MLB Sourness

I'm a sports fan... let's get that out into the open right now. I like virtually all real sports and by real, I mean a sport that does not involve a judge (or judges) determining how well (or poorly) you have done and thus determining the winner. I do enjoy boxing, but have come to the acceptance that it is a farce like all other entities that involve a judge.

And when I say I like all 'sports', I mean it... I watch every grand slam in tennis (and more), almost every PGA tournament (especially majors), NFL, NHL, NBA, NASCAR, MLB, darts, poker, curling, lacrosse, etc... I even watched the World Cup for soccer the last two times but for some reason soccer just doesn't do it for me. Of course the reason I will watch virtually any sport is that I hate 'regular' television programming...it's all garbage, so I need to find something to watch that will interest me and sports does do that trick.

Now obviously there are some sports I follow and actually take an interest in, especially the NFL and NHL, with the other 'big' sports (NBA, NASCAR, PGA and MLB) with some less degree...and that is my point today, why I can't love the MLB anymore...or at least right now. With the regular season about to start and the sports show all a clamour about opening day, I thought it appropriate to voice my distaste for the MLB...

I was once like most other Americans... in love with baseball in my younger years. I had a card collection that was as good as anyone's my age when I was young. I would love watching baseball and keeping score. I had strat-o-matic baseball and as soon as available, roto-league games for the computer and would attend at least 6-8 games a year - driving 6 hours 1 way to get to a game.

Then 1994 came about and the strike. Because of that strike I became so disinterested in baseball, I didn't watch any games, go to any games or really care about baseball at all. Then 1998 and the McGwire-Sosa homerun derby was making headlines... and try as I might, I could not keep from following along and watching the chase for the homerun record. Even this excitement wasn't enough to fully lure me back to being an admitted 'baseball fan' again, but did seem to ease my hatred towards the league.

Well now we fast forward to 2005, now not only has the league been tainted with performance enhancing drugs, but that moment in time - when in 1998 - seemed so special and like history was being made has been turned into the joke that is the MLB.

I can't like the MLB today, in the state that it is in. Selig, at least at this time, appears to try and let things that happened in the past stay in the past. I think it is a complete disgrace and discredit to all the honost ball players out there that there records will be beaten by cheaters and the league is going to allow it. I think Selig needs to come out, as soon as possible, and say that all guilty parties of steroid use will have their careers nullified and/or asterisked and forever be banned from baseball.

There is absolutely no crediability in baseball right now, as it stands...and living in the hometown of Roger Maris, I can only imagine the betrayal he would be feeling from the MLB right now with the revelations that have come about since his record was beaten... I think it is a sad statement on our society when cheating, even when caught after the fact, could be totally ignored or go unpunished.