Sad Day In Sports

Hello Everyone and Welcome to My First Blog!

What a day to start one! Usually, we'll devote this to many of the issues which concern us locally, but today, the national spotlight has overshadowed many of us who have designated ourselves to sports.

We begin with baseball and the whole Roger Clemens mess. Whether he's guilty or not really doesn't bother be as much as how all of this is affecting the game itself. Clemens is just one figure in baseball. It's clear that the entire sport is suffering right now due to the allocations, and it needs to somehow clear itself. My belief is that we simply need to realize the past is the past, and move on. You can designate the past decade and a half as the "Steroid Era" if you choose, but in order to save America's pastime, we must move on. I'm not suggesting we forgive and forget. We must learn something about the past and try to devote our attention on eliminating illegal substances from all sports. However, allowing this issue to linger, will only make it worse. I believe Clemens said it best by saying, "No matter what we discuss here today, I am never going to have my name restored." There is truth to that. Whether he took illegal substances or not, most people's lasting image of The Rocket will be that of steroids and not of his accomplishments.

Secondly, in the NFL today, commisioner Roger Goodell met with U.S. Senator Arlen Specter in regards to the issue of the New England Patriots' Spygate case. This is just another example in another sport which its theme is centered upon "cheating." Have we gotten this bad in that most of our professional sports are now centered upon cheating? The same could be said in the NBA following last Summer's investigation of referree, Tim Donahue, and his illegal gambling on basketball games. It seems anymore that cheating has become a major theme in sports, and it is slowly killing many people's desires to watch.

Then I begin to tell myself, maybe this is what we need. Perhaps, sports have overwhelmed our lives over the years, and we need something like this to force us to step back and look at our priorities. Anymore, the cheapest ticket for an NFL game runs you $40 dollars. A hotdog is another $4 bucks, and don't even ask me how much they charge for a 16 oz. cup of beer. You can buy the same size of coffee at Starbucks for half the price, and that's saying something! Sports are supposed to be fun, and its intentions have slowly escaped many us. It appears the only purity left in athletics is within the youth of our elementary, middle and high schools. Just ask yourselves, when's the last time you walked away from a high school athletic event feeling you were cheated? Still, I must say, this is a sad day in sports.