Dennis Rodman, out of uniform
Of course not. Dennis Rodman didn’t play baseball. He was a pro basketball player, and as of yesterday, an inductee into the NBA Hall of Fame for his exploits on a basketball court. There is no question that he is eminently qualified for admission to the NBA Hall of Fame, because the NBA Hall of Fame doesn’t care if players are thugs, drunks, scofflaws, deadbeat dads and couldn’t define sportsmanship with a dictionary as long as they can shoot, score, pass, dribble and block shots.
The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, however, requires that its members demonstrate “integrity, sportsmanship, (and) character,” in addition to outstanding achievements and a remarkable career record. Because of the steroid era that has rendered a whole generation of players suspect for cheating, an expanding number of baseball greats face being excluded from the Hall because cheating by using substances that are illegal and banned in the sport while implicitly deceiving the public about the use is, by any rational definition, a material breach of integrity and sportsmanship. The natural reaction by many sportswriters, as in other fields when reasonable standards are routinely violated, is to attack the standards. Why should a sport care about matters like integrity and character? Isn’t it the performance that counts, and winning?
Would a theoretical Dennis Rodman, baseball great, get into the Hall of Fame if his baseball career tracked with how the real Rodman performed in the NBA? That Rodman was a great, intense, exciting defensive player who was a cornerstone of many great teams is beyond debate. He was also the most fined and suspended player in NBA history with no close competition… a dirty player, and a frequently violent one. Here are his fines and suspensions:
10/20/94: The San Antonio Spurs fined Dennis Rodman $15,000 for not showing up a game.
11/1/94: San Antonio suspended Dennis Rodman without pay for “conduct
detrimental to the club.”
11/10/94: Dennis Rodman’s suspension ended and he decided to
celebrate by practice. He was suspended again.
1/12/96: The NBA fined Rodman$5,000 for verbally abusing the refs and
failing to leave the court in a timely manner during a
game.
3/18/96: The NBA fined Rodman $20,000 and suspended him for 6 games
for head-butting a ref and failing to leave the court in a timely manner
after being ejected from a game.
5/1/95: The league fined
Dennis Rodman $7,500 for undercutting Dikembe Mutombo.
4/29/96: The NBA fined Dennis Rodman $5,000 for making an obscene gesture at
a ref after being ejected from a game.
12/10/96: The Chicago Bulls suspended Rodman without pay for 2 games for a profane
ref-bashing interview following a game.
1/17/97: The NBA fined Rodman $25,000 and suspended him for 11 games for kicking a baseline cameraman during a game.
3/4/97: The NBA fined Rodman $7,500 and suspended him for one game.
No baseball player, certainly no star, has ever accumulated a record of discipline like this, and could not. Baseball Rodman’s head-butting an umpire might well have resulted in his being banned from baseball permanently. Whatever tiny chance Dennis Rodman, retired baseball great, would have had of being elected to the Hall of Fame would be vaporized by his post-career conduct, which has included admitted use of illegal drugs, multiple arrests for drunk driving, domestic abuse, and generally outrageous and embarrassing behavior on TV and off of it. Dennis Rodman, baseball great, would have as much chance of getting into baseball’s Hall as I do.
To the NBA, however, he is still a basketball hero, an approved and merchandized role model for young children, especially young African-American men, who need an anti-social, incorrigible, woman-beating, drug-using, drunk-driving narcissist as a hero like a bullet to the brain. This is the degree to which the National Basketball Association, and the National Football League, which elevates felons, addicts and animal abusers into Sunday heroes, is willfully ignorant of the powerful influence sports and athletes have on cultural standards of conduct and character.
Honor a Dennis Rodman, and a sport does more than honor his statistics. It honors him, his life, and his character; it says that his violence, contempt for authority, disrespect of colleagues, rules and standards and irresponsible behavior doesn’t matter, because he was “great.”
During the Anthony Weiner unpleasantness, there was a flood of commentary about why powerful figures in politics as well as other celebrities so often believe that rules, standards and laws don’t apply to them. Why? Dennis Rodman being admitted to the Hall of Fame is why. The NBA and the NFL is why. The sportswriters who argue that baseball should honor cheaters, because all that should matter is that they had great statistics is why. Our apparently incurable addiction to the rationalization that character isn’t important, as long as an individual is successful is why. The means must have been all right, because the results were excellent.
No, Dennis Rodman would not have been admitted to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, and even non baseball fans should be grateful for that. An important and traditional American institution is standing up for integrity, sportsmanship and character, and for that reason alone, baseball deserves to keep its status as America’s Pastime.
Ethics Alarms 
Jack,
Small point: What rules or laws did Anthony Weiner break? I’m confused. He lied to reporters which is unethical, sure, but not illegal. To be clear, arguing he a duty to step down because of the lying is one thing but even now, at this remove, I still fail to see what he did that was so wrong before that (in a legal sense)? Moreover, why do people (yourself included) keep referencing it as though it was an especially egregious scandal? To me, Chuck Rangel or Ted Stevens are far more appropriate examples of the principles your speaking about.
Weiner is a pervert. He apologized. He resigned. Please, for the love of God, let it go.
-Neil
I had to check my post to see what set you off. All I did is correctly reference the topic of discussion sparked by the Weiner matter, in reference to Rodman and role models. Liek any news story, Weiner retains perpetual value as a reference point.
What did he do wrong? He didn’t act like a Congressman, in a spectacularly flagrant way. Like Bob Etheridge, who roughed up a kid on the street; like Larry Craig, who was trolling for sex in an airport bathroom; like candidate Rich Iott, who dressed up like a Nazi for fun. Lying about rendered him untrustworthy, and elected officials have to be trustworthy.
Both Rangel and Stevens, a good pairing, were extremely distinguished and dedicated public servants of consistently high character, if highly partisan, who over time yielded to the “I deserve this” mentality and broke rule and laws. I could have used them, but the Weiner episode was more recent, and he did seem to be the tipping point where many in the media were asking, “What the Hell is wrong with these people?”
One thing about “the Worm” that makes him arguably better than Weiner: he never lied. Rodman is shameless.
For CelestialSquare: everything that is not per se illegal is not per se ethical or admirable.
It isn’t that the NBA and NFL are ignorant about the role of athletes as role models for children, they just don’t care. The NBA and NFL are full of thugs who like to play their game, make their money, and do whatever they want. They have probably lived their lives like this since high school when they were given special treatment in disciplinary and academic matters. Being a role model is hard, it means that you have to think of others and it restricts your actions. The athletic world today doesn’t ask that its athletes behave as role models, it merely teaches them that the rules don’t apply to them as long as they are stars. Baseball players may be less affected by this attitude because baseball players aren’t viewed and treated as much as ‘stars’ in high school and college as the football and basketball players.