At The Ballyard ... with Steve Weissman

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Why Would …

… the San Francisco Giants decide to celebrate Barry Bonds’ 715th home run when he inevitably hits it? Forget the steroids-themed controversy swirling around him: 715 only nets him second place on the all-time list, and I don’t remember hearing chants of “We’re Number Two! We’re Number Two!” at any time during my 40+ years of watching and coaching sports. Not that 715 isn’t noteworthy no matter what the circumstances; it just isn’t record-breaking and thus not deserving of formal recognition.

… any player at any level continue to dabble performance-enhancing drugs? I keep asking this question but still lack a cogent answer. On Tuesday, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball suspended minor league Devil Ray Matthew Rico for 100 games – that’s 100 games! – for testing positive for a drug of abuse. Whether it’s the invincibility of youth or sheer stupidity, all he has done is take his season and flush it down the toilet, and with it perhaps his entire career. Tell me, Matthew: was it really worth it?

… people be so worked up about the way the Sox-Yankees rainout was handled the other evening? To hear and read some accounts, the fact that the game was not called until 7:40pm served as “proof” that the Red Sox had it in mind to soak – you should pardon the pun – its clientele by making them come to the park and buy things before sending them home. Personally, I believe having to play a makeup game is so disruptive to players’ routines, pitching rotations, and overall team planning that no intelligent executive would deliberately arrange things to make one necessary, no matter how many hot dogs might otherwise be sold. Inconvenient to the fans making the trip into town? Absolutely. But a plot to take advantage of those unsuspecting souls? I doubt it. I mean, you try to predict what the early-spring New England weather ultimately will do!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]



<< Home