Perhaps a minor point, but Woody Allen was never married to Mia Farrow.  It doesn’t really change the ethics involved, but it does change the legality (e.g., Allen was never Soon-Yi’s legal stepfather).

I think the point with Allen is that Previn was pretty young when he entered her life and there’s all sorts of unseemliness about that.  And the way he works his camera over Mariel Hemmingway in “Manhattan” kind of creeps me out too.

“Basically, if you avoid violence, cruelty and the mistreatment of kids, I’m probably going to still buy your product even if I wouldn’t seek you out at a party.”

I think this is a pretty good rule of thumb for this stuff. Steroids really never bothered me much - yeah, I wish they’d go away, but with all the contradictions and perverse incentives in today’s game, not to mention the fact that it was never ‘pure,’ I can’t really get too worked up about it. But I would never, EVER, draft Brett Myers for my fantasy team, and if he were on my real team, I would not cheer for him.

I couldn’t agree more.

Rob—Thanks for clearing up the Allen point. I should have done my research before writing.

Go laundry!  From another point of view, we are all sinful human beings.  Some sins may be regarded as worth that others, but at the same time only some are known.  I can enjoy entertainment provided by less than perfect people, knowing that I am considerably less than perfect myself.

’Jacob said…

Thank you.’

Sing it loud, sisters!

I’m in a retro Strat-o-matic league and we’re currently playing 1985.  One of the other owners just released Mel Hall—despite having just used a 2nd round draft pick on him—when the news about his conviction came out last week.  Whereas nobody is cutting Willie Wilson or Dave Parker.

Sure, we all know that sports fans, as a group, aren’t capable of creating things (even testosterone) and so, to fill their lives with something, they reflexively regurgitate the latest pop political silliness (“Support the Troops”, “God Bless America”, “Fallen Heroes Day”, etc., etc., etc.)  This is what people who can’t create do: they copy.

And here we have an example of this: sports fans desperately striking a pose as the heroic guardian of womanhood.  This is a modern classic in the sports fans canon.  Whether it’s Jason Kidd or the Duke Lacrosse players or Brett Myers, sports fans simply can’t wait to wag their chubby little fingers and declare the man guilty, sight unseen, thereby casting themselves as the morally superior heroes.  Perhaps they even get a wry smile as they envision themselves as Russell Crowe’s character in ‘L.A. Confidential’.

But what happens when two of the sports worlds’ favorite cliches arise and conflict with each other?  What would happen, for instance, if animal lover Tony LaRussa saw a Marine throw a puppy off a cliff moments after he told the media how he so loved the Department of Defense?  After a decade of coming up with new superlatives for Albert Pujols and three decades of double-switches that made scorecards across America look like a drawing of a ball of yarn by Mohmmad Ali, would his brain finally just short-circuit?  Would he be able to handle the clashing of two separate deities?

Well, THT commentators….would you?  You worship the government, especially law enforcement, right?  I know, dumb of me to ask; of course you do!  However, you are also posturing as the protectors and defenders of women (except Arab women, naturally - the sooner those heathens get to Hell the better!) 

So, to find out what happens when gods collide, I now present to you….

COP vs. WOMAN!
 
As you’ll see from that WGN article, a cop brutally assaulted a woman.  Really just beat the crap out of her.  However….he’s a cop.  He “puts his life on the line every day!”, right?  He “protects us from the scum that want to destroy our way of life!”, right?

So, who wins this battle for the hearts and minds of sports fans?  Cop or Woman?

(Incidentally, we know who the government sided with: the cop.  Kept his job, did 0 days in prison.  Way to go, Government!)

Cop scores first in our contest!  Thanks, Jason!

Will Cop shut Woman down in the bottom half of the inning or will she respond quickly?  Let’s find out….

——

(On a side note, I love the “Not so Much” in that article’s headline.  Nothing says “unbiased journalistic integrity” like overused one-liners stolen from a science fiction TV show.)

“I have no tolerance for domestic violence, so the Brett Myers and Bobby Chouniards of the world can die in a fire as far as I’m concerned.”

So what do you think of Bobby Cox?

Fair enough. I’ve always though that people deserve a second chance. People make stupid mistakes sometimes, and while domestic violence is one of the worst, I think the remaining body of work represents more of Cox than one incident. Again, completely indefensible that he did that and that anyone would.

But is there a point where someone (this includes non-baseball players) can be forgiven for such an incident? Is there a point where Cox’s behavior in that moment can be pushed to the side knowing that 99.999% of all of his other actions outweigh that one? Granted, that may not have been the only time he ever did it. Maybe it was just the breaking point after years of abuse. I’m not sure. I’m simply asking the question because I’m not sure how I would or should answer it.