Should Vick Get a Second Chance?

Tuesday night, Nationals General Manager Jim Bowden was my guest in the studio at 5pm, and I asked him hypothetically if, as a G.M., he would consider giving Michael Vick a second chance on a a team that he ran, assuming Vick paid his debt to society and showed some degree of contrition. Bowden said no. But then he turned the tables on me and asked if I would give Vick a second chance. With about half-a-second to consider my answer, I too said no, explaining hurriedly that as a G.M., I wouldn't want to offend my season ticket-holders who were dog lovers.

 

I regret that answer.

 

With more time to think about it, I would answer yes -- I would give Michael Vick a second chance.

 

People will misconstrue this position for something it is not. Like everyone else, I am disgusted by what Michael Vick did. The stories of the grotesque manner in which he disposed of underperforming dogs makes me sick to my stomach. He deserves to be punished -- and punished severely by both the legal system and the NFL. That said, we are a nation of second chances, and Michael Vick deserves one like anyone else. The nature of the criminal justice system is that every crime has a corresponding punishment, and once that punishment is served, the perpetrator gets to re-enter society. Distasteful as it may be, this is true of sex offenders, drug dealers and even violent offenders -- and should be true for Michael Vick as well.

 

Repulsed as I am by Michael Vick's actions, I cannot stand here and condemn him in perpetuity, telling him he has no right to live and work as a free man for the rest of his life. His crime is repugnant, but not worthy of a life sentence. It is possible that Michael Vick can rehabilitate both his soul and his image. Lesser men have done so. As a man who has been the beneficiary of second chances, I am in no position to refuse Michael Vick his.

Save a cow, throw a dirty baseball!

Since we're all trying to live "Greener" lives, I have a conservation suggestion for those who play and run our national pastime -- stop throwing away baseballs like they were empty beer cans. (I'm kidding -- I don't actually think conserving baseballs will stem global warming; I'm just irked that we discard so much perfectly good cowhide!)

If you watch a Major League Baseball game nowadays, you will see scores of perfectly useable baseballs discarded for no good reason. If a pitcher bounces a curveball in the dirt, the catcher, for example -- almost by reflex, reaches behind his back to exchange said ball for a new one for the next pitch. Why? Pitchers and catchers will argue that the bounce-in-the-dirt creates a scuff on the ball, making it harder for the pitcher to grip. I say "Phooey!" A ball pitched in the dirt isn't damaged nearly as much as one that's smacked into the right-centerfield gap, rolls around on the warning track and then gets thrown back into the infield... and yet we don't see pitchers demanding new balls in those situations. Baseballs are designed to endure punishment. For God's sake -- Randy Johnson once threw a 98 MPH fastball into a bird, killing it in mid-flight, and that ball was still good enough to pitch again.

Pitchers are spoiled. They only have to work every 5th day, they get to pick the music on the clubhouse stereo on the nights when they start, and they think that they should get a new ball every time a particle of dust floats onto the seems. Well, I say, "Get over it!" If the rest of us can re-use the dirty towels in our hotel rooms and drive hybrid cars, you pitchers can throw a slightly smudged ball.