In the not too distant past, there were certainly plenty of ugly incidents in sports. The good thing (or bad thing depending upon your view) is that we didn't have to see each and every ugly incident ad nauseum on televison and the Internet.

On April 14th, Yankee Gary Sheffield was chasing down a ball hit by Boston Red Sox Jason Varitek. Fans got involved along the fence, there was a fairly meaningless scuffle, and no one got hurt. In the past, the incident would have been chronicled by beat reporters in New York and Boston. Maybe...it would have made a sports highlight reel.

In today's Internet economy, we have to live through this event for the last six days. Amateur photogs post their little nuggets on web sites. Fans of all shapes and sizes make posts on various blog sites. The message boards like the one on Yahoo go completely nuts with fan comments.

Baseball, with the hyper-sensitivity created by the Ron Artest/NBA situation, responds with hearings for Sheffield. In this case, although the incident was unfortunate, and the player in question...Sheffield...has a certain surly reputation, it was definitely a case of the long tail wagging the dog.

Very much the same reaction exploded up from the citizens about the Justice Department steroid hearings in professional baseball. The examples are endless. Think of the Olympic judging debacle with Paul Hamm last summer. Think of Todd Bertuzzi's thuggery in the NHL playoffs.  

Professional athletes as role models? As spoiled millionaires? Either way, their behavior is now captured, magnified and analyzed by every sports fan in the World via the Internet. With digital cameras clicking away the frames, there is no such thing as a coverup in sports these days. There is no hiding.