king rat

Bud Selig has never been a favorite of mine, his leadership has not impressed me as fair, genuine, nor competent.  Owners choose a Commissioner and among the primary goals of the organization are to promote the sport, make baseball appealing and more popular.  Steroids have been a fly in the ointment for baseball since the golden post work stoppage days when McGuire, Sosa, and Bonds parlayed long distance hitting into a national resurgence for the game.  It was wonderful to see those scores of home runs, and many new records.  McGuire one day gave an interview before his open locker and there on the shelf- Androstendione. It was regarded as a muscle supplement in those days- a steroid of the finest water- but not illegal, not banned by baseball then.
Some fantasies have grown among the weeds, that steroids creates baseball abilities, noticeably and measurably makes a player perform better.  This has not come from scientific research- they know better than to say this home run was caused by a steroid.  No, only drug dealers and sports reporters say such things and when they do - they too become drug dealers.  Many impressionable young people believe they can be great athletes if they eat steroids too. Drug dealers tell them it is true- then the sports establishment says amen!
Frankly, every confessional i have heard from someone I regard as sane and reasonable( excluding Jose Conseco and a few other avid author and book promoters) suggests that the steroids didn't work. Didn't heal the bum shoulder, didn't avoid months of tedious rehab.  The suggestions that the effects are greatly exaggerated or as they say on the web--OOOVVVEEERRR RRAATTEED

I think there is a deeper question in the latest steroid/Biogenesis flap.  Why are we exalting the veracity of the rats!!!???  For every athlete dumb enough to risk his life on an experimental drug, there is a criminal waiting somewhere to prepare it, promote it, and conspire to transfer it.  He takes no risk except getting caught in a lie. Then when we catch the lie we exalt him, give him center stage to take down otherwise law abiding productive citizens.  I mean- compare baseball steroid buyer to the Biogenesis dude- one is a crook and a rat, the other is sadly mistaken, about to lose millions$, and put out as an example for our children-- that steroids make you better.  See the sad truth is otherwise--
steroids make you stupid-- before and after you buy them!

Today there was also a ballgame...

a contest between two evenly matched squads, middle of the pack teams, not expected to contend for the championship as presently made up.  There is a big  IF in that prediction and it involves the man whose presence has made this game an afterthought.  Derek Jeter  one of two certain Yankee Hall of Fame players o this roster is back from a long period of rehabiltation.  The trolls on the talkboards proclaimede all winter that this would not be; that we had seen the last of jeter as a player.
The Return of the Captain could be a novel but in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, in all the Boroughs and minor principalities of megaNewYork,  it is an epistle- the latest Book in the Pinstripe Bible. There is a game and it is the necessary backdrop to the one-man show, the long awaited return of the esteemed and  beloved pride of the Yankees.
Now back to that big IF; Jeter can begin and continue to regain his form, the Yankees will contend.  They have been missing a clutch hitter, and they have clearly missed their Leader. As they gather strength: Granderson will be next, perhaps also Youkilis near season's end, they will become a balanced team of hitting, power, base running and pitching.  They will catch the ball more often than expected on defense.
In this very balanced league, and in this strange season, New York vs. Detroit is my prediction for the ALCS.