Summer of sinners makes rort of American sport

WASHINGTON: Forty years after joyful US youth staged a Summer of Love with celebrations at Woodstock and San Francisco, American sport fans are going through a long, hot, miserable Summer of Hate like none before.

A steroid scandal darkens a chase at baseball history. A gridiron star faces prison in an alleged dogfighting racket. A referee with gambling debts ignited a match-fix scandal to rock basketball. Legend Gary Player says steroids have invaded golf.

Add new doping scandals at the Tour de France and the still-hanging appeal by 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis of his positive test and it's an off-field mess that not even football star David Beckham's much-hyped arrival can ease.

It would take a young wizard's magic to solve this mystery, but alas Harry Potter's tale has been told.

And forget US baseball scores, off-season transfers or pre-season gridiron training. There is precious little room on radio airwaves, newspaper pages or television screens for outdated 20th Century items such as victory and defeat.

It's like the total collapse of trust in sport, a bulked-up meltdown of faith between supporter and athlete.

A grim-faced National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern called referee Tim Donaghy's role in match-fixing and point-shaving for gamblers the low point of his 23 years running the league.

National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell, just coming off the banishments of two top players for conduct related charges, ordered Atlanta star quarterback Michael Vick not to attend training camp because of dogfight charges in an indictment that details the slaying and torture of animals.

Barry Bonds approaches the all-time US Major League Baseball home run record of legend Hank Aaron even as a federal grand jury investigates him for tax evasion and perjury charges in a lingering stain from the BALCO steroid case.

"For the life of me, I can't think of a time when there were three such burning issues going on at the same time in sports," Ohio University Center for Sports Administration executive director James Kahler told USA Today.

US sports television network ESPN asked fans to decide which commissioner they would least like to be now. NBA boss Stern won, if it can be considered a victory, with a vast majority saying his integrity-rocking woes pose the greatest challenge.

A US Anti-Doping Agency arbitration panel continues to deliberate after an extended public hearing in May regarding Landis, who is appealing his positive doping test after a critical stage victory at last year's Tour de France.

And then there is Player's statement at the British Open that he knew of a golfer who is taking steroids. That provided an ominous backdrop for PGA Tour officials attempts to pull together a doping policy for their sport.

"If the PGA Tour isn't proactive rather than reactive," steroids expert Charlie Yesalis told USA Today, "there's going to be a big juicy scandal to deal with."

Sorry, it's going to have to wait in line.

AFP

(China Daily 07/27/2007 page23)