Enjoying Baseball

I have been able to watch a lot of Yankee or Red Sox baseball lately. This is a recurring theme with me. I enjoy watching these two teams play.  Including against each other.

Sometimes, when I need some noise and there is nothing I want to watch, I will turn a baseball game on the TV.  I like the pattern and cadence of baseball announcing, I love the stories of baseball history, even if it is about teams I do not follow or players I do not know.

There are few, if any players I do not like.  Frankly, I even like Pete Rose. I hate the way baseball banished Pete Rose.  I do not know if he bet on baseball.  I am sorry he sullied his reputation.  But I suspect if we went back in time, some of the early baseball heroes would have stories related to them that would tarnish them or their reputation. And as time goes on, more and more of the heroes and great players seem to have some skeleton in the closet.

I also have some strong feelings about the era of steroid use.  It was inappropriate, but not illegal, although "performance enhancing drugs" probably were always "banned." Yet baseball players have used substances of all sorts over the years.  I do not want to see records with asterisks.  The player achieved that measure, in the culture of his time, and that is the way it is. Besides, he may have been (and probably was playing) against other players who were using performance enhancing drugs who still could not meet his level of performance.

I am not condoning the use of performance enhancing drugs. I am just saying is someone has accomplished something, there needs to be some recognition.  A baseball fan will know the story.

Certainly, if someone in the future uses those specifically outlawed drugs, they need to be censured. Including not allowed to continue in baseball.

There was a time when baseball was on the decline. It has resurrected itself, and I hope it stays alive for a long time. I hope the sadness of drug use is put to rest, or dealt with appropriately in the future, without the he said-he said recriminations. I hope baseball finds a way to keep itself vital and alive.

I enjoy baseball.