There are plenty of great topics for sports columnists to write about these days. Unfortunately, this is my last column for The Chronicle, so I will not have the opportunity to write about them. Instead, I will talk briefly about several unrelated things, utilizing subtle transitions to try to create a semi-cohesive column. People who know me are probably laughing right now, because they know that I tend to be verbose. I could not write "briefly" about anything, even if someone paid me millions of dollars to do it...
Speaking of large sums of money, over the past few weeks, two of my colleagues at The Chronicle have written columns suggesting that money has poisoned sports. John Seelke "Smooth" argued that the emphasis on corporate sponsorship has stripped the Olympics of their aura of athletic purity. A week earlier, the Polish Nightmare's column suggested that a greedy conspiracy between owners and players has taken the joy out of baseball.
No matter how much athletes are paid and no matter how strong their allegiance is to their shoe contracts, I still believe that most of these competitors are still motivated by a desire to win. Despite the massive pre-Olympic promotion which companies and television networks have provided, I'm confident that a few unheralded athletes will become stars in Atlanta this summer because of their passion for representing their country well. And if baseball fans can look past the labor disputes and huge player contracts, they might see some of the greatest performances in the history of the sport. After all, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Roberto Alomar may form the greatest middle infield combination of all time, and Albert Belle might be on the verge of having the most prolific home run season of any slugger in baseball history. Furthermore, Greg Maddux has strung together four of the most brilliant pitching campaigns since the days of Walter Johnson...
Speaking of Maddux, I suspect that the Atlanta pitcher may finally be due for a slump this year. Of course, for Maddux a slump would mean a 16-8 season with an earned run average between 2.50 and 3.00. While this would be a career year for most major league pitchers, it probably would not be enough to earn Maddux a fifth straight Cy Young Award.
If Maddux is not able to repeat his performances of the past four seasons, Mike Mussina of the Baltimore Orioles might be ready to earn the title of baseball's best pitcher. In his first four full seasons, Mussina has consistently been among the major league leaders in victories and ERA, and, with the exception of Maddux, he is probably baseball's most intelligent pitcher. Mussina is off to a 3-0 start in 1996, and his earned run average is 1.88. He seems well on his way to the first of many Cy Young Awards. Of course, since I'm a lifelong Baltimore Orioles fan, I may just be displaying my personal bias here...
Speaking of my personal biases, those alert readers who pay attention to the bylines in The Chronicle may have noticed that I have written a story about track or cross country nearly every week for the past three years. To quote Seelke's column from yesterday, "Yes, I've had my brain checked recently. No, I'm not dating any of the players." Which is good since I usually cover the men's team.
I am friends with some of Duke's runners, though, and I should probably thank Jason Blank and Shane Shepherd for providing me with far more insight into competitive track than anyone could ever care to know. Chayan Chakraborti, a senior whose name has never before been mentioned in The Chronicle, deserves some sort of award for putting up with all their track talk this year. Writing about running for The Chronicle has convinced me that track can be a more exciting spectator sport than cross country, even though I still think it is far more boring to run laps around the same flat oval than it is to traverse the hilly trails of a cross country course...
Speaking of hilly trails, I think that Juwan Howard and his teammates on the Washington Bullets should be commended for overcoming the injuries of a potential NBA starting lineup-Chris Webber, Gheorghe Muresan, Rasheed Wallace, Robert Pack and Mark Price-and still going on a seven-game winning streak to nearly make the playoffs. While Howard has not had as strong a season statistically as many of the the NBA's other superstars, it would be difficult to find a player who is more valuable to his team...
Speaking of the Bullets, they will be changing their nickname to the Washington Wizards after next season, making them one of the worst-named franchises in all of sports. The Baltimore Ravens-the football team formerly known as the Cleveland Browns-probably have the best nickname in professional athletics, even if poetry and football does seem to be an unusual combination...
Speaking of unusual combinations, I cannot think of any adequate transition here. I have written a few critical columns this year-even though members of The Chronicle sports staff may not remember that I actually have written about things other than Washington and Baltimore sports. Criticizing sports figures has probably been the most difficult thing for me to do as a sports reporter. After all, who am I to criticize athletes who are far more talented and dedicated to their performance on the field than I could ever hope to be? And who am I to question a coach who has a far greater understanding of the intricacies of his sport than I do?
To me, this raises a major paradox about journalism in general: Reporters often write about areas in which they have far less expertise than their subjects. Are reporters and columnists really in a position to fairly judge and criticize things? I've covered sports for four years for The Chronicle, yet I know far less about basketball, tennis, track and any other sport than many of my fellow Duke students. With this in mind, is it really fair for me, or any other journalist, to be overly critical of athletes and coaches? Unfortunately, I do not have an answer to this question...
So you see, I have managed to write a column without rambling for too long about any particular subject. And I didn't even have to resort to the traditional final column techniques like a Top 10 Moments in My Duke Sports Experience or a Why I Really Like [Fill in the Sport]. If you want to hear my opinions these things-or on Cal Ripken, the greatest shortstop of all time-feel free to ask me about them. I'm the guy who can occasionally be found jogging around East Campus wearing a predominantly white Baltimore Orioles hat. The one who looks like he's running on empty.
David Heinen is a Trinity senior. After graduation, he can be found training for a marathon in between sessions of bowing to his Cal Ripken shrine.
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