Who Are You?!

This is going to become a weekly post devoted to those in the world of sports and the world in general that make us say Who Are You?!

C. Vivian Stringer, the head women's basketball coach at Rutgers, appeared on ESPN First Take this morning and was interviewed regarding the two recent developments in the Don Imus/Rutgers womens basketball debacle. First that Imus finally reached a settlement with CBS and now is allowed to seek work with another broadcasting company and second that Rutgers leading scorer from this past season, Kia Vaughn has filed a law suit against Imus for the comments he made on April 4, 2007. In response to Imus' settlement and future employment opportunities Stringer said "everyone deserves an opportunity to work...We didn't really call for his firing, I think that was more of society and of the sponsors and that. We really sought to define who we were and resented the kind of things and remarks he said of us and the team." This seems to say that her teams seemingly overreacting to a joke made in bad taste had nothing to do with the amount of coverage and consequences that followed. If Imus had attacked the team in a Michael Richards like manner by violently and repeatedly disparaging the team this would be completely different. I also believe that if Stringer and the team truly are trying not to this less define them as a team and as a program the reaction and media attention would be different as well. This is shown through her own words when she explains "you can compete everyday and practice however many hours and put forth all of this and then in a matter of 54 seconds it can all be wiped away." Although my favorite sounds bite of the interview is when Stringer explains to all of us that "the cameras and attention is turned toward that which gathers attention." Not only is this funny because it is so weird, obvious, and useless a statement , but because one reaction to the negativity from others determines the amount of attention that that negativity will garner. And while I certainly believe that Imus was clearly in the wrong, the Rutgers team seems highly hypocritical in their handling of this terrible occurrence.

Barry Bonds today has hired a group of lawyers in an effort to crack down on private citizens making unsubstantiated claims against his him. Such as those who believe that he took steriods or those who think he committed tax evasion, or the slim few who profess he has cheated on his wife. Now I have absolutely no idea how much or if any of this is true, but I mean come on Barry how exactly do you expect this to stop people from bad mouthing you. Every time he seems to make a strong claim he always backs down. First, he says I am going to play until I am 100 and now its through next season. Then he was gonna sue the authors of Game of Shadows then he backed off of that. Barry, along with everyone else, just needs to RELAX. He should move to the AL and continue mashing for a couple more seasons and fade off into the sunset and out of fans minds for years to come much McGwire and even Canseco until recently.

Pacman Jones makes the cut do to his continual off the field antics. From my experience when people get into large amounts of trouble they tend to feel remorse and attempt to distance themselves from the wrong they have committed. This is not the case with Pacman Jones. After being suspended for the entire 2007 season he has decided to start a career as a professional wrestler which has since been disallowed by as he is still a member of the Titans and they have control over his athletic career. Now, instead of continually refuting the claims held against him and continually keeping his name at the top of the headlines by continuing his antics, Jones should take a sabbatical and go on a nice vacation. He should stay hidden for the next couple months and when he comes back he should profess how he has changed and how he is ready to comeback and turn around his career. Of course this will never happen, but then again decisions like this are always easier from the sidelines.

The Cleveland Indians have one of the worst records in the AL since the all-star break at
13-18 and have lost there last 4 games. Not to mention they are now 1 game back of Detroit in the division and 2 games back of Seattle in the wild card. However, it is not that they are losing that bothers me so much and why they are nominated this week, but it is their response to this struggle. In yesterdays Columbus dispatch both Wedge and Shapiro made frightening comments regarding the struggling Indians. Shapiro explained that "to play meaningful games at this point is an honor" and Wedge backed that up by saying that "we can't let our chins and pout about it." These comments make it sound like the Indians do not expect to win and that they are content to be in the position that they are in currently. Now this is a sign of scary things to come as the team no longer has the swagger and confidence that is necessary of a playoff team and World Series contender. At least the team is headed in the right direction by dropping Grady to the 3 hole and leading off Lofton, although it will take much more than changing the batting order to overturn the run of failure experienced by the Indians of late.

With all that said what do you think? Who is most deserving of this prestigious award?