Monday, March 31, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
THIS IS the time of the year when it's not uncommon to see an athlete, a team, or its supporters bow their heads and weep after an excruciating loss. It happened throughout the NCAA Tournament and it's apt to happen again tonight as the outcome of the men's championship game between Kentucky and Arizona becomes clear.
Psychologists say tears are OK, so let's not get into that.
If you play hard, you can lose hard.
But figuratively crying is a little tougher to take, especially when the crier is grandstanding or deflecting his own personal blame.
And that was the case following the IBF heavyweight title fight at the Las Vegas Hilton between Michael Moorer and Vaughn Bean. Moorer won the Saturday night fight by a slim margin, which sent Bean's manager into a pitiful tizzy.
To Bean's credit, he didn't bellyache. He said he thought he may have won, which is fine. He seemed to accept the fact he also may have lost.
But Butch Lewis didn't and it was an awful sight.
Lewis is a friendly, outgoing guy but his personal agenda got in the way of his thought process after the scoring for the fight was announced. He's also a man easily excited and one who is readily able to raise his voice when he feels the need to be heard.
This time he was screaming to make his misguided point.
Instead of taking the high road and realizing the loss didn't especially hurt his man's career, Lewis insinuated that the three men selected to score the fight had been influenced by prefight publicity. The judges -- all Las Vegans -- came to the fight expecting Moorer to win and they scored the bout accordingly, Lewis said.
Further, he said he didn't care for the selection process and was leery of the judges even before a punch had been thrown.
From this front-row seat, Lewis had nothing to cry about. In fact, the judges were surprisingly forgiving toward Bean and his lack of aggressive offense.
If anything, the scoring failed to reflect how easily Moorer was winning the fight. Even without exerting himself, he was in control almost from start to finish.
Lewis should have seen as much himself. He should have come to the postfight press conference and said something like "Moorer was there to be beaten, but we just didn't have the artillery to do it." Or, "My man did all right, considering his lack of experience. We can only hope for another shot in a couple of years."
Instead he shouted, he ignored the evidence and he put everyone on notice he would continue to make a stink about the subjective nature of the scoring. He also embarrassed himself.
Maybe it was just being in the Hilton that set Lewis off. Three years ago he had to defend himself in court when the Hilton brought suit against him (and two others) for the failed 1986-87 Heavyweight Unification Tournament promoted by HBO.
Lewis prevailed in the court case. Had he not, he may have had something to cry about.
Vaughn Bean losing was not.
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