So to channel my ultimate procrastination tendencies as I listen to Jill Scott, I figured to change up the tone of my recent posts (i.e. about woe is me) to woe of everything else. To get things started, my friends who know me really well know that baseball is my favorite sport to watch, whether on tv or at the baseball stadium itself. I know its a rare thing to meet a black girl who loves baseball as passionately but tis me. Regardless, I believe I must have started watching baseball when I was 2 years old because I remember (for some strange reason) being held my uncle while we watched baseball (and other sports too, but alot of baseball, especially during the hot summers in Houston). Thanks to my late uncle, I think I must know and love a great deal of the aspects of baseball, the good and bad sides of it. The newest bad side baseball to be paraded these past couple of years is the rampant use of steriods and human-performance drugs taken by a quite a bit of the players. Of course, using steroids is a form of cheating. NO IFS AND BUTS ABOUT IT! But I think what trips me out the most is the same people who are crying foul and boo-hooing about the use by players for at least the past 15 years were the same ones who were jumping for joy and praising the likes of Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa literally reviving America's favorite past time during the late 90's (i.e. mainly sportswriters and sport announcers). This was mainly because after the major baseball strike of 1994 (in which the majority of the season was lost and when the Montreal Expos used to be good, hahaha pulled that one out from you know what...) many experts believed that baseball being America's pastime was gone and lost forever. Alot of fans were turned off because of the impasse between the player's union and the owners and people just did not come to watching and going to baseball games. Attendance at the ball parks had been sharp declines after the season picked back up and people were wondering just how viable baseball would remain as the 21st century approached. Then came that summer in which the great homerun chase was back and forward between the two aformentioned sluggers who were competing to see who would break Roger Maris 1961 single season homerun mark when he was with the Yanks. I remembered when they did a story about Maris about how people threatened him because he was approaching and destine to break the "Babe" record. But I digress. Needless to say, alot of people were excited, fans were returning to the ballparks to see who would break the record and once the record was broken, people kept coming to see how far they could go. I don't recall during that glee anyone questioning with a loud bullhorn if those 2 were on anything. All you heard was constant praises, cheers,and non-ending highlights. Fast forward several years later,and a Mitchell Report,Congressional testimonies, Canseco versions of confessions and pointing fingers down the line, now everyone is upset and questions the integrity of the game. The ones I hear harped the most about the records this and records that is sportswriters. Its pretty funny and a bit hypocritical that so many people want to take the high and moral ground and act as if this was the first time this happened, how could have this happened and how could have this been advocated for so long? Haha, people can be so funny sometimes, especially when they seem to lack common sense.
But needless to say, its been going on awhile, even I could pick up on that last decade and I was not even a full fledged teenager yet. Until all professional sports get really serious about cleaning up their respective leagues (oh you don't just think steroids and HGH is only used in the MLB do you?) by running drug tests as thorough and dish out punishment just as severe(i.e. the IOCC), the problem won't be resolved. But then again its not like this is policy is going to be adapted and instituted just and swiftly. Why you may ask? Because look at all the entities who stand to lose (and I mean $$$$$$) if forced to clean up their respective leagues, and I just don't mean the players either. There alot of people who would not take too keenly to losing money. It just doesn't make $cents to them. And that just means that I would have to continue to listen to media and sports pundits discuss oh the records now the records oh the records and Cooperstown. Aaargh. Well things could be worse, we could be in a recession, 2 wars, possess tremendous amount of national debt, nations hell bent on nuclear weapons and nuclear materials...oh wait...
