Wednesday, February 11, 2009

More Baseball Woes.



The hits just keep on coming. It was bad enough to have Alex Rodriguez exposed as one of the steroid 104(and how many are sweating that they will be next?) now we have Miguel Tejeda being charged with perjury regarding his testimony before congress. Who do we blame for this. Actually there is plenty of blame to go around. Let's start with 1994 when the players went on strike and the last half of the season was canceled. Baseball fans were naturally upset and stayed away from the park. Baseball needed something something to reignite the spark. What is more exciting than home runs? Somebody got the bright idea that the best way to produce more offense was to bulk up. Remember the Mark and Sammy show? 1998 brought the fans back in droves to watch the mighty Maris record fall. There was the touching way that Roger Maris' family was there the night that Mark McGwire hit home run number 62. Equally touching was Sammy Sosa's presence that night and the big hug that he gave Mark that night. All was well in the baseball kingdom again.

Another advantage was players would not feel the effects of the wear and tear on their bodies as much and come back from injuries quicker. This blame I place squarely on the players and their union. More hits meant more money and the players union loved that. So what if players would drop dead in their 40's. Get the money while you can and raise the bar so that those coming after you will get the big buck contracts too. What some men will do for the almighty dollar.

Blame must also be placed on the owners. Don't tell me they didn't suspect something was going on. In 1996 Brady Anderson of the Baltimore Orioles hit 50 home runs. In 1995 he hit 16, in 1997 he hit 18. One year he is an OK player, then he becomes the all powerful Oz, and then someone opens the curtain and reveals the true Brady. The owners only saw people coming in and would do whatever it took. How could the Giants have accepted the freakish growth of Barry Bonds as an intensive work out regiment? I will look for some baseball cards of Barry from 1998 and 1999 and you be the judge. Barry bulked up after the Mark and Sammy show had its run. He was knocked out of the spotlight and would do anything to regain it. The Giants, Major League Baseball and the players union all ignored the situation. Nobody would ask the tough questions. Now the bill has come due.

As if the steroids weren't bad enough, another even sadder baseball story came out today. Roberto Alomar's girlfriend filed suit against him for giving her HIV. According to her suit, Alomar has AIDS and passed it off to her. Of course this was not MLB's fault, it just come out at a rotten time for them. You can read the suit here.Travis and Mike were both right yesterday. The answer was pupa.

Today's question is Grade 4/Life Science. In humans, muscles are attatched to bones by which of the following? A) ligaments B) Tendons C) marrow

I knew this one. 26-9.

1 comment:

Travis said...

At the time I think the owners are at least as complicit as the players, because they know that more home runs brings in more fans. They definitely looked the other way on 'roids.

I always get tendons and ligaments mixed up. I will guess ligaments.