The Pecan Park Eagle

Bogart: “Why are you shutting me down, Louie?”
Rains: “I’m shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”

“I’m shocked to find that gambling is going on in here,” Claude Rains shouts as Capt. Renault in the classic movie “Casablanca” in response to serious questioning from Bogart’s Rick Blaine, the owner of “Rick’s American Cafe.” Rains is shutting down Rick’s under Nazi orders due to a spirited demonstration of Free French spirit of protest to their German military occupation. Rains, a regular gambler at Rick’s, has no choice but to obey the command of the visiting and present Nazi Major Strasser. Rains’ mock cry about “illegal gambling” is the easiest excuse he can use to get the order done. While he is supervising the shutdown, a Rick’s employee rushes up to Rains and hands him an envelope. – “Your winnings, Captain.”

“Thank you very much,” Rains utters as he quickly stuffs the money in his pocket and continues to direct the shutdown.

Politics as per usual, Hollywood style, lives on in sports today too in much the same manner – or so it seems. The place of politics in the human condition hasn’t changed much in thousands of years and isn’t likely to do so any time soon.

Let’s see how the Claude Rains/Capt. Renault example comes into play in recent and near future times:

Major League Baseball: In 1998, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa make the cover of Time magazine as the saviors of baseball’s popularity slide during the 1994 strike year by banging out a record-breaking total of 70 and 66 homers in a dual hop over record holder Roger Maris’ 61* homers in 1961. If anyone ever needed an asterisk of denigration to their single season accomplishments, it should have been McGwire and Sosa for their achievements in 1998, but no one even blinked long enough to answer the unasked question of the day: How did these two “supermen” really do this? No sir. – Everybody was too busy honoring them as the coming of Thor to baseball. Fast forward to the atomic Bonds explosion of 2001 and the awakening to other possibilities that might explain this sudden natural evolution in power-hitting performance – and the sniff for the truth was on, full spigot.

The Steroids Investigation Era was under way during the first decade of the 21st century, leaving Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig free to try his hand at a variant paraphrase of the famous Claude Rains Casablanca quote: “I am shocked to think that any baseball player would stoop to using performance enhancing drugs to artificially and chemically improve his chances of hitting a baseball a country mile! – Oh, yes, thanks, owners, for my commissioner pay raise and contract extension. I really appreciate it.” – Although Selig may never actually have said the words we’ve just paraphrased as his message to the fans, it sure seems like he did. Why was Selig and the rest of baseball not concerned about what was fueling  the home run production of McGwire and Sosa in 1998? Given the fall from grace that baseball experienced for cancelling the balance of the 1994 season and the World Series in 1994, baseball’s need for super-hero redemption was too great to take any kind of close look at what needs may have been fueling the magic of “Superman” and “Captain Marvel that fabulous year.”

Some Other Possible Examples:

National Football League:

When Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice scored a first elevator floor KO of his ex-fiancee on the security-cam network at a gambling casino, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gave Rice a light few games suspension without ever witnessing the tale of the tape. Once the tape went viral, Goodell had no good political choice, but to change gears and ban Rice indefinitely. In spite of much testimony to the contrary from several sources, Goodell claims he never had a chance to see the tape prior to his first ruling. We must only surmise that Goodell was “shocked that Rice’s right cross to the jaw looked much worse than it read on paper. – Somebody named Adrian Peterson is going to pay for the mistake that I made with Rice.”

College Football’s Division 1 Four-Team Playoff Selection Committee

An eight-team playoff field could have been possible with the re-arrangement of two additional bowl games and resolved many of the issues the new four-team field faces in the politics of choosing that even a blue ribbon selection committee can not avoid. Chances are great that the four finalist could end up as (1) Alabama; (2) Oregon; (3) Florida State; and (4) either Baylor, TCU,  Mississippi State, or Ohio State.

As we understand it, the (1) and (4) teams will meet in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The (2) and (3) clubs will meet in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

Some media people, especially those with FSU ties, are now suggesting that Alabama will take the (1) spot to assure them a Sugar Bowl berth. – And that Florida State, the only school with an undefeated record still in the running, will be placed (3) to force them into a Rose Bowl semi-final match with (2) Oregon, a West Coast powerhouse.

Let’s see if that happens. If it happens, watch one of the talking heads from Florida State say something like, “it figures. Alabama and FSU both wanted the gold mine and that’s the way these bowl assignments stack up. – Alabama gets the gold – and FSU gets the shaft!” And then someone on the selection committee is bound to either utter quietly or loudly cry: “I can’t believe that anyone would think that there was any subjectivity that entered into our final decision on the four selected teams or their placements by order.”

Don’t waste your time on the politically pitiful this week, folks. – It’s time to gear into a mellow week of some Thanksgiving gratitude and all that good eating!

Tags: politics in sports

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