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Monday, February 9, 2009

Just Another Brick in the Wall

Barry.

Roger.

Now, Slappy.

As a Red Sox fan, I could care less the poster child for Inferiority Complex in MLB got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Imagining Jeter, Posada, Mariano, and Hank stomping around the Spring Training facility cursing under their breath and wishing they'd have just left him toiling in the cellar in Texas puts a smile on my face.

As a Dad? This whole thing sucks. I grew up believing Pete Rose, Doc Gooden, and Wade Boggs were hero's who got to play a kids game for a living. Turns out one was a degenerate gambler, one was a drug addict and the last one was having sex with an ugly woman and had an obsession with chicken. Who knew?

Point is, I found all that out when I was an adult and was past the point where this kind of stuff bothered me.

OK, I'm lying. I'm STILL torked off about Rose and I'll never think of Boggs without imagining him and Margo sharing a bucket of the Colonel's finest while watching "Debbie Does Dallas".

But for my boys, instead of it happening when they could sort of understand it, it's happening now. I've already had to try and explain to Ciera why Nomie went to the Cubs and Rakes just can't grasp why Manny is/was a Dodger, although he likes the Dodgers because they wear blue.

It's a better reason than I've heard from some Yankee fans so I'm willing to cut him some slack.

However, if the day comes where Trot Nixon gets named in some steroid report, I'm not really sure how I'm going to explain that to my baby boy, who just so happens to be named after my all-time favorite Red Sox player.

Add that to the fact that my kids won't ever have the innocence regarding athletes that I grew up with and I'm ready to sign them all up for competitive dance class.

And if you know me at all, you realize how much it pained me to type that last sentence.

Note to Victor Conte: If I ever meet you in person, expect a size 9 Nike to be kicked in the general area of your gibleys.

6 comments:

Tree Newt said...

I'll have to admit, I was actually shocked by this one. I figured he played it clean. Now, it seems, no one is immune to speculation. It's probably way more rampant that we ever thought.

Ted D said...

Mattie, it didn't shock me but you're right; it's way more rampant than anybody probably thought.

Rich in the Garage said...

I think they're probably a little too young to fully understand the consequences of PED's in the game. Sure the talk is fairly rampant but they probably wont fully grasp it until they're old enough to understand that ball players are real people with some times more real issues than you or I may have.

I think ARods steroid use dwarfs in comparison for his slap in 2004. I think that in and of itself shows he has no regard for the rules or sanctity of the game and should have been a fantastic indicator that this guy would do anything to better his own stats.

I wish the Yankees had a clause so that they could drop his contract right now and this guy could rot somewhere with Bonds and Clemens.

Beth said...

Some of the problem is how instantaneously we can get information. Within seconds of the story that ARod was going to interviewed by Gammons, it was all over the internet. It's too much too quick!

Ted D said...

Rich, I agree but last night Rakes must have asked me 50 times what steroids were and why did people take them so they see more than they let on. It's going to be interesting to see how the Yankees play it.

Beth, the speed of information really is amazing isn't it?

HorshamScouse said...

//a clause so that they could drop his contract//
Maybe there is. He was very careful to say he used while he was with Texas, implying he hasn't since he's been a Yankee.