Diehard Jock: All-Star game and steroids
Friday, July 3, 2009 10:25 AM PDT
Here we are, still in the midst of the steroid era, and the problem doesn’t seem to have changed much. The Los Angeles Dodgers finally have Manny Ramirez back in the lineup after his 50-game suspension. But it wasn’t a true 50 games because he was allowed to play in what Major League Baseball calls a rehab assignment. What was he rehabbing, couch sores? I guess the MLB took a page from our judicial system and gave Ramirez an early release from his sentence. When will all this end? Maybe when the league puts a cap on salaries and players are not making a bazillion bucks. I think that is the whole problem. A guy gets this huge contract, millions of dollars to play the game. Then he is under the pressure of living up to that money, and, when the game slows down for that player or the numbers begin to dip, they turn to a chemical savior. Not because they want too, but because of the expectations put on them when they signed their lives over to that multi-million dollar deal. Next comes those players who are seeking the big bucks — you know, that once-in-a-lifetime contract. So they start juicing it up to increase their numbers and performance so they can move into the “Super Star” rankings and land that big deal.
If MLB would just put a cap on the wages and allow for teams to give out performance bonuses, then the game might come back to what it once was.
Who knows, maybe all these weird injuries that we have been seeing will also go away. It really is amazing the number of everyday players who end up on the disabled list each year, and not for just the 15-day list. More and more of them are injured for longer periods of time. I wonder if the steroids have anything to do with that. Come on, MLB, do the right thing and give America back its game.
Now for the All-Star game. Why does the MLB continue to feel the winner of this one game, where players only play a couple of innings should determine who earns the right for home field advantage? Whoever thought of this idea might have been pumping steroids in their brain.
Home field needs to go the team with the best record. They earned it by winning more games than any other team. That would stop all the teams from tanking the final few games of the season once they have clinched a spot.
I understand that the thought process was to make the All-Star game more appealing to the public, but having an exhibition game determine the home field for the World Series, come on.
If they wanted to make the All-Star game more appealing to the public, maybe they should make it the best-of-three series. Then the managers of the teams could play a more active role in managing the team, rather than deciding how many innings each pitcher will pitch and when to put the other players in the game.
Now to the local scene. Football is just around the corner, and most teams have already hosted or gone to summer camps. Next comes the two-a-day workouts, then the season opener — which, in Oregon, is scheduled for September 4.
Ontario welcomes back Randy Waite, and New Plymouth has handed the clipboard over to Porter Lacey. Other than that, all the area teams will have the same look in the coaching departments.
KSRV, Carls Jr. and the Argus Observer will enter their third season hosting the Coaches Corner. This radio program airs from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. every Saturday morning on 1380 AM live from Carls Jr. The show will kick off Aug. 27.
On the diamond, the American Legion baseball teams have three weeks left in the regular season, then it’s tournament time, beginning July 17. The Babe Ruth league wrapped up its regular season, and the All-Stars have been selected and will soon be competing at the state level.
