Baseball is as baseball does

"What we should have done a long time ago was stand up -- players, ownership, everybody -- and said: 'We made a mistake.'''

These words by Jason Giambi. Whoever would have thought the Giambino would turn into the moral compass of the MLB. It is about time that the entire system comes out and says what happened was wrong. I know that not everyone took steroids. I know that it wasn't being handed out by the ownership. And I also know that as a fan I'm complicit in these shenanigans as well. I cheered Mark McGwire when he stepped up to the plate. Two vivid memories stick in my mind involving McGwire's home run chase and subsequent fall from grace.

1. I was watching the game with my parents. Cubbies and Cards and Marky Mark was at 61 homers. Early in the game and despite my valiant protests my mom insisted I take a shower. I told her that she better yell if McGwire comes to the plate. Just as I put the shampoo in my hair I heard a frantic yell, and so I got to watch McGwire's first AB which didn't yield the record breaking home run. I finished my shower and continued watching the game with the folks. I got to see the record breaker sitting on the couch with my dad, clean, by virtue of my mother. Thanks mom.

2. The day of the baseball steroids hearing on Capital Hill I was (conveniently) sick and had to stay home from school. So I sat there and watched what I thought were four heroes (Schilling, Palmeiro, McGwire, and Sosa) and one goat (Canseco) talk about steroids in baseball. Sammy forgot how to speak English (which led to a hilarious skit on SNL that week involving Keenan Thompson), Schilling was his usual political self (the guy's surely gonna run for office some day and I'm just glad he's a Republican so I don't have to find a way to rationalize voting for him other than the bloody sock), Palmeiro was waving fingers, Canseco loved to hear himself speak (which fit well with many of the people facing him behind the nice wooden desk), and then there was McGwire. And Mark refused "to talk about the past." Here's the guy who saved baseball. The guy I watched all summer chasing Slammin' Sammy. The guy was as heroic as a sports figure could be, and it crushed my heart.

The homers of the "steroid years" sucked me in as much as any other, but that doesn't make it right. Giambi is a better man for saying what he said knowing that it could lead to a suspension. Although knowing Giambi I doubt he would have admitted his use if he had indeed used steroids since 05. I'd like to hear more players come out and say the same. I won't hold it against them. As a fan, I'd appreciate their honesty. I'm ok with talking about the past.

But on a lighter side of things...

My Sox were rained out tonight. This means I'm relegated to watching one of the less obvious rivalry interleague matchups in the form of a Blue Jays-Phillies game. If any of my loyal readers could point out any history of rivalry beyond what the announcers have already explained (apparently having your team's spring facility located five miles from another team's spring facility makes for some heated tension........right, and Zauny is a first ballet HOF'er) that would be awesome. By virtue of my home state I root for the Phils, as long as they aren't playing the Sox of course. They've had a very "Phillie" season and any Phillie fan knows what I'm talking about. They've turned it around lately, though, which is good for the Phils. If Howard can come back and start hitting, and then Flash Gordon and Ryan Madson come back into the bullpen, they have a pretty complete team. Although they also have the Mets and Braves in front of them. It should be an interesting season in the NL East.

Speaking of interesting, a commercial for the Phillies just played where Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins repeatedly gave each other purple nurples. The receiver of the nurple would then pretend to be electrocuted. There's a lot of questions this raises, but I think the most important of them is what does Charlie Manuel, who is essentially the baseball version of Forrest Gump, think of this? On the list of people who probably shouldn't have a talk show but get one anyway, Charlie Manuel needs to be right at the top.

WOW! Great defensive play to end the game. Bases loaded, two-out, infield playing on the outfield grass Alex Rios hits a slow ground ball to third. Honest Abe Nunez charges the ball nearly colliding with Aaron Hill who is running hard for third and throws the ball to first. Wes Helms has to dive to glove the ball around the runner for a bang-bang play to end the game. This was actually exciting! A Phillies-Jays game being described as exciting. There's an accomplishment and reason number 7 (or 4,207 if your Bud Selig) for keeping interleague. And yeah, I pulled both numbers out of my ass.

As an end to this blog I'd like to give a shout out to Erik Lis, the left handed hitting 2005 9th round selection of the Minnesota Twints. Erik hit a homer off of Roger tonight in Roger's Class A debut. Good job, Erik. Red Sox Nation is proud. Fourty-four year old fat guys with groin problems beware: RSN is coming for you!

-Flig