The Buhner.com Blog

I went with that over “Saving Bob Ryan”. They’re both lame.

Anyway, Bob Ryan’s getting ripped a new one over this article he wrote for the Boston Globe. For anyone that talks about it, one would assume that the article is pretty much just accusing Nomar Garciaparra of being on steroids.

Now, I’ll be the first one to say that the whole “steroids” thing is McCarthyism at it’s finest. It’s easy to point a finger at someone and say “STEROIDS!”, especially if they had an abnormal season or performed at a high level only to have injuries hamper their careers. It’s not like these things haven’t taken place before - there’s just an explanation for them now. Jose Canseco made a fortune doing that exact thing. Now, sports journalists (who are a step above Canseco, but a step below “journalists”) can make an easy story when they point a roundabout finger in someone’s direction and say the word. Generally, people lash out. Todd Helton was accused by a former Rockies broadcaster - Helton immediately denied it, and the broadcaster quickly took the statement back. Canseco’s comments in his book were pretty widely ignored by the players he accused, but not by outsiders, who seemed to take this book at Ball Four status and started up a federal investigation. So be it.

So the finger gets pointed to Nomar Garciaparra. Garciaparra would normally fit into the vague steroids definition - fit, very good offensive numbers, rash of injuries. If any other columnist had mentioned it in his column, maybe such a big deal wouldn’t have been made of it.

But it’s Bob Ryan. Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe, talking about former Boston Red Sox player Nomar Garciaparra. Immediately Ryan is accused of taking a cheap shot at Nomar because Nomar’s not on the team any more. He’s now the enemy, and therefore we’ll take every opportunity to take shots at him since he’s no longer with us.

But there are flaws in that reasoning. First off, Nomar didn’t choose to leave the Red Sox - he was traded to the Cubs at the 2004 trading deadline. One could point to the Red Sox as being the ones who cut ties with Nomar first, before Nomar had the opportunity to. Perhaps he would have re-signed with the Sox - doubtful, but possible - but the Red Sox made the preemptive strike, and in doing so, actually may have made the move that got them the World Series they desired for so long. If anything, Boston should be a bit thankful to Nomar just for being able to bring the Red Sox the players they needed to complete their championship run.

Secondly, look at the article again. Ryan’s not a typical sportswriter - it’s a well-written sports article, carefully dancing around an actual accusation than coming straight out and implying anything. Ryan’s not dumb. He points to a change in physical appearance over one winter and Nomar’s body “breaking down” over a period of six years. He never actually accuses Nomar of the steroid use, doesn’t approach the libel that Canseco does when he talks about injecting teammates. He basically says “what if?”

Sportswriters do “what if?” all the time - that’s what makes for news stories, especially in places like New York, Boston, and LA, where there is more than one newspaper on the market competing for your 50 cents. Look back at a few days ago with the Helton to Baltimore rumor. There was no rumor - a sportswriter put out a “what if?” article. She took two facts (Helton being shopped by Colorado, Baltimore lacking productivity out of the first base position) and made a story out of it. That’s exactly what Ryan did.

Finally, look at who the article is coming from. This is Bob Ryan, someone quoted as saying he wanted to smack Jason Kidd’s wife because he thought she was a media whore, and when given the opportunity to take back the comment when he said it, instead relished the moment. Ryan knows that by doing things like this, he gets his name out in the public. It keeps him on shows like The Sports Reporters and Around The Horn. It makes him marketable, so that when it comes time to renew his contract (I’m assuming he has a contract, but this could also be applicable to salary reviews and what I’m sure is the highest payroll on the Globe’s sports department), Ryan can point to the fact that he’s a pseudo-celebrity, appearing regularly on television, and that the Globe can market him and people buy the paper because of him, and if the Globe lost him, someone else would jump all over him.

Which is true - I’m sure plenty of people actually buy the Globe to read Ryan’s articles, and I’m sure there has to be someone who watches The Sports Reporters (if you know of one, let me know.) But why rip Ryan from writing the article about Nomar just because it’s Nomar? Is he not allowed to talk about ex-Red Sox in his columns? Surely he can’t talk about current Red Sox in his columns - he’d never be able to walk into the Sox clubhouse and get another interview. Some have asked why, if Ryan had these questions about steroid use before, hadn’t he put out this article last year, or perhaps the year before? That exact reason. Accusing a current player on your hometown team - especially one that was as popular as Nomar was - is suicide for a sportswriter. It might have gotten him recognition outside of Boston, but it’d get him a one-way ticket out of Boston as well.

So maybe Ryan has had these thoughts in the past. Maybe he doesn’t say anything last season after the trade because that’s considered piling on Nomar - kicking him in the ass as he’s going out the door. Maybe he waits until this season, and maybe he doesn’t say anything because he still doesn’t feel sure of himself - it’s only a possibility.

Then Nomar gets hurt again, seriously. It’s an injury that might happen to a steroid user. Those thoughts in Ryan’s head pop up again. The story is there. Why can’t he write it? What does the team that the player is on have anything to do with whether the story should be written or not?

Exactly. Get off Ryan’s case for writing the story about Nomar - if you have an issue, make it with Ryan for writing the story at all based on assumption. But don’t rip on him for pointing the finger at Nomar.