No, this is not about Duck basketball coach Dana Altman and AD Rob Mullens, or Joe Paterno. The latest athletics scandal is at Oregon State. Oregonian reporter John Canzano is shocked to hear that that their baseball coach and AD knew that the player was a registered sex offender, but didn’t tell the campus. Maybe because he could throw a ball and make coach some money? Story here.
Pre-Paterno, there would have been no shortage of torches and pitchforks brought out over this. Have we just accepted the immorality of our athletes, coaches and administrators as unavoidable fact? Or a job requirement?
Oregon State fans online have doubled down on the “youthful mistake” and “second chance” canards, and in person cheered the pitcher wildly at the Beavers’ Super Regional games. Methinks neither action will raise the level of discourse around athletics in any form.
I don’t think there’s any pre or post Paterno about this. Maybe you only read the comments but not the article linked above? (not Canzano)
OSU hasn’t commented about when or if they knew he was an offender, and the university doesn’t require criminal convictions to be reported during admissions for any students. The NCAA has no policy for this, and even though Heimlich should have updated his offender listing, it’s not clear that even that would have made it to OSU or been made public. He pleaded guilty, completed a two year diversion program, was given probation and was considered a low risk re-offender. He apparently did register in Oregon at one point in time.
Here’s the deal: he admitted guilt and has “done the time”, so to speak. He’s now paying the price for not re-registering. Isn’t this enough? Should he not be able to get on with his life and do what he wants to do, which is play baseball? If not, how can you justify that?
We are still dealing with multiple issues, from who knew what when, to who’s pitching on Saturday in the CWS. (anti)Social media doesn’t help forward the conversation much, either. That said, Heimlich stepped up and removed himself from what would have been the biggest game/series of his collegiate career, which in my opinion was the right thing for a number of reasons, mostly appearance, which, in its own way, respects the victim and her family somewhat – but were possible not the reasons for his decision.
The knot of conflicts this revelation has created will cause much inward gazing in Corvallis as well as campuses across the Pac12 and NCAA. Watching the shitshow of commentary that spewed forth since last Thursday, has been difficult. The timing was terrible, almost as if it were designed to create such a venomous reaction than say, if this had happened to be revealed in December.
So far, the most reason take on this is dated tomorrow (as I type this on the 12th, the byline is the 13th) from Austin Meek in the RG. This perhaps shows us how time often gives better context for discussion of topics like this.
I don’t have the time to vet more comments on this. Please post them on the RG’s website.