Steroids In Baseball: ESPN.com's Jason Whitlock Plays The Race Card
Published June 09, 2006
Whitlock tells us how to think -- plays the race card and invokes class warfare -- and is perfect. Perfectly wrong.
In the column, “Finally let’s use common sense,” ESPN.com’s Jason Whitlock does exactly the opposite, as the only common sense used in this item appears in the title.
There’s no doubt that some people stay up all night just so they can think of ways to apply the race card to every conceivable situation. “The bus was late today? Well, everyone knows it’s because minorities depend on public transportation.” “Your hamburger was undercooked? Well, they know back in the kitchen who gets what. They know. It’s because you’re black.”
People like this, by constantly harping on race, diminish the impact that real racism has on real people.
ESPN’s Jason Whitlock -- twisting himself into a logical and intellectual pretzel -- has earned entry into this group with his juvenile, laughable, and totally off-base piece that was posted on ESPN.com on Friday.
Whitlock comes across as a Barry Bonds fan boy, apologist, and not as a serious journalist.
Whitlock tells us that now that Jason Grimsley -- a white guy -- has been implicated in the latest chapter of the PEDs in baseball scandal that “we can move beyond restricting the conversation to bludgeoning Bonds under the guise of protecting Aaron and the integrity of the game.”
Somehow Whitlock concludes that the I.R.S. investigation of Grimsley could blow the lid off of this case and force “Bonds haters” -- his term -- to admit that the pursuit and persecution of Bonds is an unjust one. Where has Whitlock been? Anyone who has really followed this story should know that this case is just getting warmed up.
Ostensibly we’re told that since Grimsley is a white guy that NOW the injustice of it all has been revealed and that we’re all hypocrites. How the poor get punished while the rich get a slap on the wrist. Huh? How many poor pro athletes are there?
And how does Grimsley getting pinched in any way minimize or change the facts around what Bonds has done?
Conte, Anderson, the Greek Olympic sprinters, Marion Jones, Kevin Toth, Bill Romanowski, McGwire, Sosa, Grimsley, Bonds, Canseco, Caminitti, and Giambi are all part of the same problem. White, Black, Hispanic, Greek. Track, baseball, football. All rich, none poor. Cheaters. Thieves.
Whitlock -- going to his bag of clichés -- manages to mention Nancy Reagan and her “Just Say No” campaign to stop drug use while “politicians locked up black folk and won voting support.” Another, huh?
Is there any kind of editorial control at ESPN? Does a person have to have any credentials at all in order to be a contributor to this organization?
ESPN is the pinnacle of the news business. I don’t care if they cover sports. The way that they do the job -- 99.9% of the time -- is phenomenal.
Jason Whitlock represents the other .1%.
From what he has written in his column, it is clear that not only is he blinded by race and class envy, but he is also totally unaware of -- or has chosen to totally ignore -- the issues surrounding the drugs in sports scandal. Rather than adding to the dialog, Whitlock has just created more background noise.
Read this column. Whitlock is so totally clueless he sounds as if he just picked up a paper this week and is trying to play catch up on a story that has been in the making for the past 20 years.
Sal Marinello is a National Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer, a U.S.A. Weightlifting Certified Coach, a full-time, private Professional Strength and Conditioning Coach, an assistant football coach and a Head Strength Coach for a suburban New Jersey High School. He writes a lot and has no free time. 
- Steroids In Baseball: ESPN.com's Jason Whitlock Plays The Race Card
- Published: June 09, 2006
- Type: News
- Section: Sports
- Filed Under: Culture: Society, Culture: Media, Sci/Tech: Internet, Sports: Baseball
- Writer: Sal Marinello
- Sal Marinello's BC Writer page
- Sal Marinello's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
SHOCKING! what's next, the revelation that ballplayers visit go-go bars!???!!
The media is unfairly targeting Matt Lawton.
(Runs away)
I absolutely love baseball, but why do I have the feeling that the sport is just full of this stuff and it will never really get resolved? I think Selig would like to see the controversy go away as long as the money keeps flowing. That also goes for many owners, commentators and others involved in the game.
In the first half of the season look how much everyone was talking Albert Pujols. Now he has gone down with an injury and rumors are rampant. His numbers up to this point are incredible. What are we to think? This whole sorry mess puts so much into question.
Oh, and it's not a race issue. It's an issue of using performance enhancing drugs. However, if we make it that simple and steriods are found to be rampant in baseball, I would think that might hurt ESPN's bottom line, so they need to find alternative issues to focus on.
good points rebecca...it's unfortunate that the clean players who really are good naturally will be tarnished or suspected of using PEDs...these guys have their union and the hierarchy in the league front office to blame for acting in a way that allowed PED use to flourish.
and the fans who cheer for jason giambi and barry bonds are just as much to blame.
Whitlock even brings up Willie Horton. Maybe he can make a Marion Berry reference about how Marion was mistreated, and all mayors use drugs, and we focused on him for racist reasons.
Why isn't this issue about itself? Barry Bonds breaking storied records while on the juice is a problem. It's not a symbol of a new racism.
Barry Bonds himself is exhibit A. Two years ago at 38, he was hitting home runs at an incredible rate. In the off season, he becomes embroiled in all this controversy, the next season the injuries start and he barely plays. This year, he comes to camp overweight and a physical mess. My first thought was, "He must have gotten off the juice." Now he's just praying for every single home run.
I was annoyed when he was chasing Ruth and ESPN would cut in for Bonds every at bat. With the record in so much question, that didn't seem necessary. I've also noticed that Bonds head didn't turn into the size of a watermelon until 1999 or so.
knee-jerk people like whitlock never think things through, and apparenly are allowed to get away with it.
maybe he meant willie horton the old detroit tiger?
Take the race out of the equation, and Whitlock's column that makes sense. Actually the two lead paragraphs were airtight.
Bonds was the posterboy for the steroids story, even if Giambi, Sosa, McGwire, Sheffield, Palmeiro, and Canseco are equally culpable.
That wasn't the Race Card being played. It was the Best Player card. He's not only a member of the Roid Club for Men, he's also the president.
Actually, I should take a step back. McGwire and Giambi get a pass for me because they are white. Same with Grimsley. Palmeiro? Well, he's Latino, so he gets a half pass.
i disagree...race is the reason whitlock wrote the column. even without race, he makes no sense.
i think the entire column is a lesson in classic convoluted logic that crosses wires and is written from the perspective of someone who - despite being a journalist - has not been keeping up with the story.
and what's wrong with demonizing people who have totally perverted sports by using drugs to break records or earn money that they couldn't do without the drugs?
taking PEDs as an athletes is just as bad - and damnable - as plagerism is for a journalist or willful malpractice is for a doctor.
nobody has gotten a pass here...mcqwire has been somewhat spared because the revelations with regards to his drug use came about after his peak and after he retired.
bonds is getting the majority of the heat a) because he's still playing b) is chasing a hallowed record and c) is and always has been a dick. and it's easier to rip a guy when he's in the news everyday.
the other guys like palmiero and sosa are out of the game and their legacy gets more tarnished as each day passes and with each new PED revelation.
when their names are mentioned they are mentioned for their infamy.
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Ex-Yankee Leyritz admits to using amphetamines on espn
No kidding. And the Pope take communion. All I know is after he (Leyritz, not the Pope) hit the homerun to tie up Game 5(4?) of the 1996 World Series I couldn't sleep till noon the next day - and all I ingested was some barbecue in Tenn.