the sport that I love

My favorite sport is baseball. I love playing it (though rarely these days), watching it (Fox Saturday baseball), listening to it (Pat Hughes and Ron Santo), and of course, going to the ballpark to take in the sights (ivy on the wall, sun up in the sky..), the sounds (crack of the bat hitting the ball), and the smells (hot dogs and beer). Recently however, my attitude towards the game of baseball has been tainted by the Major Leaguers who feel the need to use performance enhancing drugs to get an upper hand. This has been very discouraging to me because not only am I big fan of the sport itself, I am a big fan of Major League Baseball. The recent breaking news that Sports Illustrated released of Alex Rodriguez testing positive in 2003 was a huge shock to me. Not only did I happen to think A-Rod was a great player, but I even pulled for him to be the one to break Hank Aaron's (notice how I don't even mention Barry Bonds) HR record. After Bonds surpassed Hank Aaron on the record sheet with a big asterisk next to his name, Alex Rodriquez was supposed to be the guy who was going to clean up the sacred record by surpassing Bonds. Now, it looks as though his numbers are tainted and that is very frustrating as a fan. Not only is Alex Rodriguez named in this news release but there are 103 other Major Leaguers who tested positive as well. How in the world do I continue to support this?

Peter Gammons, baseball analyst for ESPN, held an exclusive interview with Alex Rodriguez regarding his postive test of using performance enhancing drugs in 2003. To A-Rod's credit, he has come forward and apologized and I respect that very much. During the interview, A-Rod definitely came across as emotional and genuine and that says a lot to me.

Whether or not A-Rod told the complete truth, I still give him a lot of respect for making the effort of first off, confessing that he used steroids, but also apologizing to the fans. This still doesn't, in my opinion, negate the fact that he 'cheated' but it does clear up any ill feelings I may have towards him. That is something that can't be said for Barry Bonds and Mark McQwire, who continue to deny any use or even "talk about the past", but hopefully they will do some thinking while behind bars to the tune of maybe they should've done what A-Rod did.

But still, I am in a dilemma because it seems as though the game that I love and the league that I love watching has changed. It has changed so much that players are going out of their way to put harmful substances in their bodies just to boost numbers. I think the thing that frustrates me more than anything is that baseball, specifically Bud Selig, knew that this was going on and turned a blind eye to it.

There's still a lot to be uncovered and a lot to be said but right now, at this very instant, I still love the game of baseball and I am hopeful that one day the Major Leagues will get back to being, America's Pasttime. Until then, should I continue to pour so much time and energy into rooting for these guys? I guess, only time will tell.