Forgive, Even if You Can’t Forget

Ben Johnson, chemistry’s fastest human, runs tonight in Los Angeles.

It will be the first time Ben puts his best feet forward on a United States track since he gave back the gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea.

Ben is the headliner of what should be a fine indoor track meet, the Sunkist Invitational at the Sports Arena, and he is being paid handsomely--in fact, $30,000--to run 50 meters, win or lose.

Forgive him or forget him, but Ben is back. Al Franken, for one, is forgiving.

Al is the promoter of tonight’s meet and can’t understand why Johnson still seems to make some lists of America’s Most Unwanted.

“Isn’t a two-year suspension severe enough?” Franken rhetorically asks. “My posture is that Ben has already served far more time than he should have. In today’s world, what the hell, you could damn near murder somebody and not get two years!”

Not everybody, however, feels that way.

Franken has been hearing from people who don’t want to see Ben Johnson run anywhere except away from them.

Such as the gentleman from Anaheim who wrote:

“The Sunkist meet has been a part of my life as a coach and devotee of track for many years. My wife, who hates track, looks forward to our annual pilgrimage. Not this year, though. Your paying Ben Johnson ‘the highest performance fee in Sunkist history’ appalls me. To reward Johnson’s betrayal of confidence demeans the sport. I cannot in good faith allow my hard-earned money to go to that end.”

Or the doctor from San Bernardino who wrote:

“I am very upset that you are publicizing, rewarding and highly compensating Ben Johnson. How can you place him on a pedestal as a role model for any youth?

“Will Randy Barnes and Butch Reynolds be headlined after their suspensions? I have bought tickets for my children and grandchildren in the past. I shall never attend another Sunkist meet unless you write and explain your position.”

Al Franken, explaining his position:

“Why focus on a guy like Ben Johnson and vilify him and make him the scapegoat forever for doing something athletes have been doing for as long as most of us can remember?

“He got caught, yes, and he got punished. But two years! It wasn’t like Ben Johnson was doing or selling heroin or cocaine or some such thing.

“Ben says: ‘Hey, you’re right, I did wrong, I’ve suffered, I’m sorry, I’m back.’ What more does anybody want? He paid for what he did. Are we supposed to ostracize him for the rest of his life?

“You wonder if steroids in today’s society is even that big an issue. There are college football coaches out there who won’t even look at recruits for some positions unless they’re 6-5 and 250 pounds. Do you think they’re all just lifting weights? Yet for some reason, all the focus seems to fall on track and field. Like we’re the one sport with the problem.

“Ben Johnson is clean now. He’s working hard to revive his career and regain his place in the world. What’s so terrible about that? “

Forgiveness is hard to come by sometimes, Al.

But, hey, it happens.

Can we never forgive Ben Johnson for “cheating?”

There are pitchers from our national pastime--Gaylord Perry, Rick Honeycutt, Jay Howell, Kevin Gross, Joe Niekro, to name a few--who have thrived and been treated like heroes, before and after being caught or confessing to doctoring the baseballs they threw. They all received forgiveness or acceptance. Perry, baseball’s designated spitter, just got voted into the Hall of Fame.

Are “drugs” the issue, rather than cheating? Dozens of other players from our national pastime have been welcomed back from rehab, too. Ferguson Jenkins, busted once for cocaine, just got voted into the Hall of Fame, too.

Ben Johnson messed up.

His time was great; his timing wasn’t.

Had he flunked his dope test at some European invitational, then served a suspension between Olympics, he could have hit the tape in Seoul with open arms and been welcomed by them as well.

Ben is back.

“We ought to welcome him back,” Al Franken says. “He made a mistake, but this is a marvelous athlete we’re talking about and a human being.”

On your mark, Ben.