I hate these guys. I always have. In fact they were the first athletes I hated.

If you don’t know who those two asshats are, they are Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden; two high level baseball prospects for the New York Mets that got more national attention than if Donald Trump rode a pegacorn into ISIS headquarters and killed them all with laserbeams shot out of his eyes.

ESPN, in classic East Coast New York biased form, decided to make a ‘30 for 30’ on these two jackasses. Why? Well, for one they won 1 World Series. Amazing huh. I mean it is not like a team wins one of these things every year. Also ESPN loves to spite me, so I am sure a 30 for 30 about Jake Plummer is coming soon. Finally, the story of these two guys is advertised as a classic drama; rise, fall, and atonement. In the case of these two bozos, they had great talent, pissed it away on drugs, had their careers cut short, went to jail for a bit, now they live comfy lives.

All nice and neat, huh. Well I say shenanigans on this!!!!

First off, I always have a problem when people praise and laud others who do bad things and now learned their lesson. It is like in order to get accolades from the masses, you have to be a shithead then admit you were one. However when you the right thing the entire time, you are ignored. It brings me no solace to see Dr K and the Straw not only live awesome lives, but they live waaaay better lives than I do. What the hell is that? Am I jealous? Fuck ya I am jealous!!

But more importantly, I hate the way sports media frame these types of stories as ‘tragedies’. I really think they don’t know what the word ‘tragedy’ means. Jon Stewart is even quoted in this, referring to all of this as a tragedy.

So let me get this straight: someone with god-given talent, live their dream and plays pro ball, has millions of fans and even more dollars, waste it all on drugs and women while drowning in their own hubris, go to jail, get a second chance via Steinbrenner, and flunk out again. Then finally live fine lives after discovering God and never look back at the other lives they destroyed. This is like giving a spoiled brat a PS4 for his birthday, but he cries, calls you stupid, and throws it in your face because he wanted an XBox One. Tragic huh.

Here is another story: John loves baseball. He works hard every day. He has no talent at all, but worked so hard that barely made his high school baseball team. He never played but he loved it nonetheless. He always did the right thing yet due to the fact he has no natural talent, no pro team would ever give him a look. After volunteering at the local orphanage (by the way, his parents died in a tornado 5 years ago saving John), he was walking home and a bus hit him. He is now a vegetable. A no talent vegetable that no one cares about because he has no parents and had no girlfriend (oh yeah, he is ugly too).

Which one is the bigger tragedy?