Tag Archives: Baseball

Play Ball!

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This week marks the beginning of sports’ longest season. The journey of 162 games of professional baseball from April until October began as this week began.

Opening Day for baseball is a very significant day, not just for the sporting world. Many people whose annual schedules are tied to sports see this day as the beginning of Spring. I refuse to acknowledge that it is cold anymore since the first pitch has been throw in ballparks around the country.

Baseball is America’s pastime. There are few experiences that relate to a day at the ballpark. I will agree that a game of football or basketball is more entertaining to watch on television, but I don’t think that going to contest in either of these sports can compare to going to a baseball game. From the peanuts, to the seventh inning stretch, to the ridiculously overcharged beers (for those who are of age) and the five dollar hot dogs. There is simply no experience as unique as a day at the ballpark. Thank god, I am an Orioles fan….can you say CHEAP SEATS?

One reason why I love the baseball season is that it is on every single night. As an O’s fan, and a subscriber to a cable package that includes MASN (the channel that shows all 162 Orioles games), every night I have something to watch on TV. Every night there is a contest to be enjoyed. Every night there is the possibility of a walk-off home run, a no-hitter, a player hitting for the cycle, or an extra-inning thriller.

Many people think baseball is boring, to which I respond that there is so much to every single play that such a statement is made on very weak ground. Every pitch has significance, even if the batter just watches it with his wooden tool resting on his shoulder. From the high, tight “chin-music” fastball that scares the hitter, and moves him a little further off the plate, to the nasty, sinking, 12-6 curveball that looks to a hitter like a juicy tee-ball to send into the left field club seats, only to end up in the dirt in front of the plate. A team can lose a game, but gain momentum because they hit the ball well, but couldn’t perform with runners in scoring position. A team can win a game, but it hurts them in the long run because they had to use eight pitchers to retire all 27 opponents. There is so much to the game when you have to look ahead not only to the next play, the next inning, but the next game, and the next series.

Baseball is a beautiful game. So, without further ado, let’s PLAY BALL.

The PED Problem

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Sports are a save haven for competition. A place where people can perform to their best of their ability to measure themselves against others in their same genre. However, in order to compete, there must be fairness.

This is why sports have rules, referees, and Governing Bodies. There are checks and balances in place to maintain the integrity of the competition. However, more and more these days, that integrity is being challenged by modern advances in medicine and technology. Golf equipment is better, athletes can train harder and longer with the help of Science, and incredible statistics breakdown helps teams predict the future. However, nothing is contributing more to ruining sport than Performance Enhancing Drugs.

Performance Enhancing Drugs, or PEDs, are a variety of substances that enhance the human body to increase its ability to train and to perform. They expand the capacity of the natural human body. There are two sports that PEDs have become a serious issue: Baseball and Cycling.

Alex Rodriguez made headlines again this week for his second positive test for the use of PEDs. He first tested positive a few years ago, and served a suspension, but now he could be facing an exit from Major League Baseball. A-Rod is not alone. Many of baseball’s greats face either accusation of, or indictment of the use of PEDs. The all-time home run leader Barry Bonds, sluggers Mark MacGuire and Sammy Sosa, and Ace Roger Clemens all face tainted reputations, as displayed by their failure to make it into the baseball hall of fame. PEDs take away from the integrity of the game, and cripple the legacies of some of our most beloved players.

The other tainted sport is cycling. PED use in cycling, often referred to as “doping” because of the methods of blood doping used to achieve results, is rampant. In the sport’s pinnacle, Le Tour de France, there have only been seven legitimate victories since 1996. It seems that everyone dopes, as cyclists are tossed from races all the time. Doping violations have scarred the legacy of my favorite athlete, Lance Armstrong. Now, Lance of France has been stripped of his seven consecutive titles, and ridiculed despite beating cancer, returning to the top of his sport, then starting one of the world’s largest movements for the fight against cancer. It is not known how much of this was his doing, and how much PEDs aided him, but it pains me to think one of my heros wasn’t everything he appeared to be.

My questions for you guys are do you like these posts that go deep into an issue in sports, or would you rather see stories of the success of sport? Also, I’m thinking of doing some posts just about parts of sports in general, such as what makes a great coach, and who are the greatest? Thoughts? Concerns?