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A couple of major sports stories attracted attention--one looking back, the other forward. Baseball star Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run, surpassing Henry Aaron's record for the most in a career. ABC anchor Charles Gibson asked a couple of sports columnists to comment. "You really have to believe in the Easter Bunny to think that there were not some changes that were provided by performance enhancing drugs," stated Frank Deford--which means that comparing Bonds with Aaron is apples and oranges. On the other hand, ESPN analyst Stephen Smith, who writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer, pointed out, there was "a plethora of individuals" in baseball who used steroids and Bonds "shined above all the rest." On CBS, Armen Keteyian (no link) fleshed out Bonds' achievement with some statistics: he averaged 32 home runs a season until 1999; from 2000 onwards, after he turned 35 years of age, his average jumped to 52 per season. Keteyian called Bonds "the poster boy for baseball's Steroids Era."
NBC, whose sports division has the broadcast rights for the 2008 Olympic Games, had Mark Mullen cover the countdown in Beijing precisely one year before the opening ceremonies. The People's Republic sees the Games "as an opportunity to showcase the new China." Trees have been planted to block dust storms from the Gobi Desert. Polluting factories are being relocated. Streets will be pedestrianized. "Cabbies have been told to learn English and residents advised: no cutting in line; no spitting around foreigners."
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