The Ole Ballgame Ain't What It Used To Be

Baseball has been a big part of my life for the past 10 years or so. When I was young, I remember wondering how my grandfather could sit and watch an entire game. It seemed so boring! But I started learning more about the game, and paying more attention, and all of a sudden it was anything but boring. It was so exciting to hang on every pitch of a close game. I loved the history and unchanging nature of the game. It was comforting to think about other people, just like me, or perhaps very different from me, who enjoyed the game decades ago. The game just has not changed much since it's beginnings - and I find that very appealing in a world where things are changing at the pace of a cheetah on speed.

Every spring, I start getting so excited about Spring Training starting up again. And Opening Day is just something everyone should experience. The energy, the fresh faces mixed with the veterans, and the hope of a new season, no matter how dismal the one was the previous year.

But it was just a bad day in the world of baseball when the Rafael Palmeiro story broke. He's always been one of the good guys, that you could always count on day in, day out. I held onto the thought that it couldn't possibly be true. But when it obviously was, my stalwart sport was suddenly knocked completely off its pedestal. I haven't been able to look at the game in the same way since. Because if Rafi was on steroids, that means countless others must have been too. How many outcomes of how many games have been affected by this? How many records are now bogus?

It really disturbed me even more that some people were calling into the local sports talk radio shows to say that they didn't think it was such a big deal. Are we really that complacent - I mean, we're talking about cheating. Flat out cheating. Are we going to bring up our kids thinking that this is ok? That it's alright to copy off someone every once in awhile as long it gets you ahead? That lying to fans, teammates, the media, and even the U.S. Congress is acceptable, and even applauded, as witnessed by the fans who stood up and clapped for him his first game back?

All I know is that I want my simple, unchanged, untarnished game back. The game my grandfather loved. But right now, it's nowhere in sight.