Tag Archives: Lance Armstrong

Liar, Liar Liar……What Difference Does it Make?

38. Dog with teethThis blog has been a really fun thing for me.  I enjoy sitting down with a cup of coffee and newspaper at my trusty little PC and jotting down random thoughts, usually of current events, but sometimes just things that inspire me or tick me off.  It’s rather a form of cheap therapy I suppose.  But nevertheless, after a two month hiatus, it’s taken Alex Rodriguez to get me back in the saddle.

thumbnailCAOVWT3WI’ve never been a fan of A-Rod.  Oh, he had the talent for sure and was drop dead gorgeous to boot, but from the beginning he always seemed a little high-hat and impressed with himself, more than the average athlete.   I’ve been following this suspension saga from the beginning and, to tell you the truth, I’ve had it up to here with the onslaught of lying athletes and the boring routine of it all.  First,  the allegations and then the denials and finally the admissions of guilt.  And that’s even before Rodriguez got involved.

More recently and most visible were the Lance Armstrong and Ryan Braun fiasco’s.  I was so convinced that Braun was telling the truth after listening to his beautiful and elegant speech denying all charges of drug usage that I wrote a blog on it, shaming MLB and others who gave him a good thrashing without knowing the truth.  So when Braun came forward with his pathetic apology, admitting his guilt, I figured, that’s it.  No more.  Who can you believe?  I mean, according to some reports, over 85% of professional baseball players in the 1990’s used performance enhancing drugs so, really, what difference does it make?

So now we hear that the Alex Rodriguez fiasco is over and Major League Baseball has suspended him for 162 games (the entire 2014 season).  MLB’s case is that A-Rod used performance enhancing drugs.   He says he’s never tested positive and that it’s all a vendetta against him and that he’ll have his day in court.  And I have no idea if he did or if he didn’t.  To be honest, I’m really just tired of it all.   Not just A-Rod, but all of it.

Just once ~ just one time I wish the little guy* would win.  I wish when the powers-that-be set out to squash some one, to set an example or make a scapegoat of someone, I wish one time they’d be wrong and the squashee would win.

C’mon Alex.  Show ’em what you’ve got, surprise us, take it to the big boys.  Is that too much to ask?  It’s not just about you, you know.  It’s the principle of the thing and God knows this country’s ready for some sort of principle of some thing, of some one, from somewhere.  I’m crossing my fingers and toes you’re telling the truth.  But I’m not putting a lot of faith in it.  I’m not going to jump on a bandwagon and write a blog about your innocence and whine that you’ve been had, even though it would be really great to be able to believe in something DSC00242again.   If you could just say it isn’t so and mean it…..

And so begins my venture back into the blogosphere.

*Little guy is used lightly here ….. just meaning the underdog I guess.

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Gimme a Break! ……Is this Baseball Season or Not??

Boy, I’m telling you, this time of year it gets really frustrating trying to read the sports section in the morning newspaper.    I went to a game this week-end and couldn’t wait to get up in the  morning and read all about it in the paper from  a  local sportswriter’s perspective.   This was a game of monumental importance!   This was a game between two teams vying for first place in their division and where do you think I finally found it?   Bottom of Page Three!   The front page of the sports section was dominated by, you guessed it,  “f o o t b a l l “,  and the 2nd page was all about “g o l f”,  and not even professional golf, but high school golf!   And the top of Page Three wasn’t about other baseball teams either.  It was about Lance Armstrong and cycling.   Is baseball not America’s favorite pasttime?   I understand some might find the season a little long.  Okay, maybe really long, but when  ESPN starts showing daily doubles and NFL rookie interviews  before they show  highlights of today’s actual division games that have a significant meaning in the league standings, something has to give.  And this happens every year.  

So today I finally broke down and bought an annual subscription to MLB Magazine and set up the  Online Edition of the  Mercury News so I can get my morning “fix”.   I really hate giving up my newspaper.  There’s something very enlightening and peaceful about settling down each morning with my coffee and newspaper  in hand, chuckling at the play-by-plays reported by another sports fan/writer with a really great sense of humor.  But so be it.   This entire scenario reminded me of a George Carlin routine I’d heard about the differences between football and baseball.  I finally found it and posted it here for you to see.   Unfortunately, you can’t watch it in bed with your morning cup of coffee, but hope you enjoy it anyhow.