We may have finally come to the crossroads on the future of the Devil Rays franchise and it has nothing to do with the anticipated name change either.

 

Last year I called them the Devil's Triangle while they were at Durham. As it turned out the problem at the teams triple-A team went deeper than three players, so much so the entire coaching staff were shown the door. The trainer too.

 

From afar, many of us thought that Delmon Young, B.J. Upton and Elijah Dukes all used the same song when stepping into the batter's box, the theme from Cops. From bats being thrown at umps to drunk driving charges to sewer water shower allegations, the trio had a rep even before they pulled on their first big league uniform.

 

When the Bulls staff was dispatched I made up my mind that I would believe 100% of what I saw and 0% that entered my ears. If I was going to write about something it had to be from first hand knowledge and not from the second or third.

 

There's a simple explanation for that and it is what I learned way back in grammar school.

 

Remember when your teacher lined up the class and he/she whispered something to the first child and let them pass it down the line? By the time it reached the last student the context had been so skewered it had nothing to do with the original.

 

Do the same thing with adults and it can turn into something so vile it could make a jailbird blush.

 

Make no mistake, the reps Young, Upton and Dukes brought with them had some merit, however, since the day they came to St. Petersburg and became major leaguers there is no indication that they were the same immature youngsters that gave the franchise agita.

 

News outlets love scandals.

 

It gives papers the opportunity to blare a New York Post-ish headline the width of the banner and above the fold to spike their circulation.

 

Television and radio pad rating as if they were talking about the latest Rosie-Elizabeth flare-up on The View.

 

Is it true? Who cares, they say.

 

Could the person making allegations have an ulterior motive? Not our problem, say the news and program directors. Run with it.

 

In a world where we now consider people guilty until proven innocent it's the breaking news concept that rules the roost. To heck with the constitution, we have to sell newspapers or get the attention of our viewers/listeners.

 

It is a sick world because the sick are in control of what we see and hear.

 

But what if the allegations are false? What if the person has truly cleaned up his act? Does it matter? Of course it doesn't.

 

Radio and TV will simply move on to the next scandal or so-called newsworthy item. If a retraction is due, the paper buries it so far in the paper no one realizes it is there.

 

So what are we to make of the Elijah Dukes-NiShea Gilbert alleged incident?

 

There are so many holes in this story I dare to say Gilbert is trying to extract her pound of flesh in an ugly divorce. She went to the newspapers when it was the police that should have been contacted first.

 

She played a tape of a "voice" that no one has been able to substantiate as being that of Dukes.

 

Did the picture of the gun come from Dukes?

 

Are newspapers now the guardians of truth, justice and the American Way?

 

This is not an indictment of the St. Petersburg Times. They got pulled into this not the other way around. This was not a police blotter story that everyone else could pick up on.

 

The Rays, as an organization, issued the usual statement under the circumstances and already they are being blasted for not taking action.

 

Just what action SHOULD they take?

 

Does Dukes past automatically convict him where no charges have been filed?

 

It is the court of public opinion and to be honest I would not want most of them sitting in the box should I have to be judged.

 

Even the local media is just as culpable. When one reporter tried to act like he was from some New York station and played hardball, Delmon Young tried to protect his friend and both laced into the man with the mike, replete with expletives.

 

That same reporter went on to blast the two players on the news at eleven.

 

It was shameless beyond comprehension.

 

If this same person wanted to go after anyone it should have been Andrew Friedman, the team's Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations asking why nothing was being done, in his opinion.

 

No, that would cast him in a dim light with the organization. So he went after the most vulnerable, Dukes and Young gets caught up in the video mess.

 

This is being reported as if it were John F. Kennedy's assassination. It blared from the front page of the Times and of course, the journalistic gems that they are, ESPN runs it, sans facts. It only mattered that they blast Dukes' picture on 3/4 of their screen and adding the tag line that he threatened to kill his wife.

 

Now that this has become a full-blown scandal of sorts, I want to see how many of those who castigated Dukes go up and apologize if this turns out to be absolute hooey.

 

And the Devil Rays not need apologize for avoiding a rush to judgment. I think we heard enough of that a number of years ago with O.J.

 

Innocent until proven guilty? Not in 2007. Editorial responsibility went out the door years ago and we are all worse off for it.