What a mess! November and December are great months to see how your team is going to improve for next season. The decisions on what players will get signed and traded are mostly complete by Christmas.
And just when we should be gearing up for this hot-stove time. . . MLB once again puked all over itself. Like a bad dream where you can't move your legs in the middle of a busy intersection, MLB can't seem to dodge any of traffic heading right at them.
- Former (d) Senator, George Mitchell's office claims that their 2 year, bloated witch hunt report is nearly complete and will name players involved in steroids before it was illegal.
- PayRod's agent Scott Boras tries to steal the thunder from the World Series by announcing that Rodriguez will opt out of his deal.
- Scott Boras is grilled in a New Yorker column called "The Extortionist" because of his grip on the game.
- PayRod crawl's back to the Yanks and is going to be a 1/4 billion dollar paid athelete. It'll take him 2 innings of one game to equal the median US household annual income.
- The MLB home run king, Barry Bonds, is getting indicted for lying about his steroid use and obstruction of justice during the Balco federal trial.
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5 comments:
"America's Pastime" Where has that phase gone when describing baseball? Is it truly now living up to its description? Is America associated now with steroid scandal and money hungry players with equally hungry agents! How must the game that we created look to the rest of the world? The most coveted record in sports now belongs to a guy who has no team and may be in the SF Penal League within the year.
I love baseball, always will and always have.
I go to see the Toledo Mud Hens play about 20+ times a year.
I make it up to Comerica to see the Tigers at least 5 times a year.
“For Love of the Game” still gets to me emotionally every time I watch it.
I think I’m lucky, as a fan of the Detroit system, that none of the ugliness of baseball has hit home…yet. (Knocking on wood) I could sit here and quote the great James Earl Jones speech from “Field Of Dreams” but I digress. There is something great about the players that are still playing for the love of the game, but are you still playing for the love of the game when you cheat with steroids? No, your love has turned to greed and that is why you are playing. Are the days of a pure, professional, natural athlete gone? And think of what this does to the kids that look up to this “hero”. This “cancer” that is spreading though baseball has got to be cured. Do I have the answer or the cure, sadly I do not.
For me, that type of innocent affair ended in the '94 strike. I seriously stopped watching baseball for about 4 years.
I could not agree with troy more. Baseball is my favorite. I love to coach it, 18 years now and I am only 38. My kids and I go to see Reading Phillies, Aberdeen IronBirds, Harrisburg Senators, and many Baltimore Orioles(even though they are becoming less and less like real baseball games) every year. Bull Durham was the best(Good future blog posting on the best baseball/sports movies).
Here is another huge problem baseball has created: My family can not watch any Oriole games on T.V. or computer. The Orioles play on MASN. My cable co. does not carry it. I checked MLB.com - I am blacked out. I live a hour and half from Baltimore and can not watch any games. My parents who live 45 minutes from Baltimore can watch every stinking game of the year. I am also blacked out from th efollowing games:Phillies(hour away), Pirates(4 hours away), Nationals(3 hours away).Dish network will show them if is a sellout. The last time that happened Ripken was still making headlines for something called the "Streak". When a man and his son can not watch their favorite team play ANY game there something dreadfully wrong.
No wonder baseball is losing fans! You're that close to your hometown team and can't watch them unless you have Dish AND it's a sell-out?! That's unreal.
On the brighter side, listening to games on the radio is awesome. I keep XM radio in my car for that main reason!
Free agency, more than anything, has doomed the game. There's still no other game like it, though. The symmetry, the time-tested measurements that over a century and a half still leave first base just far enough away from home to make slow rollers to third close. It's really an amazing game. Those who don't respect it never played it. It only looks easy on TV! Regarding the drug issue, pills have been in clubhouses since the early '60s if not before. That innocence has been long gone. The money on the field has really changed the game. Since Bo Jackson decimated Rick Dempsey, how many legitimate home plate collisions have you seen? Why is it that great control pitchers for certain teams are allowed to pitch inside with impunity, while others are harangued for merely painting the corner with a nice cut fastball? There's too much to go into. We should go have a beer. Then play a little HR derby down at the Pony League field (I think I can still hit a baseball 280 feet...).
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