Re: 5 straight

["Caleb J. McArthur" <cmcarthu@umich.edu>]

On Tue, 28 Jan 1997, CECIL WRIGHT wrote:

> > move to Buffalo soon.  At least their first round picks don't die of heart
> > attacks in their 20s.

> Dear Mr. McArthur,
> 
> You have absolutely NO CLASS!!
> 
> To make that kind of remark about the death of an athlete shows what 
> little regard you have for the life of a human being.  The memory of Len 
> Bias means far more than winning championships, unless the beholder is 
> some gutless law school student like you, who has a propensity for 
> rattling off meaningless statistics.  Stick to the mighty Detroit Tigers
> and the Detroit Lions.  Now those are real winners huh?  And the 
> University of Michigan, did the Fab Four ever bring home that NCAA title?

Who said the death of those two players only bothered me on a sports
level?  A team and its fans are a community of sorts.  I had a great deal
of respect and admiration for the kind of person Lewis was off the court,
and his death saddened me greatly.  I don't think I am alone in preferring
to belong to communities who don't have to suffer through such tragedy. Of
course many, many people who were not Boston sports fans were disturbed by
these deaths, but such tragedies are more disturbing the more you know the
person. My remark merely expressed my anguish at having to suffer through
this kind of close to home, off the court/field tragedy in addition to on
the court/field disappointments.


Your petty gibes at the Detroit teams and the UMich teams (neither of
which I care about -- I am from Newton, MA, and I am here only for the
degree), and your personal attacks on my chosen profession belittle the
point you are trying to make.  Are you really concerned about fans
attitudes towards athletes and their families? or are you just one of
those list members who looks for any excuse to take pot shots at posters? 
If the former is true, you would be much more effective if you expressed
your opinion without the clutter of tangential insults. 

While I appreciate and sympathize with your desire to defend Bias and
Lewis, I think you are a little too quick to pass judgment here.  You make
a lot of negative assumptions based on one fairly innocuous, even if
ambiguous, remark.  You really ought to make more of an effort to elicit
the poster's intended meaning before you post such a hostile reply.

CJM

Caleb J. McArthur | Michigan Law School | cmcarthu@umich.edu