They Rooned It

My favorite sport to watch is Baseball. It has been since I was little. It was my sport to play, watch, follow, talk about, etc. This blog was even called Basenotism for a while.

But it has been ruined so badly that I just can’t get into it the way that I used to be into it.

It’s not like I will ever stop watching it because the game itself is still the best but what people have done it just destroys my faith.

It’s not just baseball either that has been ruined for me, but let’s start there.

This steroid problem has caused all sorts of chaos, as is obvious. Alex Rodriguez (and I refuse to call him by his stupid nickname like anyone else who gets called by their first initial and portion of last name) has been suspended until 2015; a ban of about 211 games for…once again…being named in a PED scandal. He, along with 11 others are getting suspensions but his is the worst.

That piece of dog crap, Ryan Braun, another former MVP got the heave-ho for the rest of the season. This is the same piece of dog crap who vehemently denied his usage of PED’s last year and was somehow cleared in the matter. 

The problem for me here is that I am a fan of baseball because I love the statistics and the long-time history of the game and love to compare players from all eras. I love to track lifetime statistics and love to watch great players with the hopes that I am watching someone who may some day make it into the Hall of Fame. Then when I visit the HOF I can say, “I saw that guy play.” Whenever I go there and see the plaques of Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Cy Young, Satchel Paige, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb, and those who I never got to see, I hold them with special reverence.

Now over the course of the last 20 years I have seen some amazing baseball and some amazing players who have posted some amazing statistics that dwarf a lot of these players, in some areas.

How am I supposed to justify that reverence for someone like Barry Bonds who set the all-time homerun mark and the single-season mark now that I know he used drugs of some sort to do it?
How I am supposed to feel the same way for Roger Clemens who won 7 awards named for Cy Young himself when I know he cheated too?

When I’ve followed Rodriguez’ numbers over the years it was hard not to think that he was going to break Bonds’ mark also. But then those rumors started about him. The stories of PED use were basically brought forth by Jose Canseco, who was ostracized from the game. Is Canseco to blame or to thank in this situation?

Jose Canseco. Hero or Goat?

I almost would rather not know as far as being a fan is concerned based on how I follow the game.

But here is what gets me and probably most everyone else as well. I don’t cheat in life. I don’t take drugs to increase my performance. I took drugs in my life (more about that later also) but because I was stupid (like these ball players, sure) and for kicks. I never cheated my way up the ladder when it came to work.

What did that get me, by the way? I make ends meet in my life, that’s about it. I have done some things perhaps worthy of a young person’s admiration because I work hard and reach some of my goals. But that has never helped me cash a big paycheck by doing things honestly. I would never change that and don’t regret it but I want to know when we, as a society, are going to stop rewarding pieces of shit for cheating their way to the top?

Rodriguez signed a contract with the Yankees for 250 MILLION DOLLARS and he CHEATED to get it. Why is he, and EVERYONE else who cheated, NOT BANNED FROM THIS SPORT FOR LIFE? Somebody has to answer this for me.

As far as baseball is concerned and the players to whom I have to look for greatness that I have seen I have to almost forget 20 years of history with some important exceptions like Derek Jeter, Greg Maddux and Albert Pujols. I have to turn back to Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Rickey Henderson, Cal Ripken, Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, Kirby Puckett and those like them whose plaques I can admire at the HOF.

I don’t even think that guys like Bonds, Clemens, Mark McGuire, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Rodriguez and any other cheater should even be on the ballot. That should be their true punishment as far as I am concerned. 

Barry Bonds - before and...after?

I have left one name in particular off of this list, Ken Griffey, Jr., who, by all accounts, has been clean this whole time. The problem is that he played with Rodriguez in Seattle and I have no clue what association they could have had. I hope to God that he played clean because he was certainly one of those guys who deserves our admiration for the way that he played and the results he compiled over his career. 

By no means are those lists complete but you get the point.

This conversation about baseball and how its been ruined is only about the players and the drug use. I could continue with other aspects of it related all to money.

Now to cycling and that turd Lance Armstrong. Need I say much more about this? Seven Tour-de-France wins in a row. What could possibly be more amazing to witness and talk about with young sports fans when I am 90 years old? Not too much, I say. Now all of it has been flushed down the toilet. This piece of crap literally makes us have to tear pages out of sports history books (if any hard copies are even still available that is; deleting it from websites is much easier, thankfully.)

How about hockey? I started following hockey at a young age too and have been a NY Islander fan all of my life and lived and watched them during the dynasty days in the late 70’s. Then came Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux who were the Babe Ruth and Ted Williams of their sport. More dynasties followed; the stuff of legends and I got to watch it all. Thankfully those times have not been tainted for me.

Lemieux and Gretzky

But enter big money and strikes and rule changes made that came out because another team that I follow, the NJ Devils, employed a style of play that was rendered illegal, perhaps only because they won. Enter more rule changes like shootouts and points different ways of giving standings points and now I’m gone from there too. Fights aren’t even the same anymore because we have become such pussies in this country that we can’t allow good old-fashioned Donnybrooks to play out on the ice the way that non-pussy fans and non-pussy players would rather have it done.

Watch out football fans because this sport’s future is in real jeopardy. Greedy owners sign players with criminal records who then go on to commit more crimes up to, and including murder. Meanwhile some players, who might be less talented, aren’t drafted by teams. One of the best role models in the sport, Tim Tebow, is ridiculed beyond comprehension because he believes in Jesus yet that piece of shit Aaron Hernandez who is probably guilty of at least one murder, if not three, is getting love letters in jail from adoring fans and has a following of scumbag fans who say, “Free Hernandez.”

Tim Tebow: charged with loving Jesus
Gets ridiculed

Aaron Hernandez: charged with murder
Gets marriage proposals

This year players can’t celebrate after a touchdown in certain ways because its “offensive” to other people.

The league is getting sued by former players who suffered concussions. The simple fact that any court wouldn’t toss this frivolous suit right out the window is an indication of how messed up we are in this country.

So as someone who has followed and enjoyed sports all of his life, I have an emptiness inside because of all of this sort of stuff. The last 20 years of this crap has sucked that life out of me. No longer can I get excited about those things that were a staple of the informative years of my life.

Sure the times are always changing. But I would really like things to change for the better before its too late for me…and since I’m 51 it is perhaps too late now.

And if I get started about how politicians have ruined things, and our lives, over the past bunch of years this story will be 5 hours longer, so I’ll refrain as I usually try to do (thus keep my blog entries to a minimum, unfortunately.)

Finally, as mentioned above, I am someone who abused drugs and alcohol in my past. This weekend, however, I am celebrating 20 years of sobriety. No, I won’t be celebrating with a big party, wiseasses, just by myself and some groups of people who helped me along the way.

Everyone makes mistakes and everyone is entitled to correct them, learn from them and move forward. But just as I received and had to live with the consequences of my actions in my past so should those who are making them now when it comes to the PED questions.

Wow, I have so much more to say but this is already too long. So for now I’m

Done.