Defending the Indefensible

It seems the whole world is up in arms over a somewhat tasteless column written by Mark Whicker of the Orange County Register.
As so often happens commentators try to outdo one another with their expressions of outrage, but it should be noted it was actual a smart, well-written, interesting column.

The premise was "let's catch up Jaycee Dugard on everything she missed in the sports world during her 18 years in captivity."

There were some smart lines in there like "Barry Bonds, wound up breaking Henry Aaron's home run record. How did such a skinny guy manage that? We'll deal with that later."

And "Michael Jordan did indeed win the big one, and five others."
Remember people thought Jordan wasn't a winner.

The only problem is Whicker approached it from the wrong direction. Instead of using her as a jumping-off point then saying "look how much the sporting world changed in the past 18 years" he seemed to be making fun of her plight.

Especially by ending on a new home run catchphrase, "congratulations, you left the yard."