can you get a ticket for speeding last week? His point was that at the time he took steroids, there were no rules against using steroids so it wasn't cheating. No one called him on that. The problem with his examples is that taking perscription drugs (including steroids) without a perscription, is AGAINST THE LAW! When you sign a major league contract there is a morals clause that says you will not break the law. There is no rule in the majors about drunk driving..why.. because it is AGAINST THE LAW. You don't have to make rules to cover something everyone knows is illegal. If there were really nothing wrong with what barry did, why wouldn't he admit it?
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7/30/07
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(25 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9, premieres July 24 at 10:00 PM ET/PT
Jul 30, 2007 6:29 PM
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Bob Costas only does this show like once a month. And all he had to do is go on the internet for one minute to find out that Benjamin Disraeli (late 19th century British PM) said "there are three kinds of lies, lies, damn lies and statistics" not Mark Twain. Dammit Costas you only do one show a month. I know you broadcast other events like that recent golf tournament, but that was just one day, like half a day. You need to be on top of your shit Bob. You should shit can that writer who is making you look like fool on TV by feeding you false information. It's not just meatheads who watch your show. You might be able to get away with this shit when speak at the ESPY's or something, but with HBO you have hundreds of thousands of viewers. I expect more from an esteemed journalist as yourself even if you are just a sports journalist.
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2
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7/26/07
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(24 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9, premieres July 24 at 10:00 PM ET/PT
Jul 30, 2007 2:55 PM
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oohhhh my the rat himself has just implicated Arod so yankee homer you going to go after Arod as passionatly as you go after Bonds or is this different the hearsay evidence will be the same and this is the same guy that rat on McGuire,Pudge,Palmero,Gonzales and now good ol Arod, I know he is a Yankee and thats different right but hey he's latino at least you can say race was not an issue.
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7/30/07
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(23 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9 - What Chris Rock said is just plain stupid
Jul 30, 2007 1:26 AM
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What Chris Rock said about Babe Ruth not having to face black players is just plain stupid and wrong. The reason is when it comes to pitching and batting, you're basically just dealing with pure power, so there is very little distinction if any between whites and blacks.
Now, if black players were left out of football or basketball, his point would be legit because in those two other sports, you're dealing with leaping ability, speed, quickness, and power. Chris Rock is simply lost.
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4
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7/29/07
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(22 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9, premieres July 24 at 10:00 PM ET/PT
Jul 29, 2007 3:57 PM
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Chris Rock's comment that Babe Ruth and other pre-integration players should have asterisks by their stats because they only played against white players (insinuating that the level of all white players was significantly inferior) is cocktail party clever, but not a serious analysis. Here's why not ... Babe Ruth played against only white players, true. But 99% of the players that Jackie Robinson played against were white, too. So let's see how his stats against white players stacks up to Babe Ruth's stats against white players ..... Robinson had 58% the at-bats that Ruth had, so if he was 'as good a hitter' as Ruth against white competition, then his stats should be 58% of Ruth's, right? Well, they aren't - they aren't even close (the stats follow at the bottom of my comment). My point is that it is disingenuous and inaccurate (the facts don't back up the assertion) to try and cast a shadow over the abilities of players in years past. The reality is that Babe Ruth was one of the greatest players to ever play, and so is Wille Mays, and so is Mickey Mantle, and so is Barry Bonds.
The issue is whether Bond's steroid use should factor into a baseball fan's measure of Bonds' career #'s versus the career #'s of players who didn't use steroids.
Stats: Ruth's #'s, then Robinson's #, then the % of Robinson's # to Ruth's # (remember, if the % is below 58%, then Ruth's # is better) ....
BA - Ruth .342, Robinson .311 (% not applicable as the BA #'s ARE percentages)
hits - Ruth 2,873; Robinson 1,518 (52.8%)
doubles - Ruth 506; Robinson 273 (53.9%)
triples - Ruth 136; Robinson 54 (39.7%)
Home Runs - Ruth 714; Robinson 137 (19.1%)
Strikeouts - Ruth 1330; Robinson 291 (21.8% - lower # is good here)
Slugging % - Ruth .690; Robinson .474 (% not applicable as these #'s ARE percentages)
For the record, I think Chris Rock is one of the funniest comedians ever. But as a baseball historian and analyst, he strikes out.
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Edited by lksseven at 07/29/2007 1:04 PM
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Edited by lksseven at 07/29/2007 1:07 PM
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3
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7/29/07
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(21 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9, premieres July 24 at 10:00 PM ET/PT
Jul 29, 2007 9:19 AM
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do you know Chris Rock is a comedian? He is not serious all the time.
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3
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(20 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9, premieres July 24 at 10:00 PM ET/PT
Jul 29, 2007 9:15 AM
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I can answer for Chris. The Negro players records are not counted. What are you talking about?
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3
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(19 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9, premieres July 24 at 10:00 PM ET/PT
Jul 29, 2007 9:12 AM
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Great to hear Bonds shoot back at Costas. Costas is a angry little man who is ruining a great accomplishment in baseball by his prejudice remarks. Curt Schilling and Bud Selig are a Joke.
I dont remember his hateful comments at Mark McGwire and Sosa when they gave baseball a much needed Jolt. His bad attitude should be targeted at all the records before Jackie Robinson intergrated baseball. Then the game started to be played at a high level. Until all the best players played together all statistics should have a astericks before them. It should say "played the game with only bigoted friends." From the highlights I see it was also played like slow pitch softball.
Anyone who carries around baseball cards (like Costas) with them has to be off centered in their views. Thinking that baseball stats should be view as holy numbers cant be rational.
Putting clear lotion on your muscles is something most would do if you are ageing trying to play a young mans game. I would have done it if I saw all the love Sammy and Mark received. And to try to ruin this feat with hate is just awful. The vengence is shown because no one questions Lance Johnson great tour run. Or how Micheal Jordan body and Head got so Big. Or how Roger Clemens is the only pitcher I know to throw a bat at someone. It obvious he takes steriods. And many more. Its 2007 Costas. This game is not perfect and neither are your heroes
Drugs have been it the game since the 70's and to single one man out is wrong. Steriods are bad and the game has done something about it finally. Let move on and enjoy this feat in a very boring sport.
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(18 of 32)
Re: CostasNOW: Episode 9, premieres July 24 at 10:00 PM ET/PT
Jul 29, 2007 2:34 AM
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Curt Schilling is a true sports hero. Maybe the last honest man in baseball. He has morals and standards and speaks his mind. I agree with him on each person or topic raised. I thought team loyalty was a thing of the past. Red Sox Management pay attention. Carlton Fisk was loyal and treated shamefully at the end of his career by Management. Don't make the same mistake again with Curt.
Costas you rock! I'm a 57 year old woman and the only sport I really follow is baseball. You are the reason I started watching your shows on sports and brought me into the world of HBO sports specials and Bryant Gumbel's great show. Thanks.
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