The steroids poll
A recent ESPN/Seton Hall poll regarding attitudes towards steroids in baseball is instructive. The numbers can be spun any number of ways, of course, and will be, but what I find most interesting is that even among the (only) 25 percent of respondents who say they'll attend fewer games than last year, just 7.2% of those say they will do so because of the taint of performance-enhancing drugs. That's an amount hardly commensurate with the fantastic amount of attention given to the steroids issue by ESPN, the poll's sponsor.
What seems the most obvious from the results is that people believe what they've been told by the sports media. Many fans believe athletes make too much money, but then nobody has bothered to ask them whether the team owners make too much money, or whether, as taxpayers, they're tired of subsidizing new stadiums. The percentage that believe player salaries are the biggest problem facing the game is almost twice that of those that believe that the price of attending the games is the biggest problem so evidently these people don't mind paying the exorbitant prices, they would just like to see the owners hold on to a bigger cut.
Against all rationality, a large majority of people believe that more baseball players than football players are using Human Growth Hormone, but then, why would this guy on the phone be asking me all of these baseball questions if they weren't?
Not surprisingly, opinion on the prospect of Barry Bonds being admitted into the Hall of Fame is divided by race. Only 36.8% of white respondents said Bonds should be enshrined in Cooperstown, with 50.1 opposed. For blacks, 60.3% said yes, with only 20.1% opposed. For Hispanic voters, 59.5% answered yes, with 31.3% opposed. The divergent poll results pertaining to Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez seem to indicate that the players' personalities, or perhaps their team affiliation, have as much impact on their perceived Hall-worthiness than any of the accusations leveled them, as the accusations toward each are rather similar.
Discuss at your leisure.
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Sinatra news has been lacking on this site for too long, but there's word today that a 35-year-old Florida man has won a "conch shell blowing contest" thanks to his rendition of "Strangers in the Night." (FS couldn't abide that song, but perhaps he just needed to hear it backed by a conch shell.) Upon his victory, contest winner Lloyd Mager punched a photographer and began praising the songwriting genius of Mr. Jimmy Van Heusen.
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Paraphrase of the day (because the clip isn't on YouTube to quote directly): Jon Stewart, as guest on "The Late Show with David Letterman" last week, What's the deal with the Octo-mom? She already has 8, and now she adds 6. Does she think she's playing blackjack? Is she planning to hit on 14?
What seems the most obvious from the results is that people believe what they've been told by the sports media. Many fans believe athletes make too much money, but then nobody has bothered to ask them whether the team owners make too much money, or whether, as taxpayers, they're tired of subsidizing new stadiums. The percentage that believe player salaries are the biggest problem facing the game is almost twice that of those that believe that the price of attending the games is the biggest problem so evidently these people don't mind paying the exorbitant prices, they would just like to see the owners hold on to a bigger cut.
Against all rationality, a large majority of people believe that more baseball players than football players are using Human Growth Hormone, but then, why would this guy on the phone be asking me all of these baseball questions if they weren't?
Not surprisingly, opinion on the prospect of Barry Bonds being admitted into the Hall of Fame is divided by race. Only 36.8% of white respondents said Bonds should be enshrined in Cooperstown, with 50.1 opposed. For blacks, 60.3% said yes, with only 20.1% opposed. For Hispanic voters, 59.5% answered yes, with 31.3% opposed. The divergent poll results pertaining to Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez seem to indicate that the players' personalities, or perhaps their team affiliation, have as much impact on their perceived Hall-worthiness than any of the accusations leveled them, as the accusations toward each are rather similar.
Discuss at your leisure.
---
Sinatra news has been lacking on this site for too long, but there's word today that a 35-year-old Florida man has won a "conch shell blowing contest" thanks to his rendition of "Strangers in the Night." (FS couldn't abide that song, but perhaps he just needed to hear it backed by a conch shell.) Upon his victory, contest winner Lloyd Mager punched a photographer and began praising the songwriting genius of Mr. Jimmy Van Heusen.
---
Paraphrase of the day (because the clip isn't on YouTube to quote directly): Jon Stewart, as guest on "The Late Show with David Letterman" last week, What's the deal with the Octo-mom? She already has 8, and now she adds 6. Does she think she's playing blackjack? Is she planning to hit on 14?
posted by CM @ 10:10 AM
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