Good morning, I know that it's been over a week since the last time I blogged here, but I was pretty busy last week with school so I wasn't able to. I'll try to post again on here later this week, probably on Thursday afternoon/evening.
I know that I am a little late on writing about this whole Alex Rodriguez steroid scandal, but last week I was just so upset about the stimulus package that I had to vent about that first. However, this new scandal involving Alex Rodriguez is an issue that bugs me more than any other news story that has broke in the last few years.
In September 2006 when Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's career home run record of 755 home runs, almost everyone following baseball knew that Bonds was taking some sort of performance enhancing substance. To many fans, including myself, Bonds' "historical" chase of Aaron in the record books was a mockery of the game. Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and even Willie Mays, Bonds' godfather, who all trail Bonds respectively in career home runs had to work hard and rely pretty much solely on their god-given talent to hit as many home runs as they did. For Bonds to pass all of them on the home run list is a slap in the face to them, and all the "clean" players that came before Bonds.
However, when Bonds broke the record I knew that eventually karma would work its way around. At the end of that same 2006 season Alex Rodriguez had 464 career homeruns at age 30, on pace to break Barry Bonds' record. I knew that although baseball had been nationally embarassed by the Bonds sham, it was only a matter of time before baseball was redeemed by Alex Rodriguez. Many fans believed that he was the golden child that would help everyone forget about Bonds and the whole steroid era. In a time when it was rumored that more than 50% of MLB players were on the "juice" A-rod was the golden child who would surpass everyone, and do it clean.
Then a few weeks ago a story was broke by two Sports Illustrated writers claiming that MLB had a list of 104 players that tested positive for steroids and Rodriguez's name was on the list. It was only a matter of days before Rodriguez was interviewed by ESPN's Peter Gammons and admitted to using steroids in 2001-2003, the three years that he was on the Texas Rangers.
I really hope it was worth it for Rodriguez, because I do not think that even he knows the damage that he has done. I have talked to several people about this, and it seems that we have all come to a general consensus, we can no longer trust athletes, at least baseball players. Rodriguez's choice to cheat and use steroids was one of the most selfish acts possible. Either he did not know, or did not care, that he was bigger than just one baseball player. To many fans, he was supposed to be the savior of baseball, the one that would remind us of all that is good about the game.
Although we are nowhere near done with Alex Rodriguez's scandal, and the baseball steroid scandal as a whole, I can say almost assuredly that I have lost a GREAT amount of trust in the game and it will be a long time before that trust is won back. This year will not be the same as years before. Spring training is just around the corner and I am nowhere near as excited as I have been in the past, and I know when I go to my first baseball game of the season nothing will be the same. Baseball used to be more than a sport to me. It represented so much more, and now its innocence has been taken away. The sounds and feel of the ballpark will not be the same, every ball cracked off the bat will not sound the same knowing that the player that hit it, or even the pitcher that pitched the ball, is most likely coming off the juice. Congratulations Alex Rodriguez, you ruined one of the few things that was still pure in the world. I hope you are happy.
Over and Out,
MB
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Stimulus Package
Last night Congress passed the bailout/stimulus package that we have all been hearing about for some time now. The package which totals nearly 800 billion dollars is the largest economic bailout EVER by a government.
Normally I consider myself both politically and fiscally conservative, however I am also a realist. I understand that extreme times call for extreme measures and that although I am normally against the federal government involving themselves in its citizens lives, this is one of the rare times that I am open to the federal government intervening.
In the beginning of our country's Great Depression President Hoover, a fiscally conservative president, believed that if the market was left alone, with no federal intervention, the economy would "work itself out." However, Hoover's plan to wait for the economy to turn itself around did not work at all. As most of us know, President Roosevelt followed Hoover in office and was able to end the depression with a flurry of federally funded programs to help out America.
Luckily, we have the luxury of being able to look back on history to see what worked and would did not. We are able to see that the conservative plan does not work in a time of economic crisis. Now is the time for our federal government to prove to us why we pay them so much every year to sit around in their plush offices in Washington D.C. and they definately responded. But what is the right response?
According to several national media outlets the stimulus bill that was passed by Congress was roughly 1000 pages long. It was given to the members of Congress the night before it was to be voted on. This meant that the congressmen had less than 24 hours to review the bill itself. How many members of congress do you think actually took the time to read and review all 1,000 pages? I highly doubt that I am going out on a limb to say that none of them did. They simply got the bill and the Democrats just voted "Yes" because that is what their party leaders told them to do. Possibly even more disturbing than the fact the the largest bailout plan in the world's history was not even reviewed before put into law, was the fact that the bill was not allowed to be read in Congress for the American people to hear what it actually said.
The process that this bill went through to become law was very disturbing to me as an American. Congress showed last night that they could very easily become a rubber stamp for President Obama. We elected the members of Congress to represent the citizens of the United States. If this rubber stamping trend continues we will lose the most integral part of our government, the system of checks and balances. Also, a bill banned from being read on the Congressional floor should NEVER be allowed. Similiarly to the way that Congress is supposed to be a body of government that keeps the executive branch in check, the American people should be allowed to hear the bills that their representatives are voting on. Unless this is stopped, we will continue to follow the path that our country has been going down now for many years. If this continues we will no longer be a republic government, and before you know it we will have turned into an oligarchy.
Over and Out
MB
Normally I consider myself both politically and fiscally conservative, however I am also a realist. I understand that extreme times call for extreme measures and that although I am normally against the federal government involving themselves in its citizens lives, this is one of the rare times that I am open to the federal government intervening.
In the beginning of our country's Great Depression President Hoover, a fiscally conservative president, believed that if the market was left alone, with no federal intervention, the economy would "work itself out." However, Hoover's plan to wait for the economy to turn itself around did not work at all. As most of us know, President Roosevelt followed Hoover in office and was able to end the depression with a flurry of federally funded programs to help out America.
Luckily, we have the luxury of being able to look back on history to see what worked and would did not. We are able to see that the conservative plan does not work in a time of economic crisis. Now is the time for our federal government to prove to us why we pay them so much every year to sit around in their plush offices in Washington D.C. and they definately responded. But what is the right response?
According to several national media outlets the stimulus bill that was passed by Congress was roughly 1000 pages long. It was given to the members of Congress the night before it was to be voted on. This meant that the congressmen had less than 24 hours to review the bill itself. How many members of congress do you think actually took the time to read and review all 1,000 pages? I highly doubt that I am going out on a limb to say that none of them did. They simply got the bill and the Democrats just voted "Yes" because that is what their party leaders told them to do. Possibly even more disturbing than the fact the the largest bailout plan in the world's history was not even reviewed before put into law, was the fact that the bill was not allowed to be read in Congress for the American people to hear what it actually said.
The process that this bill went through to become law was very disturbing to me as an American. Congress showed last night that they could very easily become a rubber stamp for President Obama. We elected the members of Congress to represent the citizens of the United States. If this rubber stamping trend continues we will lose the most integral part of our government, the system of checks and balances. Also, a bill banned from being read on the Congressional floor should NEVER be allowed. Similiarly to the way that Congress is supposed to be a body of government that keeps the executive branch in check, the American people should be allowed to hear the bills that their representatives are voting on. Unless this is stopped, we will continue to follow the path that our country has been going down now for many years. If this continues we will no longer be a republic government, and before you know it we will have turned into an oligarchy.
Over and Out
MB
Friday, February 13, 2009
First Post
Hey,
I guess this would be the first entry in my blog. I've been thinking about doing this for awhile, and there's no better time than the present to start right? This blog is going to be my spin, or take on everything going on in life. Most likely the majority of things discussed here will be sports-related because that is just what I am mostly into. However, I realize that life is much bigger than sports so when I see fit I will discuss politics or pop culture. If I wasn't so sick tonight I probably would delve right into it, but I guess all that can wait for tomorrow.
Over and Out
MB
I guess this would be the first entry in my blog. I've been thinking about doing this for awhile, and there's no better time than the present to start right? This blog is going to be my spin, or take on everything going on in life. Most likely the majority of things discussed here will be sports-related because that is just what I am mostly into. However, I realize that life is much bigger than sports so when I see fit I will discuss politics or pop culture. If I wasn't so sick tonight I probably would delve right into it, but I guess all that can wait for tomorrow.
Over and Out
MB
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