Sports Build Characters

Thu., June 27, 1996

Doug Floyd Interactive Editor

Show of hands, please. Who can still say, “sports build character” with a straight face?

Hard, isn’t it even without counting Dennis Rodman. If you read the sports page regularly you come to expect a steady stream of articles about athletic stars involved in drug usage, traffic violations, fights not only with each other but with fans and outsiders, domestic abuse, you name it.

Consider Steve Howe. Dropped by the Yankees, the drug-abusing Yankee relief pitcher is back home in Whitefish, Mont., now but not before getting arrested at Kennedy Airport for having a loaded .357 Magnum in his luggage.

So far, Howe is saying only that the charge is “the rawest deal you could get.” Maybe it’s all those years in the bull pen. Or maybe it’s just that Howe and other pampered jocks have been protected too long from having to face the consequences of their behavior.

There was a moment of reassurance the other day when Washington State University basketball coach Kevin Eastman finally kicked starting point guard Donminic Ellison off the team. Ellison, a senior with a history of suspension for academic and legal problems, was arrested in April on charges of possessing marijuana and driving with a suspended license.

But Eastman’s football counterpart at WSU is more forgiving. Coach Mike Price has no discipline in mind for co-captain James Darling who, already on probation for a reckless driving infraction, has been accused of removing a $6,000 gumball machine from an Oroville, Wash., restaurant, taking it two blocks away, dropping it and running off.

Just a “prank to pay back a kid for another prank,” says Price.

All together now: “Sports build character.” Anybody’s hand still up? Any other reactions are welcome, too.

If this is a campaign plank, who’s going to walk it?

Regardless of your position on the campaign finance reform plan that bogged down in the U.S. Senate Tuesday, how do you feel about the method used to defeat it?

A majority of the Senate appeared to support the measure - 54 to 46 - but they couldn’t bring it to a vote because of the Senate’s rule requiring 60 votes to shut off debate. We know this time-honored Senate practice as the filibuster.

Has it outlived its usefulness? And did you know the word originally meant pirate?

, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.

“Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.

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