Sports Curmudgeon - Topical Rants: Personal Responsibility

2/3/03 - There are two stories that broke late last week that have a common thread. The Ohio High School Athletics Overseers and Pooh-Bahs ruled LeBron James ineligible to play in any more high school basketball games. Bruce Froemming was suspended for 10 days by MLB for an anti-Semitic slur that he made relative to an employee of MLB. Let me comment on both situations and then I'll get to the common thread…

According to reports, LeBron James went to a store somewhere in Ohio and admired two "vintage" or "classic" or "throwback" jerseys. One was a Gayle Sayres jersey and the other was a Wes Unseld jersey. These sell, normally, for $850; that is not a typographical error; that is actually the price of these things. LeBron got the shirts and did not have to pay any cash money for them.

One version of the story is that they were a "gift" from the store because one of the store people said that they get celebrities in there periodically and "you have to show them some love". Another version is that LeBron agreed to pose for a picture in the store and ultimately sign the picture and for that he got the jerseys. Since my position on this whole matter does not depend on what happened in the store, I'll let you pick the one you like best. It is even possible that both versions are accurate; so what?

The Head Honcho of Ohio High School sports is a man named Clair Muscaro. I don't know him from Claire de Lune, Eau Claire Wisconsin or Miss Clairol but I have now heard his voice on ESPN and FOX Radio and my local sports-radio outlet here in the Washington DC area. Some may consider this season as the winter of their discontent; for Mr. Muscaro, this is the winter of his fifteen minutes of fame. I promise you that the only people in the DC area had ever heard of Clair Muscaro prior to this year were relatives of his who moved here for some reason – such as escaping Ohio. In any event, Mr. Muscaro read the rules on amateurism that apply to high school athletes in Ohio and decided that LeBron had received "things of value" based on his athletic skills which had brought him fame/notoriety/celebrity status and thus, the reception of those "things of value" made him ineligible. This is the first kid that Mr. Muscaro has ever found to be ineligible for this reason in his more than ten year tenure as the Head Honcho of Ohio High School Sports, so there is no precedent for him to work from. He is plowing new ground.

The outcry was immediate and loud. Every argument and slant you can imagine has been offered up as an opinion on this matter with the possible exception that this was a plot hatched by the same folks that put the guy on the grassy knoll in Dallas in 1963. The problem with all the arguments and interpretations you want to make about what happened and who is to blame and why the decision came down the way it did is that it requires the ability of the arguer/interpreter to read someone's mind and discern motives. I can't do that and I don't believe any of the other commentators on this matter can either.

So let's just look at the facts. Did LeBron James receive some kind of favor for his fame, which is based on his athletic prowess? Yes. Was LeBron James "tricked" into taking these favors? No evidence of that. Is LeBron James intellectually capable of grasping the concept of what is right and what is wrong with a situation like this? I have to say that he is, because he is an honor roll student with a reported A-minus average at St. Vincent/St. Mary High School. LeBron James certainly does not appear to be "IQ-deficient" in any way; on the contrary, he is probably an intelligent young man. On the basis of his intelligence, I presume he has the ability to grasp the larger context of the situation in which he found himself in that store.

What he has not yet done is to say that he – LeBron James – screwed this situation up royally and that he is the one who had a brain cramp and took the jerseys when he should have realized that it would affect his athletic eligibility. He needs to say that he is returning the jerseys because that is the right thing for him to do. He needs to assure everyone that no one coerced him to take the jerseys and that no one entrapped him. He needs to say that it is his fault because he made a mistake and he is sorry for what he did and sorry for the aftereffect it will have on his teammates. He can't say this next part out loud but they have little if any hope of winning the state high school basketball championship without him. LeBron James needs to say this stuff, not his mother, not a spokesperson, and most definitely not a lawyer.

After LeBron James does all of the above, Clair Muscaro needs to read him the riot act publicly for the specific mistake he made here without any embellishments on any larger issues. Then, LeBron James needs to have his eligibility reinstated. His "punishment" should not be banishment; it should be humiliation. Not because I think it is a good idea to humiliate a high school kid – even though I did that to myself in high school more than a few times a week – but because he might learn something very important from such embarrassment. He might learn to look carefully at situations around him and think about their future implications and possible consequences. Given his celebrity status future in the NBA, those will be important things for him to learn. And here is an important piece of my argument:

Memo to Clair Muscaro:

Now on to Bruce Froemming. He has been a major league umpire for 33 years and he is 63 years old. He is not a child; he is not someone who would likely be in need of learning new "life lessons". What he did was to react to something that was done by an employee of MLB relative to making his travel arrangements to Japan for next year's opening game by calling her a "stupid Jew bitch". What a wonderful trifecta here. He managed in three little words to slur her intellect, her religion and her gender. For this, he was suspended by MLB for 10 days.

I also heard Bruce Froemming on the radio and this is an adult who expressed sorrow about the matter. However, it certainly sounded to me that he was as sorry about the fact that his remark was recorded and made public as he was about making the remark in the first place. Saying he did not intend it to be anti-Semitic does not cut the mustard given the exact words he used. And I don't think his attitude or his behavior can be painted as acceptable or redeemable.

Remember what Al Campanis said? He was reportedly "in his cups" when he said it but that did not make it acceptable. Remember what happened to him? He was fired and never had a position in baseball again. What is the difference? His slur was against black athletes; Froemming's was against a female employee of MLB with a specific religious/ethnic affiliation. If you draw a distinction here, it is a distinction without a difference. Unlike the LeBron James case, there is precedent here and the similarities between the Campanis commentary and the Froemming utterance are not hard to see unless you refuse to see them. Frankly, the only significant difference that I can come up with is that Froemming is a member of a union that – based on prior actions – is likely to fight his dismissal from baseball. Al Campanis was not. But dismissal is what should happen here.

In case anyone thinks that, my linkage to the Campanis case is too tenuous, please recall that MLB nudged Marge Schott out of her ownership of the Cincy Reds after they forgave a boatload of her other "idiosyncrasies". She crossed a line that even baseball owners could not tolerate. What did she do? She said that she didn't think Adolf Hitler was such a bad guy after all. And it would not take an honor student in high school to make a list of ten horrible things that Hitler did in his lifetime – to include a rabid and virulent anti-Semitism. So baseball has a precedent for weeding out of its "family" this kind of thinking.

What is the common thread here? Personal responsibility.

LeBron James is the person responsible for his actions in the clothing store. Maybe he has owned up to this responsibility in the privacy of his home and family environment, but he has not done so in a public forum and – unfortunately for him – this is being played out in a public forum. You can feel sorry for him that his athletic prowess has caused this embarrassment to be a public spectacle, but that is part of the burden of fame and celebrity that he will carry for the next decade or two.

Clair Muscaro is the person responsible for making a draconian decision in a situation where no one was damaged. No other high school basketball team was disadvantaged in any way by LeBron James' receipt of those shirts. If the shirts were to be returned in mint condition to the store, everything would be in the status quo ante, which was acceptable to Clair Muscaro and the other Grand Pooh-Bahs of Ohio High School Sports. Don't let this man hide behind an interpretation of some rule when the situation is so obviously reversible. If "amateur standing" is deemed to be critically important in Ohio High School Sports, then they need to get busy and start lifting the eligibility of a boatload of high school athletes who get things of value and preferential treatment because of the notoriety they gain from their exploits on the court/field. That will include every star athlete who gets free shoes or free hamburgers at local restaurants. And I doubt that he is about to embark on that crusade…

Bruce Froemming is responsible for his remarks and for whatever is in his heart and his head that would lead – or even allow – him to say what he said. If he seeks redemption, he needs to apologize in such a way that there is no doubt that he is not even partially sorry that his remarks were recorded. He needs to express sorrow for the remarks and the hurt that they caused and continue to cause. And even with that kind of apology to gain him public redemption, his minimum punishment should be a year's suspension from baseball – but I'd still fire his ass if I were the commissioner.

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

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		Personal Responsibility

		2/3/03 - There are two stories that broke late last week that have a common thread. The Ohio High School Athletics Overseers and Pooh-Bahs ruled LeBron James ineligible to play in any more high school basketball games. Bruce Froemming was suspended for 10 days by MLB for an anti-Semitic slur that he made relative to an employee of MLB. Let me comment on both situations and then I'll get to the common thread… According to reports, LeBron James went to a store somewhere in Ohio and admired two "vintage" or "classic" or "throwback" jerseys. One was a Gayle Sayres jersey and the other was a Wes Unseld jersey. These sell, normally, for $850; that is not a typographical error; that is actually the price of these things. LeBron got the shirts and did not have to pay any cash money for them. One version of the story is that they were a "gift" from the store because one of the store people said that they get celebrities in there periodically and "you have to show them some love". Another version is that LeBron agreed to pose for a picture in the store and ultimately sign the picture and for that he got the jerseys. Since my position on this whole matter does not depend on what happened in the store, I'll let you pick the one you like best. It is even possible that both versions are accurate; so what? The Head Honcho of Ohio High School sports is a man named Clair Muscaro. I don't know him from Claire de Lune, Eau Claire Wisconsin or Miss Clairol but I have now heard his voice on ESPN and FOX Radio and my local sports-radio outlet here in the Washington DC area. Some may consider this season as the winter of their discontent; for Mr. Muscaro, this is the winter of his fifteen minutes of fame. I promise you that the only people in the DC area had ever heard of Clair Muscaro prior to this year were relatives of his who moved here for some reason – such as escaping Ohio. In any event, Mr. Muscaro read the rules on amateurism that apply to high school athletes in Ohio and decided that LeBron had received "things of value" based on his athletic skills which had brought him fame/notoriety/celebrity status and thus, the reception of those "things of value" made him ineligible. This is the first kid that Mr. Muscaro has ever found to be ineligible for this reason in his more than ten year tenure as the Head Honcho of Ohio High School Sports, so there is no precedent for him to work from. He is plowing new ground. The outcry was immediate and loud. Every argument and slant you can imagine has been offered up as an opinion on this matter with the possible exception that this was a plot hatched by the same folks that put the guy on the grassy knoll in Dallas in 1963. The problem with all the arguments and interpretations you want to make about what happened and who is to blame and why the decision came down the way it did is that it requires the ability of the arguer/interpreter to read someone's mind and discern motives. I can't do that and I don't believe any of the other commentators on this matter can either. So let's just look at the facts. Did LeBron James receive some kind of favor for his fame, which is based on his athletic prowess? Yes. Was LeBron James "tricked" into taking these favors? No evidence of that. Is LeBron James intellectually capable of grasping the concept of what is right and what is wrong with a situation like this? I have to say that he is, because he is an honor roll student with a reported A-minus average at St. Vincent/St. Mary High School. LeBron James certainly does not appear to be "IQ-deficient" in any way; on the contrary, he is probably an intelligent young man. On the basis of his intelligence, I presume he has the ability to grasp the larger context of the situation in which he found himself in that store. What he has not yet done is to say that he – LeBron James – screwed this situation up royally and that he is the one who had a brain cramp and took the jerseys when he should have realized that it would affect his athletic eligibility. He needs to say that he is returning the jerseys because that is the right thing for him to do. He needs to assure everyone that no one coerced him to take the jerseys and that no one entrapped him. He needs to say that it is his fault because he made a mistake and he is sorry for what he did and sorry for the aftereffect it will have on his teammates. He can't say this next part out loud but they have little if any hope of winning the state high school basketball championship without him. LeBron James needs to say this stuff, not his mother, not a spokesperson, and most definitely not a lawyer. After LeBron James does all of the above, Clair Muscaro needs to read him the riot act publicly for the specific mistake he made here without any embellishments on any larger issues. Then, LeBron James needs to have his eligibility reinstated. His "punishment" should not be banishment; it should be humiliation. Not because I think it is a good idea to humiliate a high school kid – even though I did that to myself in high school more than a few times a week – but because he might learn something very important from such embarrassment. He might learn to look carefully at situations around him and think about their future implications and possible consequences. Given his celebrity status future in the NBA, those will be important things for him to learn. And here is an important piece of my argument: Memo to Clair Muscaro: You have the opportunity to teach a kid a potentially valuable lesson for his specific life circumstance. High school is about teaching kids. You have a responsibility here; you also have an opportunity to have your own brain cramp here. Try to avoid that. Now on to Bruce Froemming. He has been a major league umpire for 33 years and he is 63 years old. He is not a child; he is not someone who would likely be in need of learning new "life lessons". What he did was to react to something that was done by an employee of MLB relative to making his travel arrangements to Japan for next year's opening game by calling her a "stupid Jew bitch". What a wonderful trifecta here. He managed in three little words to slur her intellect, her religion and her gender. For this, he was suspended by MLB for 10 days. I also heard Bruce Froemming on the radio and this is an adult who expressed sorrow about the matter. However, it certainly sounded to me that he was as sorry about the fact that his remark was recorded and made public as he was about making the remark in the first place. Saying he did not intend it to be anti-Semitic does not cut the mustard given the exact words he used. And I don't think his attitude or his behavior can be painted as acceptable or redeemable. Remember what Al Campanis said? He was reportedly "in his cups" when he said it but that did not make it acceptable. Remember what happened to him? He was fired and never had a position in baseball again. What is the difference? His slur was against black athletes; Froemming's was against a female employee of MLB with a specific religious/ethnic affiliation. If you draw a distinction here, it is a distinction without a difference. Unlike the LeBron James case, there is precedent here and the similarities between the Campanis commentary and the Froemming utterance are not hard to see unless you refuse to see them. Frankly, the only significant difference that I can come up with is that Froemming is a member of a union that – based on prior actions – is likely to fight his dismissal from baseball. Al Campanis was not. But dismissal is what should happen here. In case anyone thinks that, my linkage to the Campanis case is too tenuous, please recall that MLB nudged Marge Schott out of her ownership of the Cincy Reds after they forgave a boatload of her other "idiosyncrasies". She crossed a line that even baseball owners could not tolerate. What did she do? She said that she didn't think Adolf Hitler was such a bad guy after all. And it would not take an honor student in high school to make a list of ten horrible things that Hitler did in his lifetime – to include a rabid and virulent anti-Semitism. So baseball has a precedent for weeding out of its "family" this kind of thinking. What is the common thread here? Personal responsibility. LeBron James is the person responsible for his actions in the clothing store. Maybe he has owned up to this responsibility in the privacy of his home and family environment, but he has not done so in a public forum and – unfortunately for him – this is being played out in a public forum. You can feel sorry for him that his athletic prowess has caused this embarrassment to be a public spectacle, but that is part of the burden of fame and celebrity that he will carry for the next decade or two. Clair Muscaro is the person responsible for making a draconian decision in a situation where no one was damaged. No other high school basketball team was disadvantaged in any way by LeBron James' receipt of those shirts. If the shirts were to be returned in mint condition to the store, everything would be in the status quo ante, which was acceptable to Clair Muscaro and the other Grand Pooh-Bahs of Ohio High School Sports. Don't let this man hide behind an interpretation of some rule when the situation is so obviously reversible. If "amateur standing" is deemed to be critically important in Ohio High School Sports, then they need to get busy and start lifting the eligibility of a boatload of high school athletes who get things of value and preferential treatment because of the notoriety they gain from their exploits on the court/field. That will include every star athlete who gets free shoes or free hamburgers at local restaurants. And I doubt that he is about to embark on that crusade… Bruce Froemming is responsible for his remarks and for whatever is in his heart and his head that would lead – or even allow – him to say what he said. If he seeks redemption, he needs to apologize in such a way that there is no doubt that he is not even partially sorry that his remarks were recorded. He needs to express sorrow for the remarks and the hurt that they caused and continue to cause. And even with that kind of apology to gain him public redemption, his minimum punishment should be a year's suspension from baseball – but I'd still fire his ass if I were the commissioner. But don't get me wrong, I love sports... << Back to the Topical Rants Index = Home = Recent = Topical = Wagers = = Archives = Pros = Scores = Contact =