If Tim Lincecum truly regrets anything, he probably regrets getting caught the most. But he’s pretty hip to the P.R. issues surrounding his pot bust and because of it he offered a statement following his post-Cy Young interview yesterday:
“I made a mistake and I regret my actions. I want to apologize to the Giants organization and the fans. I know as a professional athlete I have a responsibility … both on and off the field. I promise to do better in the future.”
I think the San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman summed up this business the best the other day: “I know this whole Lincecum story is considered overblown and a joke in Northern California, where many folks probably vacuum more than 3.3 grams of pot residue off their carpets at home, but it’s taken seriously elsewhere and by Major League Baseball.”
I’d argue that in an ideal world it shouldn’t be taken all that seriously, but we don’t live in an ideal world. We live in a world where people freak out about small amounts of generally innocuous, generally harmless plants while drugs that actually kill a lot of people are allowed to advertise on outfield walls. We live in a world where the same writers who just acknowledged via their awards vote that it’s possible for a guy to take a certain drug and still be a world class athlete also write about how bad a thing it was for that athlete to take that drug.
I understand that Lincecum broke the law and should pay his fine. I also understand that he’s subject to a collective bargaining agreement that tells him he can’t smoke pot, and to the extent that agreement calls for anything to happen to him because of it, so be it. But the fact that we expect guys like Lincecum or Michael Phelps or whoever to make public apologies like this is a bit much for me.
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- Justin - Dec 2, 2009 at 12:10 AM
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So if eating carrots was illegal, and a baseball player got caught eating carrots, he should apologize to all the kids and make sure that they never eat carrots? Just because something is illegal does not mean it is automatically wrong despite evidence to the contrary. If you knew anything about marijuana or had ever tried it, you would know that all of the things that the National Center for Pot Misinformation tells you about marijuana are bold-faced lies. Bad kids will be bad, regardless of whether they smoke weed. Lazy people will be lazy, regardless of whether they smoke marijuana. MILLIONS of responsible, successful adults CHOOSE to smoke marijuana every day. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, janitors, stockbrokers, authors, Republicans, Democrats, Muslims, Christians, baseball players. When alcohol was prohibited, organized crime stepped in and created an unsafe atmosphere that endangered the lives of people. Sound familiar? Prohibition didn’t work once, and it’s not working now.
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- Cheech - Dec 5, 2009 at 4:38 PM
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The sad thing about this kind of story is that all the potheads out there try to be funny by talking about their trips. Sick.
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- Tony A - Dec 5, 2009 at 5:39 PM
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My vote for best response…
Seriously, I think kids aren’t as stupid as people think; the real message they get is that the fake apology and hypocrisy are 2 weapons they need to add to their arsenal…
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- leon - Dec 7, 2009 at 9:40 PM
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Pot destroys memory cells and damages lungs. I have friends from high school who don’t remember much about their lives 30 years ago and I have to tell them what went on. Some other people went from being honors students to mediocre slackers once they started smoking pot. They never fulfilled their potential. Anyone who thinks pot can’t cause some very negative consequences is someone detached from reality.
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- tramps like us - Dec 8, 2009 at 12:37 PM
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PED? LOL…any idea what it does to your hand/eye coordination? Your intensity? Marijuana is many things, but it is NOT a performance enhancing drug..not even close. Unless the “performance” is eating Oreos.
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- Rick2009 - Dec 9, 2009 at 12:27 PM
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You have made my point.
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- Jason - Dec 10, 2009 at 8:13 AM
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How did KD Lang’s picture end up on your blog, Craig?
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- EL - Dec 15, 2009 at 3:57 PM
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So would you consider lasik eye surgery performance enhancing…I mean they are altering their god given sight to enhance their performance right?……or what chewing tobacco…..athletes who chew tobacco usually feel some relaxing effect from it so that could be considered performance enhancing with your argument……or even a cup of coffee can be considered performance enhancing cause it stimulates your brain in ways that are not natural….saying pot is performance enhancing is completely retarded….I see were you are coming from but that is a total stretch….if your theory holds true than all athletes would ever get is bread and water because everything else they put in their body could be considered in one way or another as performance enhancing….where does the line get drawn and when can we end this foolish arguments about performance enhancers cause it an endless topic that is rather boring….I can really give a crap what someone puts into their body to help them play a “game”…if they want to destroy their bodies and minds to play a game then go right ahead…its your body destroy all you want for all I care..and don’t give me the bs of them being role models for kids….kids should be raised by their parents…not by a bunch of stupid jocks…but personal responsibility is something lacking in today’s society…but that is another rant altogether….and as for the integrity of “the game” leave that bs for someone else….everyone knows if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying and people have been cheating “the game” ever since the game got started…holding on to some bs notion of keeping the game pure is for people who have no grasp of reality….cause at the end of the day you watch “the game” for entertainment and then go about the rest of “reality” whatever that may be to you….
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