The Day The Music Died.

*Image courtesy of Kelly O and www.sittingstill.net*

Let me run a scenario by you.

Say you are employed as a maker of yo yo's. You could put a yo yo together pretty fast, but 2 seats down from you is a dude who can assemble a yo yo 5 times quicker; throw in the fact you get paid by what you produce and not by the hour and Quick Draw is earning 5 times what you do.

One day you and quick draw are eating lunch in the cafeteria and he casually mentions he's taking a shot that let's him assemble yo yo's like nobodies business and if he can keep it up for the next 5 years or so him his kids, and his kids kids are set for life.

Now, you come from a poor line of yo yo makers; dirt floors, 1 bedroom house, not enough food for everyone, and all your life you've dreamed of being a yo yo maker so you can set your family up for life. You've got no education, no back up plan, and unless you make it as a yo yo guy you're resigned to selling shoes or digging ditches or making grade D porn for the rest of your life.

So you get Quick Draw to hook you up with his guy and 6 months later you get Employee of the Month (first one for 5 years running) and are making yo yo's faster than Brittany Spears gets married. Life is good, the money is rolling in, and you are basking in the glow of yo yo fans everywhere.

Then one day your boss, Mr. Needakick Inthe Gibleys comes up and informs you the muckity mucks at yo yo corporate want to do some anonymous, secret testing to see if the yo yo makers are getting some chemical help in the area of performance. Strictly for research and health purposes, mind you. Anything they turn up will stay secret and the results are only to try and help the workers and clean up the work environment. You, being the good employee, agree to this and for the next 6 years, after the work has gotten better and the employees have gotten cleaner and the yo yo business is enjoying unprecedented success, some dink sells the results to a local rag and your name is being posted for everyone to see.

I forgot to mention it's peak season in the yo yo business, the pressure is on, and they go and drop this in your lap right before you are going to show the world your latest ropeadope yo yo to try and push ahead of the competition.

What would YOU do?

I'm not saying David Ortiz didn't do 'roids. After Slappy, Manny, Roger, etc.. it wouldn't surprise me if Cal Ripken Jr. was shooting Winstrol and Cy Young was mainlining Dianabol. All I know is today's news made me more than a little sad; not because Papi got "caught", but because it was Papi.

What does bother me is the fact there are people who are ready to hang him from the local flagpole, when 6 to 7 years ago I imagine you'd be hard pressed to find someone NOT doing something that was considered cheating.

I love this game, and I love the Red Sox. I'm not naive enough to think that some of MY guys weren't juicing or using HGH or injecting antifreeze to get ahead; it is what it is and the entire game was affected, whether you lived in Boston, New York, or Kansas City.

I like to think if I saw a man hitting a woman I'd jump in, or if I watched someone steal an old lady's purse I'd chase after him, or if someone offered me something that would make me sell 110 times more furniture that I'd turn it down.

But if I'm being honest? I can't.

The good book say's before you take the splinter out of your brothers eye take the plank out of your own.

Me? I'm just a guy who is going to have to one day explain all the crap to my boys and just trying to make sense of it all.

All I know is I love my Red Sox and I love this game and I love Big Papi.

Right now that's just gonna have to be enough.