With baseball around the corner I have sports on the brain. Nothing more exciting than Spring Training baseball. The optimism surrounding your favorite team. The excitement of seeing new players and staff. The one time a year that every team is even in the standings. Is your club going to rise to the top, or be in the bottom of the standings come fall? I'm a Mets fan, so mine is probably the latter.
With all these thoughts of baseball, I can't help but think of the Hall of Fame balloting that just happened and the many, many names that were left off due to either suspected PED (performance enhancing drugs) usage, or admittance to it. My whole take on the idea is a simple one; LET THESE GUYS IN! There is no reason to let these athletes miss out on the Hall because of their PED use. First off, who's to say the generation before them wasn't on something? Hell, many players from the 70's & 80's were doing hardcore narcotics before, after, and sometimes during the game. Secondly, these guys were playing alongside other PED users. Barry Bonds was crushing home runs, but the pitcher throwing him the ball was also using. How does anyone have the advantage if they are all using? Plus, as fans, we wanted to see Bonds, McGuire, Sosa, Palmeiro, and so on, hit the ball out of the park. We wanted these men in peak physical condition and they achieved it.
Reading the books and articles that I have, the league and clubs knew what the players were up too. The revenue was at its highest. We wanted it, they delivered it. Now that MLB wants to distance itself from that era, which I also understand, I think by doing the drug testing and making the rules clear to all, that they are doing the right thing. However, the players shouldn't suffer or be excluded from the Hall because now MLB is worried about their image. These players and their alleged PED usage brought baseball back to the American forefront. Many fans had given up on the game due to the strike in 1994. We all watched Sosa and McGuire battle for the home run record, and once again, baseball was Americas past time.
You can bring up the fact that part of the Hall of Fame standards center around character, and then use that as an argument to keep them out. But if you're going to go that route, explain to me why we have guys like Ty Cobb, and extraordinary ball player, in the Hall of Fame even though he was a HUGE racist, with a violent history, who was also accused of stabbing a black man to death? If you ask me, being a racist-douchebag-killer is much worse than sticking a needle in your butt. Honestly, as a man that has never tried an illegal drug and didn't have my first beer until my 21st birthday, I believe keeping the players from this era out of the Hall is a bigger black eye to the sport than the drug use that was happening.
Now off that subject and on to another; I have to say that I am happy to see that basketball is most likely returning to Seattle. I know that it's got to hurt the fans of Sacramento that their Kings will be leaving, but outside of that area nobody in the rest of the country will be sad. I can go on and explain why Seattle is a better NBA town, but that would be like kicking the Sacramento fan while they're down. All I have to say to the people who are upset and use the "I can't believe the NBA would let us lose our Kings" rant, is REALLY? You can't believe the NBA would allow the Rochester Royals/Cincinnati Royals/Kansas City-Omaha Kings/ Kansas City Kings/Sacramento Kings to move? This franchise has moved more than any other in the league. I'd be mad if I lived in Sacramento and were a Kings fan, so really I mean no disrespect, but Seattle is a much larger TV market and the team will thrive there. Let's just hope the owners get rid of Cousins, that guy is a cancer.
With those rants, I'm out!
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