A Sad Day in Baseball

I've never been a huge baseball fan, but I've more or less followed it since 2002 when Hubby converted me to a San Francisco Giants fan and we watched them go to the World Series. I watched Barry Bonds break all the top home run records. That man put asses in seats in stadiums around the country, bringing in millions of dollars to Major League Baseball over the last 22 years and putting money in Bud Selig's pocket since 1992.

I know that baseball fans - and even some non-baseball fans - are split over the steroid issue. Did he? Didn't he? Maybe? Let's make something very clear: He came up through baseball in the steroid era. If he did use them, whether knowingly or unwittingly, he's not the only player to use them and he's certainly not the only player to break records or set the bar for other players while allegedly on them. Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa...all are suspect. But because Barry broke the biggest record of all time and did it with flair, everyone wants to drop the blame for all of it on him.

What's got me upset about it and talking about it today is this article I read this morning from the San Jose Mercury News. I'm ashamed of the Major League right now and especially ashamed of the SF Giants management. The man doesn't even want paid!!!! He wants to use a prorated portion of the $390,000 minimum pay to buy game tickets for kids. He's the consummate professional in his demeanor with the public and the press, is viewed favorably by fellow teammates and players across the major league, and is all in all a good man, in my opinion. I just read this today, something I didn't even know: he's involved with UCSF Children's Hospital.

I just think it's a really sad and anti-climactic way for him to leave baseball. He put over 20 years of his life into this game and this is how they thank him: no contracts, no send-off, nothing. He just disappears quietly, no fanfare, not even a "thanks." I'm really disillusioned with baseball. It proves to me that it's lost its soul; it's not America's game anymore, it's the Capitalists game.