Bill Bodden's Blog, page 23
October 14, 2015
My Life as a Semi-Famous Comic Strip Character!
A few people don't know this: I am the inspiration for a comic book character. In John Kovalic's Dork Tower, he occasionally features a fellow named Bill Blyden who manages Pegasaurus Games, a local game shop. If you know much about me, it isn't a stretch to figure out that the character is based on me. This goes back to the days when Pegasus Games had a storefront on State Street in Madison, Wisconsin, where I was the manager for several years. John would stop into the shop more regularly than he's able to now, mostly to chat and to browse, but on very rare occasions, John would be pondering a story idea, and sometimes he ask us for suggestions...(To read the rest of the post, please visit my web site:
http://billbodden.com/2015/10/14/my-l...
September 6, 2015
My Summer of Conventions
In an effort to increase my visibility (self-promotion can be a real bear), I've been hitting the convention circuit a little harder this year than in the past. For a semi-introvert like myself, this can be both a terrifying and exhilarating experience. And also tiring.
First up was Origins , back in early June. Held each year in Columbus, Ohio, Origins sometimes struggles as second fiddle to GenCon in the tabletop gaming world. Personally, I like Origins quite a bit; the venue is large enough to host world-class events like a World Science Fiction Convention (aka WorldCon) with lots of smaller meeting rooms perfect for concentrated gaming events. My traveling companion, Monica Valentinelli, was invited to be a speaker at the event; she needed a ride, so it became a more financially feasible event for me, knowing I had my room and badge covered in exchange for driving and for my presentations.
My events went well; I gave solo presentations on selling games to distributors (for manufacturers) and on freelancing in the gaming industry. Attendance wasn't spectacular -- I don't think there was ever much more than a dozen or so people in the audience -- but both events were well-received with active participation, and I had the gratifying experience of people coming up to me afterwards to thank me for my presentations.
I managed to hang out with a few friends while there; Sarah Hans , and Steve and Betty Lickman -- Steampunks of my acquaintance -- met up with me for lunch on Saturday, and the conversation was relaxed and interesting. Sarah and Steve are also writers, and Sarah edited the anthology Sidekicks! , in which both Steve and I had stories. We commiserated on trying to get stories noticed -- if not published, and had a pleasant lunch together. I also had a delightful dinner with Seth Polansky and Kelley Slagle -- among many other people -- and heard all about a film Kelley directed, which they were selling DVDs of at the show -- called "Of Dice and Men" . I watched a screening of the film that evening, and enjoyed it well enough to buy a copy from Kelley. It's also available in a Special Edition on BluRay.
July 4th weekend saw me at CONvergence, in Bloomington, Minnesota. CONvergence is a large, fan-run convention that does pretty much everything, and does it all pretty well. I was again attending with Monica V.,so I had company for the drive. Made a few plans with area friends, but mostly was expecting to see more people I knew. It's been more than 20 years since I last attended a Twin Cities convention, and many people I knew back then are no longer part of the scene. I did catch up with a few friends, first for sushi dinner on Friday, and then with a different group for a delightful Mexican-fusion brunch on Saturday.
My panels were well-attended, and this time I was not flying solo; each had at least three to four other panelists, and the level of moderation skill was generally good. I was on panels about getting into tabletop gaming, becoming a game designer, and the rise of tabletop gaming as a popular hobby, and the audience was receptive and engaged each time.
Saturday night I was feeling a bit sorry for myself; I knew far fewer people at the convention than I thought I would, and was kind of lonely. I happened upon a few people in one of the poolside cabana terraces about to start a game of Ticket To Ride -- one of my favorite boardgames -- and they asked if I'd care to join them. Going completely against type, I said yes, and spent an enjoyable hour or so gaming and chatting with four complete strangers. My thanks to Lucas, Nicole, Amy and Jeremiah for being delightful company!
Caption: Lucas, Nicole, Amy, Jeremiah, and me at CONvergence, June 6, 2015
At the end of July, I made the holy pilgrimage to GenCon in Indianapolis. It was an odd experience being there completely on my own this year. For more than a decade I was working for someone else at the con, either as an employee of ACD Distribution, or as sales manager and occasional freelance writer for Green Ronin Publishing . This time, I was there representing only myself, and while I again failed to make sufficient plans to prevent me from dining alone occasionally, I did have several good meetings about future work, a few convivial meals with others (including Lynne Hardy and her husband Richard), and had two seminars that went well. I reprised my presentation on selling games to distributors here, and found myself on a panel with several industry luminaries about how to get started as a freelancer in the gaming industry. I also finally met Eloy Lasanta, whose Third Eye Games had me as a stretch goal for the AMP: Year One RPG Kickstarter. I wrote the adventure Evolution of Apex , which has also been collected with the other AMP: Year One Adventures into an anthology titled AMP Adventures . Eloy tells me my adventure is meeting with decent acclaim from the game's fans, which does me a world of good to hear.
I managed to wangle a free badge as an "Industry Insider" which got me access to being on those two panels among other things, and it was curious to see people's surprised reactions to my "Guest of Honor" badge at the show. I've been around in the games industry for years, and while I'm nothing like a household name, I have made my share of contributions.
Caption: I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille!
I also managed to find a last-minute roommate to help cover the extravagant cost of a hotel room at the show. David Miller runs a cool gaming news site called Purple Pawn ; besides being a nice guy and a pleasant roommate, David is serious about presenting information about gaming to his readers. I highly recommend checking out Purple Pawn when you have a chance.
My last convention of the summer was Geek.Kon , where I have been one of the Local Guests of the convention for a number of years running. The Local Guest guest list is quite long, but includes Monica Valentinelli and Matt McElroy, Alex Bledsoe , Christopher Jones , Aaron Pavao , and Mark Stegbauer . There were many more guests of the convention, but I wasn't able to spend much time with them. I especially regret not meeting and chatting with Greg Weisman , but that's what next year's conventions are for.
A highlight of the show for me was breakfast on Sunday with Will Shetterly and Emma Bull . I was Emma's Guest Liaison when she was a GoH at Wiscon 14 back in 1990; I haven't seen either Emma or Will much since, so it was very pleasant to have this chance to chat and catch up. Another highlight was dinner the night before with all of Geek.Kon's GoHs at the Nile restaurant, a tradition for several years now.
Geek.Kon is rapidly becoming my favorite local convention. A top-notch staff that works hard to put on a good show, Geek.Kon is staffed mostly by a collection of youthful but competent people. The convention has been growing at a rapid rate, and I hope to see them around the scene for many years to come.
So that's been my summer so far, and it's taken a bit out of me. That's more travel and more conventions over three months than I usually do in two years! I have hopes to make it to a few conventions next year; much will depend on how organized I am, and I have hopes that I'll have more new projects to promote.
First up was Origins , back in early June. Held each year in Columbus, Ohio, Origins sometimes struggles as second fiddle to GenCon in the tabletop gaming world. Personally, I like Origins quite a bit; the venue is large enough to host world-class events like a World Science Fiction Convention (aka WorldCon) with lots of smaller meeting rooms perfect for concentrated gaming events. My traveling companion, Monica Valentinelli, was invited to be a speaker at the event; she needed a ride, so it became a more financially feasible event for me, knowing I had my room and badge covered in exchange for driving and for my presentations.
My events went well; I gave solo presentations on selling games to distributors (for manufacturers) and on freelancing in the gaming industry. Attendance wasn't spectacular -- I don't think there was ever much more than a dozen or so people in the audience -- but both events were well-received with active participation, and I had the gratifying experience of people coming up to me afterwards to thank me for my presentations.
I managed to hang out with a few friends while there; Sarah Hans , and Steve and Betty Lickman -- Steampunks of my acquaintance -- met up with me for lunch on Saturday, and the conversation was relaxed and interesting. Sarah and Steve are also writers, and Sarah edited the anthology Sidekicks! , in which both Steve and I had stories. We commiserated on trying to get stories noticed -- if not published, and had a pleasant lunch together. I also had a delightful dinner with Seth Polansky and Kelley Slagle -- among many other people -- and heard all about a film Kelley directed, which they were selling DVDs of at the show -- called "Of Dice and Men" . I watched a screening of the film that evening, and enjoyed it well enough to buy a copy from Kelley. It's also available in a Special Edition on BluRay.
July 4th weekend saw me at CONvergence, in Bloomington, Minnesota. CONvergence is a large, fan-run convention that does pretty much everything, and does it all pretty well. I was again attending with Monica V.,so I had company for the drive. Made a few plans with area friends, but mostly was expecting to see more people I knew. It's been more than 20 years since I last attended a Twin Cities convention, and many people I knew back then are no longer part of the scene. I did catch up with a few friends, first for sushi dinner on Friday, and then with a different group for a delightful Mexican-fusion brunch on Saturday.
My panels were well-attended, and this time I was not flying solo; each had at least three to four other panelists, and the level of moderation skill was generally good. I was on panels about getting into tabletop gaming, becoming a game designer, and the rise of tabletop gaming as a popular hobby, and the audience was receptive and engaged each time.
Saturday night I was feeling a bit sorry for myself; I knew far fewer people at the convention than I thought I would, and was kind of lonely. I happened upon a few people in one of the poolside cabana terraces about to start a game of Ticket To Ride -- one of my favorite boardgames -- and they asked if I'd care to join them. Going completely against type, I said yes, and spent an enjoyable hour or so gaming and chatting with four complete strangers. My thanks to Lucas, Nicole, Amy and Jeremiah for being delightful company!
Caption: Lucas, Nicole, Amy, Jeremiah, and me at CONvergence, June 6, 2015
At the end of July, I made the holy pilgrimage to GenCon in Indianapolis. It was an odd experience being there completely on my own this year. For more than a decade I was working for someone else at the con, either as an employee of ACD Distribution, or as sales manager and occasional freelance writer for Green Ronin Publishing . This time, I was there representing only myself, and while I again failed to make sufficient plans to prevent me from dining alone occasionally, I did have several good meetings about future work, a few convivial meals with others (including Lynne Hardy and her husband Richard), and had two seminars that went well. I reprised my presentation on selling games to distributors here, and found myself on a panel with several industry luminaries about how to get started as a freelancer in the gaming industry. I also finally met Eloy Lasanta, whose Third Eye Games had me as a stretch goal for the AMP: Year One RPG Kickstarter. I wrote the adventure Evolution of Apex , which has also been collected with the other AMP: Year One Adventures into an anthology titled AMP Adventures . Eloy tells me my adventure is meeting with decent acclaim from the game's fans, which does me a world of good to hear.
I managed to wangle a free badge as an "Industry Insider" which got me access to being on those two panels among other things, and it was curious to see people's surprised reactions to my "Guest of Honor" badge at the show. I've been around in the games industry for years, and while I'm nothing like a household name, I have made my share of contributions.
Caption: I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille!
I also managed to find a last-minute roommate to help cover the extravagant cost of a hotel room at the show. David Miller runs a cool gaming news site called Purple Pawn ; besides being a nice guy and a pleasant roommate, David is serious about presenting information about gaming to his readers. I highly recommend checking out Purple Pawn when you have a chance.
My last convention of the summer was Geek.Kon , where I have been one of the Local Guests of the convention for a number of years running. The Local Guest guest list is quite long, but includes Monica Valentinelli and Matt McElroy, Alex Bledsoe , Christopher Jones , Aaron Pavao , and Mark Stegbauer . There were many more guests of the convention, but I wasn't able to spend much time with them. I especially regret not meeting and chatting with Greg Weisman , but that's what next year's conventions are for.
A highlight of the show for me was breakfast on Sunday with Will Shetterly and Emma Bull . I was Emma's Guest Liaison when she was a GoH at Wiscon 14 back in 1990; I haven't seen either Emma or Will much since, so it was very pleasant to have this chance to chat and catch up. Another highlight was dinner the night before with all of Geek.Kon's GoHs at the Nile restaurant, a tradition for several years now.
Geek.Kon is rapidly becoming my favorite local convention. A top-notch staff that works hard to put on a good show, Geek.Kon is staffed mostly by a collection of youthful but competent people. The convention has been growing at a rapid rate, and I hope to see them around the scene for many years to come.
So that's been my summer so far, and it's taken a bit out of me. That's more travel and more conventions over three months than I usually do in two years! I have hopes to make it to a few conventions next year; much will depend on how organized I am, and I have hopes that I'll have more new projects to promote.
June 22, 2015
CONvergence bound!
In my latest blog post, I talk a bit about attending CONvergence, a sci-fi convention in Bloomington, Minnesota. I'll be on several panels, and it'll be good to get back to the Twin Cities convention scene after too many years away:
http://billbodden.com/2015/06/22/my-c...
http://billbodden.com/2015/06/22/my-c...
June 2, 2015
New Blog Post
In my blog post on my website this week, I talk about a few behind-the-scenes details of a project I worked on last year for Third Eye Games: http://billbodden.com/2015/06/02/the-...
October 15, 2014
The People vs. H.P. Lovecraft
Jim Hines reminded me in his Live Journal (and elsewhere) of an ongoing argument: a lot of people are angry that Howard Phillips Lovecraft's likeness is used for the statue given out as the World Fantasy Awards. I have conflicting feelings about this, but I'd like to add my voice to the discussion of What Should Be Done.
First of all, Lovecraft pretty much WAS a racist. You can sugar-coat it any way you want, saying he was "a product of his times" or "he was writing for his audience", or whatever. Mohandas K. Ghandi was a product of his times too -- and practically the very same times as Lovecraft, I might add, but he managed to be probably the least racist person in history. Please shut up about the whole "product of his times" argument: Lovecraft's hatred of the bulk of humanity wasn't just limited to people of color; he despised any non-WASPish white person too, as essentially being culturally inferior.
More than just racist, Lovecraft was well and truly a messed up person. He harbored fears about nearly everything -- odd-looking trees, women, hidden family secrets -- and had a number of highly unusual maladies, and likely some mental health issues as well. He died of cancer in 1937 at age 46 - three years younger than I am now. This year, on the anniversary of his birth (August 20), The Guardian published a list of "Ten things you should know about H. P. Lovecraft" . The site is a bit slow in reacting, so be patient. It's worth a read, and several points may stand out in explaining some of Lovecraft's many personality quirks.
Lovecraft was incredibly influential. Yes, I agree with this wholeheartedly. A large percentage of my professional writing output over the last decade owes a tremendous debt to H.P., either directly -- for my work on Lovecraftian tabeltop RPGs like Achtung! Cthulhu , or his influence on my thinking regarding horror themes in short fiction, as can be seen (I hope) in my short story "In The Shadow Of His Glory" from the anthology Sidekicks! . Were it not for Lovecraft's writing, I probably wouldn't be a writer today, though as I keep collecting rejection letters, I am reminded of Lovecraft living on something like a can of beans a day at the "height" of his writing career. There but for the grace of god...
Lovecraft was also extremely generous with his time to his friends, corresponding tirelessly and offering advice and editing help to his circle of fellow writers with whom he felt kinship. However, the true measure of a person is not how we treat our friends, but how we treat our enemies. Lovecraft falls down a lot on that point.
An interesting article on Lovecraft appeared very recently (October 13. 2014) in the Wall Street Journal. It discusses why Lovecraft is still important today. I encourage reading this article; it can be found here .
The argument that Lovecraft didn't write fantasy doesn't hold much water for me. Frankly, categories like that can be pretty broad and difficult to quantify with any precision. (Remember the whole 'What is art?' thing? Yeah, let's not go down that road again, okay?) Lovecraft is primarily known for writing horror, true, but his fantastical themes and images more than qualify some of his work, I think, for the realm of fantasy. I think this argument is a toss-up.
The statue is U-G-L-Y. Yep. I agree. If I were to ever win one of those (mighty long odds, I'll grant you) I'd be reluctant to keep it out in the open where I might come upon it suddenly and without warning. With apologies to Gahan Wilson, whose work I adore, the caricature of Lovecraft, so lovingly sculpted in GW's world-renowned style, is painful to look at. For some reason, I like Wilson's work better in 2-D representations.
Frankly, I don't think any living or formerly living person should be the subject for the World Fantasy Awards. It should represent something more closely associated with fantasy themes -- a dragon would be suitable, I should think. Given the vitriol of the discourse on THIS topic I don't think we could ever agree on what the Award statue should look like, but maybe I grow pessimistic in my old age.
Lovecraft is -- and should -- still be one of the iconic authors of American literature of the fantastic. His purple prose was hardly The best example of what most people define as good writing, and yet his ideas -- chiefly, that humans are NOT the center of the Universe and that random chance plays a larger role than any so-called destiny does in events -- were groundbreaking for his time. I personally owe HP a lot, but I agree that it's time for a change. Make the design of the World Fantasy Award more in keeping with fantasy themes, rather than an uncomfortable tribute to a guy with some uncomfortable ideas about his fellow humans.
August 4, 2014
My Geek-Kon Schedule
My schedule as a guest of Geek Kon has been finalized. Here's where I'll be and when:
Friday (August 22)
Slingin’ Dice: An Intro to RPGs (Bodden, Pavao) – La Crosse – 7:00-7:50pm
Gaming with the Guests – Tabletop Gaming Room (Salons D & E) – 8:00pm to 10:00pm
I'll be running a ZOMBIE DICE Tournament, with, like, prizes and stuff!!! Hopefully, I'll also get to play Nanuk, or other cool games, after the Zombie Dice tournament wraps up.
Saturday (August 23)
Gaming Industry Panel (that needs a clever name) (Bodden, Kovalic, Pavao) – Green Bay – 12:00pm to 12:50pm
How to Live your Life as a Writer (Bledsoe, Bodden, Valentinelli) – Green Bay – 6:00pm to 6:50pm
Sunday (August 24)
Build-a-World Game Show (Bledsoe, Bodden, Jones, Pavao, Valentinelli) – Mendota – 12:00pm to 12:50pm
Using Humor in Writing for Various Mediums (Billany, Bledsoe, Bodden) – Geneva – 2:00pm to 2:50pm
A lot of wonderful, talented people will be guests at Geek-Kon. You should show up and talk with them. There will be TONS of fun things to do: Gaming! Comedy! Music! Anime! Cosplay! Discussions of Cannibalism! And more!
Geek Kon is held at the Marriott Madison West in beautiful Middleton, Wisconsin. This year, the convention dates are August 22-24. For more information on the Kon itself, check out their website: http://www.geekkon.net/
June 25, 2014
I'm a Convention Guest!
Along with a TON of talented people, I'll be a guest at Geek-Kon this year in Madison, Wisconsin, August 22-24. Besides speaking on a number of panels, I will also be refereeing a Zombie Dice tournament as part of the "Game With The Guests" event on Friday night of the con.
The tournament is simple. Basic rules of Zombie Dice will be followed with one major exception: As this event is a fundraiser for the convention's charity, Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin , players will be able to "buy off" one shotgun blast per turn at a cost of $1 each. All money so collected goes straight into the kitty for Second Harvest so bring plenty of $1 bills if you plan to join in the fun!
The tournament is expected to last three to four rounds (depending on the number of participants), and the winner will walk away with the respect and admiration of everyone at the convention for triumphing in such a prestigious event. Seriously, there aren't any prizes, but it should be a great time. Many thanks are due to Steve Jackson Games for providing Zombie Dice sets and score sheets to help facilitate this event.
For more information on Geek-Kon, click HERE .
June 4, 2014
Changes
I've been blogging faithfully over at my website -- billbodden.com -- every week since October, and on Goodreads even longer. Frankly, the response is occasionally cheering, but almost always underwhelming. With the exception of a couple of posts, I rarely get enough traffic to feel as though it justifies my effort. It's been a disheartening discovery.
That doesn't mean I'll stop blogging - just that I won't worry so much about keeping a regular schedule. I'll blog when I have something to announce, or perhaps if I have a strong opinion on something current.
And if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check out the newest book for the Achtung! Cthulhu tabletop RPG line, the Guide to the Pacific Front, which I wrote roughly half of:
Thanks!
Bill
That doesn't mean I'll stop blogging - just that I won't worry so much about keeping a regular schedule. I'll blog when I have something to announce, or perhaps if I have a strong opinion on something current.
And if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check out the newest book for the Achtung! Cthulhu tabletop RPG line, the Guide to the Pacific Front, which I wrote roughly half of:
Thanks!
Bill
May 28, 2014
At Last!
Achtung! Cthulhu Guide to the Pacific Front
At long last, a book I worked on nearly a year ago has finally gone to press. Available now in several ebook formats, with print copies showing up in stores -- at a guess -- within a month or so. Since the Achtung! Cthulhu Guide to the Pacific Front is now publicly available, I can finally show it off without violating any confidentiality clauses.
This was one of the largest tabletop RPG projects I've worked on to date; I wrote about half of the book (roughly 32,000 words), the other half written by the indefatigable Alex Bund, and the whole mess was edited by the unflappable Lynne Hardy. It was a great project to work on, and I couldn't have asked for a better team to work with.
May 21, 2014
The Ethics of Cheating
A while back I received issue #8 of Andrew Hooper's excellent fanzine FLAG, in which he opined about the issue of performance-enhancing drugs in sports, specifically in Baseball. Being something of a baseball fan I took interest in what Andy has to say on the topic: I don't always agree with Andy, but his writing always captures my full attention, and inspires no small amount of admiration for his work.
What got me started down this path was thinking about local baseball player Ryan Braun, who spent a fair amount of time over the last few years dodging charges that he was using banned performance enhancing drugs to boost his physical capacity during the long, 162-game Major League Baseball season. That he used banned substances is no longer in question: the question still in my mind is, why do PEDs attract so much attention? At the very least the coverage brought to this issue is one-sided: at worst, it is dreadful hypocrisy. Braun has richly earned the contempt heaped upon him these days, not so much for breaking the rules but the underhanded way he (and his legal team) did their best to destroy the career of a man charged with analyzing Braun's blood sample. It's not that he did use banned substances, in my opinion, it's that he lied about it and took others down with him instead of owning up to the mistake.
Cheating is part of baseball; it is an institutionalized cat and mouse game between opposing teams, who hope to get away with things when the umpires aren't watching. How many players would argue a call that was decided in their favor? Not one. They shut up and take the gift for what it is, rather than fess up that they were out, or missed the tag. That's cheating, be we ignore that miraculously, perhaps because it is passive acceptance of the umpire's authority. To actively seek out an edge on one's own is forbidden, in all likelihood not for any danger to the player -- there are far too many cases of management allowing players to continue to play under hazardous conditions for that argument to hold any water -- but rather because Baseball has no control over that kind of activity, and baseball is nothing if not a giant merry-go-round full of control freaks.
Case in point: Gaylord Perry, a Hall of Fame pitcher for a variety of professional baseball teams has been acknowledged - by everyone but the man himself -- as a practitioner of an illegal pitch called the spitball. Spit has been replaced for a number of decades by any number of slippery substances -- creams, gels, and lotions -- all available over-the-counter from any drugstore in the United States, and many viscous enough to be smeared somewhere in the body and stay there for several hours. In essence, the substance on the ball causes differing levels of air resistance on different sides, causing the ball to act in an atypical and unpredictable manner. It may also slip out of the pitcher's hands a little when thrown, removing much of the natural spin a thrown ball tends to have, again causing erratic motion. It gives the pitcher a slight edge over a batter. Mr. Perry has been given a pass on his activity, mostly because nothing was ever proven. However, the acknowledgement with a wink and a nod of his flaunting the regulations of the sport are in sharp contrast with the zero-tolerance policies of performance-enhancing drugs. Gaylord Perry is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, largely because of his longevity in the sport.
Another example: in 1996, young fan Jeffrey Maier reached over the outfield fence in Yankee Stadium in New York and caught a ball in play. The ball was ruled a home run despite the fact that it was clearly a textbook case of fan interference, which would have nullified the play. Video replay leaves no room for doubt as to what happened. The call on the field was left to stand, and the Yankees won the game. Mr. Maier was heralded as a hero in New York, and was feted by the Yankees, celebrating his efforts on their behalf.
How can anyone look at cheating in the same light after such blatantly two-faced responses?
Further, baseball suffered from crippling strikes in 1981, 1985, and 1990, the last of which resulted in the owners locking out striking players and hiring replacements to field new teams, flying in the face of their own legal contracts, not to mention jousting with several aspects of employment law. Fans had deserted the sport in droves after that, crying how the purity of the game had been sullied. That ridiculous hyperbole aside, love of baseball was rekindled in many formerly passionate fans in 1998 when two sluggers held a wild race for the home-run hitting championship that year. Baseball has done its level best to forget about Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa since then, despite the fact that they may well have saved the institution of baseball from a slow, lingering death, or at least years of mediocrity and irrelevance.
The clincher of this home run contest, in which mark McGwire shattered the previous record of 61 home runs in a season by hitting 70, and Sosa, close on his heels, had 66, is that both were allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs -- steriods of some sort -- during the season. A case can be made that the baseball authorities knew -- or at least had a strong suspicion -- about the drug use of these two players in particular, but did nothing because the turnstiles were spinning like a roulette wheel. McGwire's previous high total for Home runs was 58 in 1997; Sosa had never hit more than 40 in a season before. We may never know for certain how much Baseball officials knew, and when, but the fact remains that the performances of these two players, and the mammoth home runs they hit, put paying butts in the seats of any ballpark they visited.
Here's how I see it: professional athletes are paid millions of dollars to win. Not to compete -- to WIN. There's a big difference there, and a hell of a lot of pressure. With millions of dollars in salary on the line, I'm pretty sure I would be using PEDs if I were in the position of a Ryan Braun or a Sammy Sosa. Those who argue for the purity of the game - especially sportswriters -- need to get a grip on their fantasies. Baseball -- as with all professional sports -- is first and foremost a business. Players are paid the kind of money they are because the owners will pay it, and frankly, those high-priced ballplayers so many fans complain about are the reason we go to games -- to watch them play a child's game with poetry and abandon, allowing us to abandon our own concerns for a time. Rather than banning such substances, we should be spending time making sure they are safe and as free as possible from side effects.
Hooper sums it up particularly well in FLAG #8:
"... The day is on the horizon when players will take sanctioned hormones and supplements specified by owners and their own union in collective bargaining. The campaign against steroid use is having a very measurable effect on the game – batting averages and home run rates are both going down. For now, everyone is willing to characterize the issue in moral terms, when it is really a purely medical and scientific issue – how can humans develop and perform their best, with only the most benign effects on their immediate and long-term health? How can they play contact sports without becoming crippled vegetables later in life? No finger-wagging from bilious old sportswriters should be allowed to slow that search."
To find more of Andrew Hooper's writing, check out website efanzines.com for more fanzinescovering a dizzying array of subjects. I highly recommend Chunga, which Hooper co-edits. There's lots of other good stuff there by fantastic writers, so be sure to spend some time poking around.
What got me started down this path was thinking about local baseball player Ryan Braun, who spent a fair amount of time over the last few years dodging charges that he was using banned performance enhancing drugs to boost his physical capacity during the long, 162-game Major League Baseball season. That he used banned substances is no longer in question: the question still in my mind is, why do PEDs attract so much attention? At the very least the coverage brought to this issue is one-sided: at worst, it is dreadful hypocrisy. Braun has richly earned the contempt heaped upon him these days, not so much for breaking the rules but the underhanded way he (and his legal team) did their best to destroy the career of a man charged with analyzing Braun's blood sample. It's not that he did use banned substances, in my opinion, it's that he lied about it and took others down with him instead of owning up to the mistake.
Cheating is part of baseball; it is an institutionalized cat and mouse game between opposing teams, who hope to get away with things when the umpires aren't watching. How many players would argue a call that was decided in their favor? Not one. They shut up and take the gift for what it is, rather than fess up that they were out, or missed the tag. That's cheating, be we ignore that miraculously, perhaps because it is passive acceptance of the umpire's authority. To actively seek out an edge on one's own is forbidden, in all likelihood not for any danger to the player -- there are far too many cases of management allowing players to continue to play under hazardous conditions for that argument to hold any water -- but rather because Baseball has no control over that kind of activity, and baseball is nothing if not a giant merry-go-round full of control freaks.
Case in point: Gaylord Perry, a Hall of Fame pitcher for a variety of professional baseball teams has been acknowledged - by everyone but the man himself -- as a practitioner of an illegal pitch called the spitball. Spit has been replaced for a number of decades by any number of slippery substances -- creams, gels, and lotions -- all available over-the-counter from any drugstore in the United States, and many viscous enough to be smeared somewhere in the body and stay there for several hours. In essence, the substance on the ball causes differing levels of air resistance on different sides, causing the ball to act in an atypical and unpredictable manner. It may also slip out of the pitcher's hands a little when thrown, removing much of the natural spin a thrown ball tends to have, again causing erratic motion. It gives the pitcher a slight edge over a batter. Mr. Perry has been given a pass on his activity, mostly because nothing was ever proven. However, the acknowledgement with a wink and a nod of his flaunting the regulations of the sport are in sharp contrast with the zero-tolerance policies of performance-enhancing drugs. Gaylord Perry is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, largely because of his longevity in the sport.
Another example: in 1996, young fan Jeffrey Maier reached over the outfield fence in Yankee Stadium in New York and caught a ball in play. The ball was ruled a home run despite the fact that it was clearly a textbook case of fan interference, which would have nullified the play. Video replay leaves no room for doubt as to what happened. The call on the field was left to stand, and the Yankees won the game. Mr. Maier was heralded as a hero in New York, and was feted by the Yankees, celebrating his efforts on their behalf.
How can anyone look at cheating in the same light after such blatantly two-faced responses?
Further, baseball suffered from crippling strikes in 1981, 1985, and 1990, the last of which resulted in the owners locking out striking players and hiring replacements to field new teams, flying in the face of their own legal contracts, not to mention jousting with several aspects of employment law. Fans had deserted the sport in droves after that, crying how the purity of the game had been sullied. That ridiculous hyperbole aside, love of baseball was rekindled in many formerly passionate fans in 1998 when two sluggers held a wild race for the home-run hitting championship that year. Baseball has done its level best to forget about Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa since then, despite the fact that they may well have saved the institution of baseball from a slow, lingering death, or at least years of mediocrity and irrelevance.
The clincher of this home run contest, in which mark McGwire shattered the previous record of 61 home runs in a season by hitting 70, and Sosa, close on his heels, had 66, is that both were allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs -- steriods of some sort -- during the season. A case can be made that the baseball authorities knew -- or at least had a strong suspicion -- about the drug use of these two players in particular, but did nothing because the turnstiles were spinning like a roulette wheel. McGwire's previous high total for Home runs was 58 in 1997; Sosa had never hit more than 40 in a season before. We may never know for certain how much Baseball officials knew, and when, but the fact remains that the performances of these two players, and the mammoth home runs they hit, put paying butts in the seats of any ballpark they visited.
Here's how I see it: professional athletes are paid millions of dollars to win. Not to compete -- to WIN. There's a big difference there, and a hell of a lot of pressure. With millions of dollars in salary on the line, I'm pretty sure I would be using PEDs if I were in the position of a Ryan Braun or a Sammy Sosa. Those who argue for the purity of the game - especially sportswriters -- need to get a grip on their fantasies. Baseball -- as with all professional sports -- is first and foremost a business. Players are paid the kind of money they are because the owners will pay it, and frankly, those high-priced ballplayers so many fans complain about are the reason we go to games -- to watch them play a child's game with poetry and abandon, allowing us to abandon our own concerns for a time. Rather than banning such substances, we should be spending time making sure they are safe and as free as possible from side effects.
Hooper sums it up particularly well in FLAG #8:
"... The day is on the horizon when players will take sanctioned hormones and supplements specified by owners and their own union in collective bargaining. The campaign against steroid use is having a very measurable effect on the game – batting averages and home run rates are both going down. For now, everyone is willing to characterize the issue in moral terms, when it is really a purely medical and scientific issue – how can humans develop and perform their best, with only the most benign effects on their immediate and long-term health? How can they play contact sports without becoming crippled vegetables later in life? No finger-wagging from bilious old sportswriters should be allowed to slow that search."
To find more of Andrew Hooper's writing, check out website efanzines.com for more fanzinescovering a dizzying array of subjects. I highly recommend Chunga, which Hooper co-edits. There's lots of other good stuff there by fantastic writers, so be sure to spend some time poking around.
