Bits & Pieces

The Good & The Bad

By Kim J. Harmon

Over the course of the last month or so we have been exposed to two different high school sports stories – one that could bring actual tears to your eyes and one that could have you gnashing your teeth in disgust.

The good.

The bad.

(If this were a spaghetti western starring Clint Eastwood, we’d also go with – the ugly. But since there is enough ugly in the sports world these days, let’s just stick with the good and the bad, okay?)

These two stories are polar opposites of each other and display – ever so succinctly – what is great about sports and what is truly godawful about sports.

The good?

In case you hadn’t already seen it, a 17-year-old senior at Greece Athena High School in Greece, New York, had a chance to shine on the basketball court. What’s so special about that? Well, Jason McElwain is autistic – high-functioning – and spent the year as team manager for the Greece Athena boys’ basketball team.

A couple of weeks ago, in a regular season contest, the coach told McElwain to get his uniform on. He was going to play.

With four minutes left in the game, McElwain hit the court and his first shot – a three-pointer – was airmailed wide of the basket.

Oops.

But in a made-for-Hollywood moment, the 5-for-6 McElwain – considered too small to make the junior varsity team – then came back and hit six three-pointers and a long-range two-pointer to finish with an incredible 20 points on the night.

The gym erupted and McElwain was carried out of the gym. Since then, he and his family have been besieged by offers from Hollywood (like the Walt Disney Co.) and documentary filmmakers interested in putting his story on the big screen.

What a wonderful story.

Just the sort of thing that I, personally, needed after seeing a New York City high school girls by the name of Epiphanny Prince score a national-record 113 points to lead Murry Bergstraum to a 137-32 win over Brandeis.

That’s right – 113 points in a 105-point win. Prince hit on 54-of-60 shots from the field – including four three-pointers – and dropped in a free throw. She had 59 points at the half as Bergstraum rang up a 74-11 lead heading into the break.

Who in god’s name thought it would be a good idea to keep playing her?

Who in god’s name endorsed this selfish run at 100 points?

It really is despicable … and I don’t care about these reports that the players on Brandeis, some supposedly friends with Prince, were laughing over the scoring display. So how impressive could it have been? And Brandeis coach Vera Springer was apparently pretty upset about it all.

There are so many things fundamentally wrong with this I can hardly begin to list them all.

At the time, Murry Bergtraum – winners of seven consecutive PSAL championships – was 19-1 and ranked No. 2 in the nation. Despite being so good, they had to – obviously – play a PSAL schedule that featured some very weak teams.

Prince apparently complained about the level of competition and her coach – Ed Grezinsky – challenged her to go out and work as hard as she could. Oh, she did, but how hard she had to work against a team that Bergtraum beat by 91 points in a previous meeting is anyone’s guess. Coach Grezinsky even reportedly said, “This happened in the context of the game.”

Excuse me?

Cheryl Miller, one of the last players to score 100 in a single game, reportedly said, “That’s what this game’s all about, special moments in special situations. Instead of people getting their feelings hurt, they should pat her on the back.”

Again – excuse me?

Years ago, in 1990, Lisa Leslie scored 101 points as she led the Morningside High School girls’ basketball team to a 102-24 win over South Torrance.. Thing of it was, the game ended at halftime. Leslie scored all 101 points in the first two quarters and the other team refused to come out for the third quarter.

Maybe the three players who fouled out and the other who got hurt trying to stop Leslie should have just patted her on the back and thanked her for the humiliation.

Pardon me, but this topic is making me too angry. I’m going back to the top to read about Jason McElwain again.

NOTE – Danny Heater of Burnsville High School in West Virginia holds the all-time single-game scoring record when he scored 135 points to lead his team to a 173-43 win over Widen High back on January 26, 1960.

 

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On second thought – I did the good and the bad and now I’m going to do the ugly.

Game of Shadows, a new book by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle, apparently reveals what many, many baseball fans have suspected for a long time now.

Barry Bonds used steroids.

According to the authors, Bonds started his personal doping program back in 1998 after seeing the adulation bestowed upon Mark McGwire, who, at the time, was busy shattering the single-season home run record.

The authors claim to have extensive documentation and testimony detailing Bonds’ steroid use and if this is all true then I can’t think of a better example of ugly, can you?