Now, I’ve never really liked the Yankees to begin with.  It’s pretty much common knowledge that George Steinbrenner was a greedy slug who would stop at nothing to put his fingers in as many players’ pies as he could reach.  As I said, I’m from Cleveland, so I’ve never had a real reason to love or hate the Yankees, but I can honestly say that, even as a child, my feelings towards that team were nothing short of dislike.  Maybe it was the bajillion people I saw walking around my hometown everyday wearing Yankees regalia, or maybe it was just the overall arrogance of the team and its fans, but for some reason I grew up loathing the bastards.  The thing was, though, that as a team they were more or less legit.  Derek Jeter was the face of that team in the nineties, and for all I can say about them, I do think that Jeter has always been a talented and rather upstanding player.  Joe Torre was a good manager, too, and after all, a manager can only work with the players he’s given.  They won a few Series when I was younger, and as much as I didn’t like to see it happen, life went on.  I endured the Indians’ crushing defeats in the ‘95 and ‘97 World Series and witnessed the subsequent downfall of the team under new management in the years to follow.  At the same time, I saw the beast that was the Yankees growing larger and uglier with each passing year.

The problem was that baseball salaries, which in years prior had been more or less the same as those of other sports, began to go so far through the roof that they wound up closer to the Moon than they were to the ground.  The Yanks hadn’t won a Series in a while, and since the Steinbrenner family had the money to throw around, they did just that.  They signed Alex Rodriguez to a contract which was, at the time, unheard of in the baseball world.  Essentially, they dangled such a big carrot in front of his nose that whatever choice he had in the matter vanished in the wake of many, many zeroes.  Eventually, other teams began to realize the lesson that the Steinbrenners had already learned: if you want to win games, you have to get your hands on players of A-Rod’s caliber, and to do so, you need money.  All of a sudden it didn’t matter what kind of talent a team already had, or what kind of track record they boasted.  If they didn’t have the money to wave in a player’s face, they weren’t going to get their star.  The Indians, in losing players like Jim Thome and Manny Ramierez to enormous offers from other teams, ironically helped to make this theory into scientific fact.

The salary problem has only been getting worse.  Why do we see the same teams in the playoffs year after year?  They’re the teams with the cash to keep their good players around and pick up better ones along the way: teams like Boston, the LA Angels, and of course, the Yankees.  In the last offseason, the Yankees inked two major free agents to ridiculously huge, multi-HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR contracts: Mark Texiera and C.C. Sabathia.  C.C. was, as many of you might recall, a part of the Indians orginization for quite a while.  The year before he was set to go into free agency, he went into a slump, and the Tribe wound up trading him to Milwaukee, who he immediately led to the playoffs in an astounding turnaround.  Coincidence?  Well, given the fact that the Yanks were waiting for him at the end of the year with a check bigger than A-Rod’s head, I don’t think so.  This is not a singular occurrence: many baseball players, nearing free agency or not, will play poorly simply for the prospect of winding up on a different team which will pay them more money.  Essentially, the Indians have, one way or another, lost most of the good players who have come through the orginization to bigger contracts (the exceptions being Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez, who were lost as a result of the Tribe’s front office smoking way too much crack).

The ironic part of all of this is that it’s a big, vicious circle: teams with big payrolls win games, attracting fans who will support even bigger payrolls that will be used on better player who will win more games, thus attracting more fans… and it goes on and on.  Why do you think teams like Kansas City continue to stay at the bottom of the barrel?  Because they don’t have the fans to make them the money to buy better players than the ones they’ve got.  The few stars of the orginization, like Zach Greinke, won’t be around long.  They’ll be lured away by vast amounts of money just like everyone else.

Of course, the Yankees have handed the city of New York a financial black hole in the form of their new, one-and-a-half billion dollar (yeah, that’s “billion,” with a “b”) stadium.  Ticket prices there were at one point as high as twenty-six hundred dollars a SEAT in the first few rows.  The entire STATE will lose up to 7.5 million dollars annually in taxes to finance the parking garages ALONE.  Somehow, the Yankees managed to spend this much money on a venue that’s actually SMALLER than their last stadium, at least in terms of the size of the field, which of course means that steroid-juiced A-Rod will have an area about the size of a back yard to smack the ball around in.  With the new Mets stadium having gone up in the same year, I don’t see how the city is going to avoid financial problems down the road.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, the recent steroid scandals have highlighted another major facet of MLB orginizations: teams will stop at nothing, no matter how dishonest, to win a World Series.  No matter how many people, including influential members of the media, decry the recent wave of cheating that has struck the sport, there are far too many teams with media lapdogs willing to deflect attention away from such players as the aforementioned Alex “A-Roid” Rodriguez.  For all we know, he could still be shooting it up; baseball teams have, until recently, been notoriously good at hiding what goes on behind the scenes, and the Yankees, with their willingness to pay any amount of money necessary to win, certainly have what it takes.  True, the Yankees aren’t the only team that has been experiencing these problems, but they do seem the least concerned, still fielding players like A-Rod and Andy Pettite and countless others who are all probably users (the exception being Joba Chamberlain, who sucks so hard he had to have his jaw replaced, and yet is still making hundreds of millions of dollars playing for the Yankees.  Money is clearly no object.).

Add all this up and you have the perfect formula for a World Series-winning team.  Now, to be slightly fair, the Phillies didn’t exactly bring their A-game.  While the Yankees may be a team full of users, the Phillies are merely a team full of douchebags who can’t perform consistently to save their lives.  Chase Utley, who was a veritable cannon for most of the Series, decided to fold the tent in Game 6, and Ryan Howard never even got his pitched.  The Phillies pitching staff, with the exception of Cliff Lee, is a joke; Pedro Martinez looks like a washed up, overweight 80’s throwback (what the hell is with that hair?), and Cole Hamels is one of the MLB’s biggest choke artists.  This, plus the myriad of questionable calls by umpires throughout the Series and the rest of the playoffs (I’m no conspiracy theorist, but if you don’t think that baseball teams have been paying off the MLB to NOT introduce instant replay to the game, you need to take another look at the tapes) has resulted in what was basically a championship gift-wrapped for the Yankees to celebrate the veritable orgy of spending that they have undertaken in the past year.

As I said, I was never a very avid follower of baseball.  However, I still at least maintained an interest in the game, even when Cleveland was having one of its many off-years.  However, with the recent Yankees championship win, I am fully disillusioned with the sport.  New York has proven that baseball has transformed from a sport to a disreputable business that everyone chooses to frequent anyways because it’s entertaining and popular.  Until the MLB, including Bud Selig and friends, takes steps to put teams like the Yankees in their place, seasons will continue to end predictably with the teams who have spent the most money both on players and cover-ups taking home an increasingly meaningless trophy.

I was reasonably upset at first, and have since given it some thought. Professional athletes are a lucky lot. They make insane amounts of money and are granted celebrity status because they are gifted with the ability to play a game. Not that they don’t work hard; most get where they are from years of commitment.

But the arrogance that many of them carry, especially with regard to fans, is repulsive. Many of these athletes seem to have forgotten that without you and I…. those willing to shell out $20 to go and watch a game, or $200.00 for a jersey with their name on it… they would have been forced, like the rest of us, to make a go of it in the real world. They seem to now think that we should be grateful to them, and honored to be in their presence. And it sickens me.

The newest tactless pig is Manny Ramirez. After missing a portion of the season for being a dope fiend (he couldn’t lay off long enough to earn his $40 million check?) he showed a selfishness and arrogance that should have him thrown out of Major League Baseball. He was pulled from the game in the 9th inning… not one of 162 relatively meaningless games in the regular season, but a pivotal game in the National League Championship series.

Rather than, say, stick around and show some sportsmanship, maybe support of his teammates and fans, or even perhaps give a crap, this moron hit the showers. As his team fell victim to an amazing 9th inning comeback, he couldn’t be bothered to even stick around.

Guys like this are what is wrong with Professional Sports. He has demonstrated time and again that he is a classless idiot. Playing a game for a living for millions of dollars a year is a privilege, not a right. And it’s one that Manny the Moron is by no means deserving of. In a just world, he would never have the opportunity to turn his back on fans or players again. He would have to go out and bust his ass for a living just like the rest of us. It’ll never happen, though. As long as he can hit the little ball with the big stick, he’ll always have a job.

The only consolation is these jerks are the ones who have invariably blown their millions just a few years removed from baseball. May he do just that, humiliate himself on several bad reality shows, and then live the rest of his life in lower middle class obscurity. You make me ashamed to love the game of baseball, Manny. Jerk.

 It isn’t a personal thing.  I bear no grudge against the team, or any of the players on the roster. (OK, maybe C.C. Sabathia, but just a little)  It is absolutely a jealousy issue;  even their fans will tell you they normally field the best team money can buy.  This is the perennial Goliath.  I have been, over the last several years, a fan of numerous teams in the post season… even those damn Red Sox, who we put in the same category.  The moments that Yankees fans look back and cringe at are the moments that console the rest of us for the fact that our team will never be the Yankees.

  But it appears that it’s back to business as usual for the Yanks as well… the status quo has returned, and the trophy appears to be headed back to the Bronx.  So congrats, Yankees fans.  While I will still pulling for whoever is on the opposite side of the field, It appears you will celebrate once more.  Which I suppose it has been awhile.  Just not as long as our…. never.  Damn Yankees.

I am a Milwaukee Brewers fan, born and raised in Wisconsin. I have been a religious fan since I was old enough to focus on a television. For us, this isn’t a question we’ve really thought about in decades. Because for us, this time of year doesn’t normally come in September. No, for us it usually hits about the middle of July, right about the time the Mid Summer Classic is winding down. These are a rough couple of days for us; up until that point, we tell each other tales of ‘young talent’ and ‘potential’ and ‘over achieving’. We still harbor thoughts of competing with the Yankees and Red Sox of the world. But these couple of days, we look at the standings, realize we’re already 15 games back, and it occurs to us that this is actually not going to finally be our year, any more than last year or the one before.

And this is when we remember what baseball really is; a game. It’s fun. It may have, in New York and Boston, been corrupted by the notion that it’s only about championships and winning. We settle in, and remember how to watch a game. For me, the TV goes off then, and I come back and see my old friend Bob Ueker. Any of you who know baseball know who Uke is. Those more casual fans will remember him as the Indians’ announcer in Major League, or from a series of Miller commercials in the 1980’s.

Bob is the play by play announcer for the Brewers, and has been the radio voice of the organization since before I was born. I knew his voice before I could say Uke; my mother used to put me down to naps to his voice on the radio. Apparently, she dreaded night games, as I wouldn’t take a nap without my Uke. So me and Bob go way back. And come July or so, he and I get reacquainted. Year after year after year. My ‘game seat’ moves from the sofa to the back porch; my TV is replaced with a radio. No one bothers me for three hours or so, and if they do, they wait for a commercial. Not that I’d mind, but that just wouldn’t be baseball. My children will often join me, as on occasion will my wife. At times, if I’m particularly loud or obnoxious (which I tend to be) even my neighbors will stop over. It’s baseball as it was meant to be.

I would prefer the Crew won. I will even, at times, be a bit ornery for a while if the blow one. But for the most part, it’s just about relaxing, loving my Brewers (no matter how damn bad we get), and sharing a beer (they call em the Brewers for a reason, dammit.) and a hot summer night with my old friend Bob. And, as October draws near, We talk about this years prospects, ignoring the fact that they will almost assuredly bolt for greener Television markets just as soon as their contracts are up. We relish the crack of the bat on the ball. We cheer appreciatively when Uke takes us through another ‘Charter Communications Double Play’. We root for the Crew to score 7 in the 7th so that Burt Snilpinski up in Hayward can win himself a $10,000 gift card from Menard’s. And when we hear the crack and “Get up…. Get out… Gone!!” We do get up. It’s America’s game because of this; not pennants and rings.

But last year, something changed. For the first time since Harvey’s Wallbangers back in 1982… Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, Rollie Fingers; The Crew was right in the hunt come September. We had Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun and a stable of young studs…. Corey Hart, Billy Hall, J. J. Hardy. We had an actual Yankees style Mercenary, C. C. Sabathia, throwing complete games like they were warmups and shutting down the entire National League as a whole. We had our version of ‘The Game‘, as Braun Hit a home run in the 8th inning and Sabathia closed out for our first playoff clinching game in a quarter of a century. We partied for days. We hugged random people on the street because we both happened to be wearing a Brewers shirt.

It didn’t go much further than that; we were a small stepping stone for the Phillies on their World Series Journey. It was over quickly, almost anticlimactic. It was almost as if we got there and realized we were sorely out of place, and quietly excused ourselves.

2009 was a different year. We were a bit short on pitching, but figured to at least hang around in the respectable areas. And for half a year, we did, juggling first place right up until the all star break. After which our lack of pitching became obvious, and we faded once again. It wasn’t like before; now that we have tasted success, it’s not as easy to accept. The prospects do look good, though. If we can just get some pitching next year, we just might…. but in the meantime, the Crew came back from 6-0 tonight to beat those damn Cards, 12-6. Me and Bob have 3 more games to go.

Maybe next year will be the year. Who knows? But if not… Uke, old buddy… I’ll see ya come July.

To begin with, you need to look at just what these two contributed to the game of baseball. In 1998, Major League baseball was sinking. A strike several years before that saw the World Series cancelled, and the league hadn’t recovered. Fans had been alienated. And it wasn’t getting any better. Baseball had become a sport without stars. Sure, there were stars, but no one who genuinely transcended the sport. Basketball had Michael Jordan. Football had Brett Favre and John Elway. But baseball… no one really cared any more. I myself have always been a huge sports fan, but hadn’t watched a baseball game since I was in little league. I couldn’t have named a single player on the Milwaukee Brewers, and I lived in Milwaukee!

But McGwire ans Sosa changed all of that. For one magic summer, we all suddenly cared again. Baseball became, in just a few months, America’s game again. We all suddenly knew what 61 meant; it was a number that was a part of America’s folklore. McGwire, the clean cut all American guy, kid in the dugout as a batboy, there to greet Dad after each homer. And so many of them were monsters… towering shots that were simply fun to watch over and over on Sportscenter. And Sosa, the almost obnoxiously nice guy, the underdog who was so easy to love. The two of them always talking each other up, smiling for the cameras… we LOVED them. They were everywhere… television, magazines, newspapers. They became stars of pop culture, the faces baseball so desperately needed. And when the record finally fell, at home, against Sosa and the Cubbies, with Mantle’s family in attendance, on the first pitch (they don’t even write stuff like that in the movies, I know.) We were all watching. They actually cut into network television to show it live. In short, they these two men nearly revitalized baseball by themselves. When you look at the history of baseball, the home run chase of 1998 is assuredly one of the most significant events in the long storied past of our pasttime.

Ah, but therein lies the asterisk. They were both (gasp) on steroids. The irony being, of course, that we already knew. McGwire wasn’t a twerp when he came up in Oakland, but he bore little resemblance to the hulk of a man we fell for in ‘98. And Sosa was even more obvious… a skinny Dominican kid who was good for 20 home runs just a few years back, suddenly ripping through his shirt and spitting out 60 home run seasons like nothing. We all knew, yet were so caught up in the moment that we chose to simply ignore the obvious. Now the obvious comes to the forefront, and we’re indignant. Where was the moral outrage then? Why did we not cry out? Because we accepted it. We like our strybook endings, and this had all of them.

And while Barry Bonds, Roger Clements, and others may not have had the same monumental impact on our culture, the bottom line is that on some level, we all knew, on some level, that they were using steroids. It wasn’t against the rules, and so they did it and we not only ignored it, but enjoyed it. To ban these players from Cooperstown, especially when you factor in that a number of them would have ended up there without enhancements…lest we forget that McGwire hit 50 home runs his rookie season, Bonds made 30-30 a household term, and Clements was dominant from the time he hit the big leagues. We cannot condemn these men for actions we all but condoned, if not participated in. A judgement of them is a judgement of ourselves. We need to put them in the hall where they belong.

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Albert Pujols has been a force in the league for years.  He is known around the league for his offensive power and defensive ability.  Leading the MLB in home runs with 39 (as of 8/19/09), and second in RBIs with 105, Pujols is definitely one of the top ten baseball players.  With being fourth in the NL in batting average (.321), Pujols has good chance at winning the triple crown.

Joe Mauer

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With one of the prettiest swings in the majors, Joe Mauer has become one of the best hitting catchers in the history of baseball.  He has the ability to hit to all sides of the field.  With his unbelievable batting average this year (.383), not to mention 26 home runs, and his consist defensive ability, Joe Mauer is one of the best upcoming players in the league.  

Prince Fielder

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The reigning home run derby champion, Prince Fielder has immense power.  With 32 home runs and 108 RBIs, Fielder has some of the best power in the league.  He is a force that has to be recognized within the Brewers lineup.  Fielder deserves a spot within the top ten.

Hanley Ramirez

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This five tool player is  one of the best in the league.  Leading the NL in batting average with .359, Hanley Ramirez has prove himself over the past couple years.  His speed, defensive ability, base running, hitting, and throwing ability make him an impressive player to watch. 

Justin Morneau

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The former AL MVP, Justin Morneau, has what it takes to be a force in the majors.  Morneau is first in the AL in RBIs (94) and third in home runs (28).  This lefty has great power and has the ability to come through in the clutch.  Morneau is always a threat to hit a home run whenever he steps up to the plate. 

Ichiro Suzuki

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Always on top of the charts for batting average, Ichiro deserves some credit.  Breaking the record for the most hits in a season, Ichrio should be considered one of the best players in the league.  His incredible speed makes him a threat no matter where he is on the field.  His base running and defensive speed is unreal, and his ability to hit the baseball also makes him a very dangerous player.

Mark Reynolds

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This third baseman can do it all.  He has great defensive skills, along with hitting for power.  He has 38 home runs, 83 RBIs, and a .283 batting average.  Reynolds is a great player and has a great attitude for the game.  He is one of the young guys that continue to impact the league.

Ryan Howard

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Although he can strike out at times, Howard has the ability to go deep every time he comes up to bat.  He has 30 home runs and 91 RBIs.  Howard is the center of that Phillies lineup that is looking for the repeat.  With Howard being protected by the players around him , he is able to hit for the numbers he has right now. 

Ryan Braun

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Ryan Braun batting .313 with 86 RBIs and 26 home runs makes him one of the best players in the league.  His consistency at the plate makes him a threat against every pitcher.  Braun being so young has a bright future in front of him.  He diversity in the fielder makes him a great player to have on the team.  Braun is an all around good player.

Ryan Zimmerman

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Ryan Zimmerman is a great player on a not so great team.  Even though his team is far from the NL Playoff race, he is still putting up the stats.  Batting .302, with 24 home runs, and 78 RBIs, Ryan Zimmerman has to be recognized as a great player.  His defensive skill alone makes him a golden glove winner, but his attitude to come out and give it his all every day makes him an incredible player.

Every kid dreams of being a pitcher. Everybody dreams of becoming a pro. But before you blow kids away and become a pro, you must learn the grips in baseball to get the desired effect on the baseball. Every pitcher has an arsenal of weapons at his disposal to either confuse, bewilder, or just blow their opponent away. Pitches can be classified into 4 different categories. Fastballs, Breaking Balls, Change-ups and Specialty pitches. Today I will be focusing in on the Fastball.

Fastballs:

These pitches are the most commonly known pitches in baseball. Their speeds, thrown by pros, can range anywhere from 80 mph – 100+ mph. There are many different kinds of fastballs. As with most pitches, it is essential to flick your wrist down upon release to get that extra velocity and accuracy. When to flick your wrist is dependent on your pitching arm motion so its up to the individual. Fastballs are usually the first pitch learned as a little leaguer. This is because the pitch is easy to control the grip which means more control on the pitch. There are 5 main fastballs. These are the 4-seam, 2-seam, Cutter, Splitter, and Sinker.

4 – Seam Fastball:

This pitch is named the 4-seam because in each revolution, you can see 4 seams. Because there are more seams per revolution this is used to throw the fastest pitch in baseball. This pitch has little to no movement at all. Sometimes this pitch can be described as a “riser”. This is one effect of the pitch. This is because most pitches drop down towards the ground due to gravity, but the 4-seam stays relatively straight. This gives the “rising” effect. This pitch is usually used for a “strike-out” pitch and a go-to pitch for many. Some great 4-seam pitchers are Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, and Justin Verlander. The grip for this pitch is:

Notes:

 - As you can see, the pitch is held fairly away from the palm of the hand. This is to reduce friction, which increases velocity greatly. Just by adding this little adjustment can add up to 10 mph on your pitch

- Do NOT grip this ball too tightly, most people make the mistake of gripping the ball as hard as they can. This is a mistake and will result is wilder pitches, with less velocity. Try to hold it like an egg

- your index and middle finger should not be too far apart, the distance in the pictures above illustrate a good distance.

2-Seam Fastball:

This pitch is named the 2-seam because in each revolution, you can see only 2 seams. This means that this pitch is going to be slower than the 4-seam but sometimes not by much. Although they are slower than the 4-seam, it is their movement that is what makes them so effective. The 2 seam fastball moves in the direction of the pitchers dominant side. For example a right-handed pitcher throwing the 2 seam with movement towards a right-handed batter. This is used to either back-up a batter, or run in on a batter. This pitch can be a great strike-out pitch when used effectively. Tim-Lincecum has a great 2-seam fastball. The grip for this pitch looks like:

Notes:

- There are 2 ways to throw this pitch the first picture and the third picture. Both are effective but i prefer the third.

- When throwing this pitch to add movement you grip the ball closer to the palm. This is what causes the lack in speed but increases movement.

- Unlike the 4-seam fastball, you must grip this pitch tighter but try to still stay “loose”

- When releasing either put pressure on your index or middle finger to create movement.

Cut Fastball or “Cutter”:

The Cut Fastball is a fastball with slider movement. (you don’t know what a slider is! Don’t worry we’ll cover that later.) It is similar to the 4-seam grip. There is a shift in the grip of the 4-seam that creates the cutter. This shift creates more spin but with any pitch with spin, the speed is reduced. The cutter will break away from the pitcher’s dominant side. For example a Right-Handed Pitcher will throw a cutter away from Right-handed batters. This pitch is most commonly used to get easy ground-outs. Most hitters will be able hit this pitch, but it will stay in the infield. Mariano Rivera has the best cutter in baseball today.  The cutter grip looks like this:

Notes:

- Like with the two seam, the Cutter needs to be gripped closer to the palm. 

- When releasing apply pressure with your middle finger. 

Split-Finger Fastball or “Splitter”:

The splitter is pretty much what it sounds like. You split your fingers wide apart to add more break. The Splitter is very effective as it looks like a fastball, coming at you with fastball velocity, but then sharply breaks towards the batters knees. A great strikeout pitch that will get batters swinging wildly. This pitch is popular amongst the “power” pitchers with heavy fastballs. They can use this pitch as a “change” up. Bruce Sutter was the best Split-Baller. The splitter looks like this:

Sinker:

The sinker is similar to the Splitter as it first looks like a fastball, and then drops towards the ground. But the drop of the sinker is a lot more gradual. In any event, this is still an effective pitch. This is almost exclusively a groundout pitch. Pitchers that use the sinkers can get quick easy groundouts. Roy Halladay has an amazing sinker. The sinker looks like this:

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Possibly the most debated subject in all of baseball: what is the one record that will be the hardest to break? Is it Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak? Or perhaps Rickey Henderson’s 1,406 career stolen bases? Could it even be Cy Young’s 511 career wins? The answer to all of these questions is no. They might not be broken for a very long time, but I believe they will. There is only one that I believe will never be broken. This is the record that will stand as long as the game of baseball itself does. The record held by “Wahoo” Sam Crawford for most career triples (309) will be this record.

You might look this record up on the internet, or in a book, because you don’t know much about it. You’ll say to yourself when you see the list of players that follow Crawford, “The closest player to “Wahoo” Sam was only 14 triples shy of him.” Although that may not be much, that player happens to be Tyrus Raymond Cobb, who retired after the 1928 season. The closest ten players that are currently active are as follows: Johnny Damon (95), Jimmy Rollins (93), Carl Crawford (90), Cristian Guzman (84), Juan Pierre (76), Jose Reyes (73), Omar Vizquel (73), Carlos Beltran (64), Ichiro Suzuki (67), and Derek Jeter (58). The ten players before you are all great players in their own right, but they are nowhere close to the 309 career triples of Sam Crawford. All with the exception of Carl Crawford and Jose Reyes are over 30 years old, Omar Vizquel is 42. 

Now for the math. I will now show you how breaking this record is a mathematical improbability. Let us use Jimmy Rollins for example. If he hits five more triples this season, he will have 98 in his career. Being 30 years old, lets say he plays for another 12 years (most likely in itself and improbability) in the Big Leagues. He would have to hit at least 18 triples in each of his remaining seasons. THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE! Now for the two players under 30:

1- Carl Crawford: We’ll say he hits eight more triples this season, bringing his career total to 98. Maybe he’ll play until age 42, leaving him 14 more seasons of baseball. He’ll have to hit just over 15 triples in every season until retirement. Again, impossible.

2- Jose Reyes: We will say Reyes will hit only four more triples on the season (due to the fact he’s on the DL). We are also going to assume he’ll play until 42 years of age, leaving him 16 seasons of baseball. He will have to hit about 15 three-baggers every season until he hangs ‘em up. Still, very impossible.

Those were the reasons why this record won’t be broken in at least the next generation. The following are reasons why it can’t ever be broken. In today’s game, and today’s philosophy of the game, third base coaches are more likely to hold up the runner at second. Also, with the diminishing size of today’s Major League ballparks, triples are less likely to occur. I can’t see how you could possibly argue that Sam Crawford’s record will be broken. 

So, I would like to congratulate “Wahoo” Sam Crawford on his unbreakable record of 309 career triples!

Barry Bonds may have used steroids, or some sort of performance-enhancing drug (PEDs), but, to be honest, why care? I don’t see how Major League Baseball could do such a thing as to strip the man who, whether illegitimately or not, has the MLB record for hitting the most home runs in a career (and in a single season). Are they going to say, “Eh, we could take away a hundred or so home runs from him,” or, “Let’s just take his name out of the record books.” I think it would be such a terrible job by Major League Baseball to even want to strip someone of the most sacred record in sports.

I’ll tell you what, I could be on every steroid there was, and I know for a fact I couldn’t hit a single home run. I understand the other point of view, but, I think it is illogical to strip anyone’s records. I also think it is illogical to put an asterisk by all of these suspected players names. Even though they very well may not have used PEDs, they could have that (*) put by their name. It’s the equivalent of being an innocent man sentenced to death.

As I look next to me and see this memorabilia two of the greatest of all-time, I say, “These are my home run kings – and in most people’s hearts, they are too.”

Someone else agrees with me to. Here’s what Hank Aaron had to say on striking Barry’s name from the record books. “If you did that, you’d have to go back and change all kinds of records, and the [home run] record was very important to me,” Aaron said. “It’s probably the most hallowed record out there, as far as I’m concerned, but it’s now in the hands of somebody else. It belongs to Barry. No matter how we look at it, it’s his record, and I held it for a long time. But my take on all of this has always been the same. I’m not going to say that Barry’s got it because of this or because of that, because I don’t know.”

So, who are we, or who is Major League Baseball, to deprive Barry of the record that, by numbers, is rightfully his? Let his name be in the books, because most of us already know who the real Kings are.

The question of many is did his foggy mind cloud the WS World Series) of Boston during the 2004 and 2007 WS? Shall we investigate?

David Ortiz well actually David Arias (yes he was the player to be named later) played 6 seasons for the Minnesota Twins and amassed a mere 58 home runs. High school players produce more than that and in only four years and 100 games. The Red Sox saw something but what could it be? Could it be to make his Dominican presence a stabilizing factor to the other crazed drug fiend already present on the team, Mr. Manny Ramirez?

Could it be they saw a youngster who really wasn’t good at all trying to make a mark in the National Pastime and could easily be coerced into Steroids thus earning them a trip to the WS after so long? Make up your own mind.

• 2004- 41 homeruns, 139 RBI’s (runs batted in) pretty good! He put on the Boston garb in 2003, when Steroids became an issue, and already has more Homeruns and RBI’s then he had in six years. Are the questions beginning to surface yet? Oh there’s more. Suspended for five games that year for throwing bats onto the field and almost plunking some umps. “Roid Rage?”

Postseason? .400 BA (Batting Average), 5 HR, 19 RBI’S.  Earmarked by the joining forces with Manny

• 2005-47 HR, 148 RBI’S with a HR in Postseason. Getting better David.
• 2006-54 HR (Red Sox Record) ,137 RBI’s, most walk off hits

But by far the most interesting year was the second Red Sox World Series of this decade;

• 2007 –David batted .382 for the year, 111 RBI’s, and 35 HR, was awarded another Silver Slugger Award, voted an All Star, was the fourth place vote getter in the MVP race which two players above him are in the “Roid Mobile” as well.

Post season put him solidly in the greats category. Batted .714 in American League Division Series (ALDS) and had two homeruns, a dinger against Cleveland in the ALCS (American League Championship Series), and four RBI’s in Bostons sweep over Colorado in the WS(World Series)

Now we have to hear his excuse for taking PEDS (Performance Enhancing Drugs) on Saturday at Yankee Stadium. Can be any more dramatic David? The attention you’re bringing to yourself is erroneous! How come not the first day David?

Say it so Big Papi?