The Season Pass

    Something is bothering me today.
    Here I am sitting at my computer on a Wednesday afternoon, a day away from Major League pitchers and catchers reporting to their various spring training locations, and the only thing that anyone is talking about is Roger Clemens.
    Of course, unless you have been stuck in a box for the last 20 years you know that Roger Clemens is the former Red Sock, Blue Jay, Yankee, Astro, seven-time Cy Young Award wining pitcher, who has been engulfed in scandal brought upon by his inclusion in Senator George Mitchell’s December report to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig on performance enhancing drugs.
     Clemens spent the day, Wednesday, on Capitol Hill testifying about his alleged drug use before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee of Congress.
    Yes, that is big news, and I, like many, many sports fans am in fact sitting here watching the hearing. So far, it has managed to absolutely disgust me, and I am starting to wonder what to believe.
    I have never seen Clemens look less confident, and Brian McNamee, Clemens former trainer turned accuser, appeared a little overwhelmed, himself.
    Is it just me, or does Andy Pettitte, who admitted to using HGH himself, look like the most believable person?
    I don’t want to talk about what is going on in our nation’s capitol anymore, instead I want to turn the focus to Arizona and Florida, where the rest of the baseball world should be focused.
    There are a few days that stick out in my mind as great days to look forward to every year and two of them involve Major League Baseball, one is the day that pitchers and catchers report, and of course, the other is opening day.
    So let’s talk Spring Training. Eight teams will have opened their respective camps on Thursday, Feb. 14, by Sunday pitchers and catchers from all 30 teams will be in action.
    The most interesting stories heading into spring training this year that do not involve steroids and HGH are the big pitching trades (Johan Santana to the Mets and Erik Bedard to Seattle), the Cubs 100-year world championship drought, and the ferocious look of the Tigers line-up.
    Yes, 2008 shows a lot of promise, but will it be enough to win back the fans that have grown increasingly tired of the drug scandals?
    I really believe that MLB’s tarnished image is going to be incredibly hard to clean up. I have talked to many fans, that have pretty much given up on the game.
    Baseball will rely, especially this year, on the die-hard fans, such as myself.
    I only hope that they can work through this mess that  these drugs have created and bring this great sport back into the people’s good graces.
    After all there is no better sport than baseball.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 15 2008. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry