Bad sports, good sports: Mark Buehrle’s America is better than yours

Posted on February 21st, 2011 by Alan Spoll

A couple of weeks ago, Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle was quoted as saying that he and his wife had been rooting for Michael Vick to get hurt during the NFL season. Now, my feelings on Michael Vick have provided much fodder for this column over the last couple of years. I can not claim to have never had a similar thought, regarding Vick’s playing health, if we’re being completely honest. I certainly have little interest in being in a position where I need to defend Michael Vick. I have had to do my best to focus on the positive things he is doing off the field, rather than think about the abhorrent things he did to those dogs. As a fan of the Eagles, and with him clearly sticking around for a while here in Philadelphia, I either needed to look on the bright side or get a transfusion to replace my green blood with the more traditional red.

Anyway, I glossed over the Buehrle quote, as the most notable thing about it seemed to be just that an athlete was actually willing to speak his mind rather than spout the usual party line. As Spring Training opened this week, though, the pitcher was asked again about what he said. He stood by his comments, refusing to back off. Then things went bad. He was asked about his own fondness for hunting, and how that might make his thoughts on Vick seem a bit disingenuous. Buehrle responded with this piece of brilliance: “Hunting is a sport. There are hunting stores out there. If that’s illegal, shame on my dad, shame on my grandpa, his grandpa. It’s kind of been brought up throughout the history of America,” he said. “The last time I knew dogfighting was a sport was never.”

Again, I am in no way defending dogfighting. This statement is one big pile of garbage, however. I will not hide that I am not a fan of hunting. I understand that there are reasons why it’s sometimes needed, as far as preventing animal herds from growing unchecked and overrunning heavily populated areas. I also understand that there are people who hunt for food, and while I am pretty sure that most of those people have an Acme nearby, if they are truly making full use of the animal they killed, I must accede that some benefit came from it. Buehrle claimed none of this, though. He defended the fact that he hunts by calling it a “sport.” I don’t know about you, but “sport” denotes “fun” in my book. If this guy is telling us that the killing he does is okay because it’s fun, or it’s a hobby, then he lands on the same side of the line for me as does Vick. I am unable to see the fun in putting a bullet or an arrow into a defenseless animal. Beyond that, the statement about his family tree enjoying the same kind of “fun” as he does shows Buehrle to be even more ignorant than he already seemed. After all, isn’t the main defense we have always heard about dogfighting the fact that it’s a cultural thing? Didn’t Michael Vick grow up seeing dogs fight as a form of entertainment? I don’t know whether his father and grandfather were involved, but it was clearly something that was accepted in his community. What Mark Buehrle is trying to say, by wrapping up his own bloodlust in the flag of our country, is that his America is the real America. Whatever a poor African-American kid grew up with…well, that’s not America.

I am not happy that Vick is an Eagle. I hope he continues to play well and I hope he continues his work off the field, talking to kids about avoiding the mistakes he made and about the problem that is dogfighting. I am happy, though, that I have no need whatsoever to root for Mark Buehrle.

Bad sports, continued:

2) A man in Alabama has been arrested for allegedly poisoning a bunch of oak trees in a place called Toomer’s Corner on Auburn’s campus. The Tigers and their fans often celebrate big victories there. Harvey Almorn Updyke Jr. looks like quite a piece of work.

3) A girl in Iowa, Cassy Herkelman, was credited with the first ever win by a female in the state wrestling championships when her opponent forfeited due to some kind of religious objection. If Joel Northrup didn’t want to risk losing to a girl, that’s his business, but I wish he had left the religious stuff out of it. His religion tells him to not wrestle a girl? I wonder how his religion feels about wrestling people of other races. Is that off-limits too?

4) Miguel Cabrera, the Detroit Tigers star, was arrested last week for driving under the influence. Cabrera has had issues with alcohol in the past, and his brilliant 2010 season was at least partially credited to his apparent victory over his drinking issues.

5) Albert Haynesworth, apparently unable to make it through a week without making some kind of negative news, was arrested last week after being accused of sexual assault by a Washington waitress.

Good sports:

1) I am loath to include anything connected to the farce that is restrictor plate racing in the Good Sports section of my column, but I figured it was worth mentioning that Trevor Bayne, in only his second Cup race ever, won the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Bayne is the youngest person to ever win the “Great American Race” at 20-years-old. It likely helped him that about half the field had been involved in one wreck or another during the race, but it’s still an accomplishment.

Bad Sports, Good Sports appears every Monday.

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Alan Spoll

Alan Spoll is a software quality assurance director from the suburbs of Philadelphia where he lives with his wonderful wife and children. He has spent his entire life as a passionate fan of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and Penn State. Recent Phillies success aside, you will understand his natural negativity. Follow me on Twitter - @DocAlan02