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MITCHELL'S TAKE
MITCHELL: Baseball world reacts to Mark McGwire, but imagine if he dropped dead instead of confessed like wrestlers do

Jan 12, 2010 - 1:38:47 PM
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Mark McGwire tearfully confessed his sin Monday afternoon.

ESPN led with the news every hour on the hour. I heard a sports-talk guy call it "the gift that keeps on giving."

They have no idea.

According to sports news shows such as ESPN's "Pardon The Interruption," about all Major League Baseball has had to worry about was the ruination of sport's most sacred marketing gimmick – the home run record. PTI's Tony Kornheiser suggested MLB commissioner Bud Selig, the man who looked the other way while McGwire and Sammy Sosa did what it took to recreate Mickey Mantle's and Roger Maris's Home Run Derby, call a general amnesty and open up a Steroid Wing of the Hall of Fame.

These sports reporters don't get it. As ruinous as illegal PED use is to the credibility of baseball records, that pales behind the death and devastating effects on users' long-term health. When drug testing isn't scrupulously enforced, and constantly updated, athletes are faced with the impossible choice of either sacrificing their physical futures or settling for second place.

If you knew anything about athletes with the drive and talents of, say, a Barry Bonds, you know they will never settle.

But that was this Monday night, you know, the one with the convicted rapist hosting the show that specifically targets children, not last Monday night, the one with the return of the professional wrestling Monday Night Wars.

How exciting was that? Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, and Vince Russo all fighting it out once again for the big money, fame, and, most of all, the fans. It's great, isn't it?

While you watch Vince McMahon sneer over Bret Hart, or Hulk Hogan tell them all, or Eric Bischoff finally be Eazy E again, or read Vince Russo get over in the new media, save a moment to remember the blood on the hands of these men who set the standards for this industry.

Remember Mr. Perfect and The Big Bossman and Louie Spicoli and Brian Pillman and Owen Hart and Crush and Chris Benoit and his family and the dozens more who died for no better reason than they were in pro wrestling.

What would the PTI hosts have said if, instead of confessing, Mark McGwire had dropped dead with a toothbrush in his mouth the morning before he was to break the home run record, the way Eddie Guerrero did the morning he was to regain the WWE Championship?

Unlike McGwire, Tony Halme never confessed.

Halme died Sunday at the age of 47. He killed himself after years of deteriorating mental and physical health. When he was in World Wrestling Entertainment as Aaryan villain Ludvig Borga, though, he was the very picture of what Vince McMahon envisioned one of his Superstars to be, so much so that his Nazi SS tattoo couldn't keep him out of their rings (as long as he kept it covered for appearances' sake.)

"Dr. Death" Steve Williams died two weeks ago at the age of 49. An All-American football player and wrestler at the University of Oklahoma, Williams was too small to have much of a chance to make it in the NFL, so he did what it took to make it in professional wrestling. Incidents like the time Brad Armstrong accidentally left a cut above his eye on a Mid-South afternoon show that required 100 stitches and Dr. Death made his booking hours away that same night made him a tough guy legend, magazine magazine cover boy (with a close-up of the stitches), and a role model exploitive promoters could use. Williams worked for both WWE and WCW during his long pro wrestling career, losing his tough guy image getting injured in WWE's Brawl For All, and embarrassing his long-time friend Jim Ross by participating in WCW's "Oklahoma" skits.

Was Williams's fatal cancer exacerbated by his use of PEDs? We may never know, but at least one opening match wrestler in WWE avoided those drugs specifically because of the history of cancer in his family.

Eddie Fatu, Umagu, died a few weeks before that at the age of 36 of two heart attacks. Fatu was one of the hottest free agents in the business, after years the near the top of the card in WWE, despite his refusal to enter drug rehabilitation to address a prescription pain pill addiction he picked up in his time in the business. He had previously been linked to a Federal investigation of one of those nebulous Internet pharmacies. Fatu's death cost him a chance to cash in last Monday night, since both companies were willing to look the other way (and let Fatu risk his health yet again) because there was a one night wrestling war on.

That turned out, though, to be something of a moot point.

Instead of outbidding WWE for Fatu, TNA hired one of the biggest stars in the business to be their biggest shock, and the next day the grand jury handed down their felony drug indictments. True, WWE instituted what is considered to be the weakest drug policy in all of sports, and TNA, well, has Hulk Hogan's promises. Who knows how long either will hold up?

There's a wrestling war on.


We suggest these recent related articles...
25 YEARS OF BRUCE MITCHELL - DAY 10 (2000): Titled “Death of Hardcore” as Bruce discusses the apparent end of the Hardcore Wrestling era and also suggests what ECW must do to regain relevance
25 YEARS OF BRUCE MITCHELL - DAY 9 (1999): Titled “Children” as Bruce discusses Vince McMahon's marketing approach toward children and how he deals with controversy like a child would (with a great opening line)
25 YEARS OF BRUCE MITCHELL - DAY 8 (1998): “Stolen Moments” - Bruce lays out case for Flair as Greatest of All-Time as he dealt with locker room politics in WCW Nitro era
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