Us vs. them: athletes and the media.

• Author: Barrett, Wayne M.
• Position: Column

THE CONVERSATION rightly was centered on the New York Islanders' playoff success--but for all the wrong reasons. The upstart Isles already had knocked off the Washington Capitals, and now the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins were in town and led the best-of-seven series, two games to one. The sports media were gobbling down their free pre-game meal and lamenting the inevitable: The Islanders--a sportswriter's dream loaded with a group of articulate, honest, and stand-up players--eventually would be eliminated (it didn't happen until the next round against Montreal) and the great gathering of pencil pushers and microphone draggers would have to return to the baseball beat. (The horror! The horror!) Their fears, although sounding exaggerated, turned out to be well-founded. The vindictive freak show that was Shea Stadium in the summer of 1993 serves as a perfect microcosm for the rapid deterioration of an already tenuous relationship between professional athletes and the media.

Before the not-so-lovable Mets finally secured last place for the first time in almost three decades, the reporters who covered the team had been blasted with fireworks, sprayed with bleach, and berated with ill will. And in some strange, twisted way, they may even have deserved all they got. The same for the players. A pox on both their houses? Absolutely.

Today's sports world, not unlike the society from which it draws its main combatants, is filled with venom. And the leading vipers are poised on either side of the microphone. A bunker mentality--an us-against-them attitude--pervades.

"The clubs and the media, as if stuck in a bad marriage, have grown apart," wrote Sports Illustrated. "We feel like targets," said Kansas City Royals' pitcher David Cone in the same article. "A lot of times [the media is] looking for a reason to get on you. Negativity sells."

When Cone was a Met, the media didn't have to look hard. For example, during Spring Training 1992, his former girlfriend filed rape charges against three of Cone's teammates. During the ensuing investigation (and the ongoing tabloid wars of New York), many Mets emerged with less than Boy Scout reputations. In retaliation, the players, urged on by underachieving malcontent Bobby Bonilla, responded to the negative publicity by boycotting the press. Bonilla, it may be recalled, was signed by the Mets as a free agent, as much for his supposed good rapport with the press as his ability with...