THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

Good Morning!

I was thinking about this, as I was driving in from Columbus. I’ve been out of town the past couple of days. Our daughter graduated Saturday from our alma mater, Ohio University and with family in from all over the country, we were using Columbus as a base…largely because hotel rooms in Athens that go for about 35-bucks a night were 150-a night with a three night minimum. Believe this if nothing else, unless you’re attending OU, there’s absolutely no reason on earth to spend three days at 150-per in Athens. But, that’s a whole nother story.

I was thinking that every so often, we get to see the good and the bad in sports all in one week. And we got that this week. We are witnessing the things that drive us to games and things that drive us away from them.

We saw Junior reach another milestone this week. 600 of anything in sports is a monumental accomplishment. But when you’re talking about the quintessential play in baseball, the home run, 600 is amazing. I was listening Saturday, driving from Columbus to Athens on one of the channels XM radio has, an all baseball channel. And they were playing a one hour special that XM had pieced together about Ken Griffey, Junior’s career. It had all the high notes, the home runs, the great catches, scoring the winning run against the Yankees in the 1995 playoffs. And it occurred to me that one of the reasons you have trouble embracing Junior is because we never got his best here. His best was when he was in Seattle, when he was young and healthy. And while the promise was great when he arrived back in Cincinnati, remember he was not 30 and still considered one of the 25 greatest players all time in baseball, injury would rob him of his greatness. If you add the numbers up, it’s staggering: Junior has missed the equivalent of three full seasons here in Cincinnati because of injuries. And because of that, some fans around here became frustrated and took that frustration out on Griffey, either by booing him at games, railing on him on radio stations like this one or simply not going to see games.

But yet, his body of work in baseball is unrivaled, certainly by contemporary comparison. Bonds and Sosa hit more home runs. But they played at least under a cloud of suspicion of HGH use. Junior? You ever hear anything about him away from the field? Anything?

We’re witnessing this weekend, what could be one of the most remarkable accomplishments in the game of golf. I watched a little bit of the US Open on Saturday. If I’m not mistaken, Tiger Woods has taken the lead on one leg. If I’m not mistaken, Woods at one point Saturday, was using his three wood as a cane, walking up a fairway. Wincing on most of his shots, Woods is taking on the greatest golfers in the world right now and winning a race on one leg. It is compelling television, the kind of stuff that will live forever on places like ESPN Classic, if he wins this thing. It’ll be right up there with Willis Reed leading the Knicks past the Lakers dragging a leg behind him and Kirk Gibson limping around the bases after a game ending home run in the 1988 world series.

Last night, 74-thousand racing fans had the Kentucky Speedway bursting at the bolts that hold that facility today. If I’m not mistaken, it was the largest crowd ever to witness an event at that facility. And if so, it would be the largest crowd ever to witness a sporting event in the Tri-State. Maybe it was a farewell and thanks to the money and brains behind the place, Jerry Carroll. Maybe it was a show of force to the new guy who bought the track and NASCAR that has constantly turned its back on the facility. Or, maybe, it was just another indication that the Tri-State is one of the best sports areas in the world. All I know is this, the population of Gallatin County doubled for about five hours Saturday. People drove from Cincinnati, Louisville, Dayton, sat in traffic got there early and left late and by all indications had a blast.

Those were the things that happened this week that told us all again why we get interested in athletes, storylines and games.

And then, we got to see the under belly.

The NBA has a major problem. It could be a cataclysmic problem, if a former referee is telling the truth about game fixing. The NBA has shouted down Tim Donaghty. But shouting won’t win any battle in federal court. And as Donaghty awaits sentencing, he may only have to prove, softly, that one or two of his former compadres were complicit in game fixing. And if you have that, you have a conspiracy that goes right to the heart of the NBA’s credibility. And if that happens, professional basketball will become nothing more than Vince McMahon’s WWE in shorts.

And then, we witnessed the entire Chad Johnson soap opera this week. As I like to say, with the Bengals, you never just get football. There is always drama. Always.

I feel used today. Every journalist in this town should feel used, Channels 5, 9, 12 and 19, the Enquirer, this radio station, Homer, pick one. We were used this week by Johnson and his mouthpiece (he’s not talking to anyone locally you know, not since Halloween, ironically)….Johnson and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus used us. They wanted to create a circus atmosphere, get it caught on tape and in print and then wave it under Mike Brown’s nose. Because if there’s one thing Mike Brown doesn’t like, other than getting beaten in a contract negotiation, it’s a circus involving his team.

Maybe, after the past four years, he should be used to it.

Johnson showed up, avoided the $8 thousand dollar fine. He didn’t practice at first. It was an ankle, a back it could have been both. The accusations flew: the team said he reported no problem with either during his routine physical, Rosenhaus said he had documents that the team wanted Johnson to have surgery on the ankle, the team said Johnson refused. All of that played out over the course of minutes, culminated with an arm and arm walking and talking picture of Rosenhaus and Johnson leaving the practice field.

That’s why Rosenhaus came to town. That’s what he and Johnson wanted. That’s why every journalist who covered that fiasco should feel a little dirty today.

We in the media lapped it up. Our bosses told us to get the story, get the picture and get it on the air. Because, we were told, that’s what you want. But do you? Was it that big a deal?

The good with the bad. It doesn’t often happen to the extent it did this week.