Did you all hear anout the controversy this week with Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly challenging Sammy Sosa to take a drug test?

Some background: Sammy Sosa has previously said, when the issue of steroid use came up, that he would be first in line to take a test. Reilly had an interview scheduled with Sosa and also lined up a drug test without Sammy's knowledge. Sammy apparently got very upset and cut off the interview.

Read this week's LIFE OF REILLY for a recap of the incident.

Do you think Reilly was out of line or is it his journalistic duty? Should Sammy have taken the test? Does not taking it make him look more guilty? Or was he right to walk away? Let's discuss!

Sosa was in a lose-lose situation there. By not taking the test, as he did, he leaves himself open for even more speculation and gives opponents more ammunition against him. If he did take it, you could bet that other players would hold it against him.

I think his violent reaction was a result of sheer surprise. He hadn't thought of a better, more media-friendly way to respond, so that's what Reilly got.

Speaking of Reilly, I don't think that was his journalistic duty to do that, it was just an attempt to get more publicity, and it worked.

I heard the story on Jim Rome's show the other day, and I totally agree with Rome's view that Sammy Sosa should have put his money where his mouth is and taken the test. Apparently Sosa has expressed support for the idea of drug-testing, so his immature outburst was puzzling. Todd Helton and Luis Gonzalez, who were interviewed by Rome on the subject, were cautious in their statements but certainly didn't go out of their way to defend Sosa.

I don't think Sosa saying 'yes' or 'no' to the test is the real issue, I think the problem with Reilly's methodology was making it a deliberate provication, in the middle of an on-the record interview - in other words, an ambush.

Having said that, I think the core idea itself is not a bad one - a good story for SI and a chance for Sosa to highlight his refusal to use the stuff. But the story idea should have been broached in an off-the-record setting - and giving Sosa time to a) think about it and talk to his advisers and the union. What could have turned out to be an excellent narrative (describe the testing process in detail, show that a top-echelon athlete can add bulk naturally, put subtle pressure on other plaers to come forward and force the union's hand, etc.) blew up in Reilly's face.

Acknowledging that Reilly is a columnist and not an everyday reporter or "beat writer", isn't it one of the most basic "canon laws" of journalism that the reporter should always endeavor to "tell the story, not become the story"???


Edited for Missing Word

[ July 06, 2002: Message edited by: Wurm ]

Hummmm.....wouldn't it be very easy to end all this and just take a test? All it would take would be one major leaguer with enough guts to go take the test and be done with it. He would get great PR with it.

Mike Piazza, Shawn Green, Louis Gonazlez, Jim Thome where are you???????????????

Reilly=Rather or Reilly=Lemon. What motivated Reilly? Is his readership down? Come on, just another nobody (in mainstream reporting) trying to boost both his ego and exposure with controversary. Like Wurm said, report the news don't create it. Jeez, I must have woke up on the senical side of the bed this morning. Must go back and relax myself. Start again.

I tend to agree. When you're the one doing the reporting, the interview... report the news, don't create it and above all, don't be the news.

Some question Sammy on his refusal, what I question is the creditability of the journalist who practice such tactics in name of 'getting a story."

Well I don't think Reilly would have done it had Sosa not emphatically stated that he would be the first in line for drug testing. Sammy opened the door-Reilly just kicked it in. He exposed another hypocrite. I like it. I mean, Mike Wallace and 60 Minutes win Emmys and Peabodys for the same kind of surprise confrontations.

When Sosa stated he'd be the first in line to be tested, I thought everyone knew he meant "When MLB requires testing, I'll be the first in line" and didn't mean "When an SI columnist challenges me, I'll be first in line." Reilly's tactics were misguided, but successful for him: if Sosa had been tested, Reilly would have a scoop; Sosa deflecting the question--politely--would have provided Reilly a column that few would notice (the normal reaction to a Reilly column); Sosa exploding about the question, Reilly gets a bigger story and lots of free publicity. On Wednesday, 7/3, Reilly was interviewed by Dan Patrick (who wholeheartedly supports Reilly) and said that until this incident, he (Reilly) had given Sosa the benefit of the doubt regarding steroids, but since Sosa wouldn't be tested, Reilly now has doubts about him. Patrick asked him what his next column would be & Reilly joked he was going to take Jose Maria Olazabal to a gay bar to prove his sexuality. He & Patrick both got big laughs at that. Sleazy in the extreme.


~Adam

I'm sure Rick Reilly, like many other reporters, was looking for a story when he asked Sammy Sosa if he would take the test. But, Sosa gave him the opportunity to do so when he made his declaration that he would "be the first in line" to be tested. If it was the case that he really meant he would be the first in line when it was required by the MLB (with the approval of the Player's Association, of course) then he could have simply explained that, and why he has to wait for it to be required. If Sosa was ambushed, then he asked for it. In any case, Sosa came out looking bad on this one.

[ July 07, 2002: Message edited by: pat125 ]

[quote]Originally posted by Adam:
Patrick asked him what his next column would be & Reilly joked he was going to take Jose Maria Olazabal to a gay bar to prove his sexuality. He & Patrick both got big laughs at that.

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Stoopid question here, but why the reference to Jose Maria Olazabal?

Sosa and steroids I understand. Sosa was a skinny Dominican kid who's now a muscle-bound hulk. Sosa looks like he could be on steroids, although he doesn't have the history of joint injuries that are the signature of steroid abuse.

But why Olazabal? I'd-a thunk the equivalent would have been Piazza, since his sexuality has been a news story for way too long. Why Olazabal? Is it because he's got a girl's name for a middle name? Is it that the Castilian accent is correctly spoken with a lithp which is also, somehow, inexplicably, a gay stereotype? (Altho, is Spaniard Olazabal even Castilian?)

I don't get the joke.

Charlie - Not that I spend my life tracking down rumors like this, but Olazabal is the only pro golfer about whom I've heard gossip to the effect that he's gay. I don't even remember now where I read this - some dubious website probably. Maybe it's common knowledge in Spain or something, I don't know, but I assume Rick Reilly and Dan Patrick have heard the same thing and it's obnoxious of them to make a (somewhat illogical) gratuitous reference like this to Olazabal just to get their yucks.

The whole Sosa/Reilly thing reminds me of Gary Hart, for some reason - the way he told reporters, Sure, I've got nothing to hide, go ahead and look into my private life, whereupon he was discovered on that yacht in Bimini with Donna Rice on his lap. There's a certain hubris to it all.

Hey guys,
Rick is a columnist, he's not a reporter. Similar training but the rules are not the same. There was nothing wrong with Rick doing what he did because of what he does for SI, providing an opinionated slice of life. Besides, he didn't create the news. Sosa did when he said he would be the first in line. Which begs the question, why wait? The union is against mandatory steroid testing, not voluntary steroid testing. Sosa's reaction seem more like 'roid rage than anything else.

Z

anyone who believes sammy when he says he hasn't juiced has got major blinders on.

Sosa is a public figure and should expect to be hit with these kinds of questions. I think he should take the test, but I'm sure it was also a shock to be asked right there. His reaction was the problem. It allows people to speculate even more and makes his supporters have a hard argument to put forth.