My opinion? Well it's that I have no opinion

I like baseball. I find the game fascinating. I love all that goes on in a game, the way a pitchers works on a hitter, how all the fielders step to their toes moments before a pitch, the anticipation when a speedy runner is one the basepaths and you know it's only a matter of time before he tries to take off and steal a base. I love and loathe the fact that there is so much importance placed on numbers in the game. I love the fact that there are some achievements that are so grand that numbers strike you with awe and I loathe the fact that so many people try to justify things through numbers all the time when numbers don't always tell the story.

Well there's a bitg number on the horizon for baseball and everyone is talking about it, so I figured what the hell, I'll talk about it too. The number everyone seems to be talking about (aside from $28 million for Roger Clemens....trust me I'll be talking about that soon) is 756, which in case you didn't know is one more than 755 which is the number of home runs that Hank Aaron hit in his career. That number represents the all-time career home run mark and to hear some people speak about it, it's possibly the holiest number since Moses stood on a mountain top with a couple a stone slabs.

Barry Bonds is very close to breaking that number. Through the 33 games in which he has played, encompassing 88 at bats Bonds has hit 11 homers. That's one every eight at bats. Quite simply that's a ridiculous pace. If he were to get around 450 at bats, that would be around 56 homers for the season. That would be Bonds' second highest total of his career, behind the single season record of 73 he hit in 2001. So while not quite as gaudy, it would still be impressive.

So the odds of Bonds breaking this record and soon seems pretty reasonable. Records were made to be broken, we should celebrate new standardss, blah blah blah. The issue with this whole thing is the steroids/performance enhancing drugs that Bonds most likely took.

Bonds has most likely taken performance enhancing drugs that have most likely benefitted and enhnaced his career. If you don't believe me just do a google search about Bonds and the issue. There is a mountain of circumstantial evidence that would make Everest look like a mole hill. Or do an image search from Bonds early in his career and compare it to a picture now. His head has gone from the size of a raisin to a watermelon. His arms and legs were about as big as those of Mr. Fantastic when he stretches his limbs and now he makes the Hulk look like and 85lbs. weakling. OK, so he took some things that made him balloon out muscle, everyone can agree on that.

But here's what people can't agree on, whether or not they should be happy that Bonds is breaking the record. Virtually everyone outside of San Francisco doesn't want Bonds to break it and nearly everyone in the city does. You can't escape the topic. It's on ESPN, it's on sports talk radio, it's even on the news. Everyone is telling us what to think, why to care, what side of the aisle we should be taking. We're being told this an issue with no gray area to which I say, lord no there's a gray area.

The thinking is that you are either happy and in favor of the record being broken or you're sad/angry/disappointed that the record is being broken. Well, if you're like me then this your opinion, you don't have one.

That's right, I don't have any real opinion on the matter. Well, OK maybe I have an opionion and that view point would be that I simply don't care.

Yup, for as much as I love baseball I don't care and maybe you shouldn't care either. I'm not saying I'll be turning a blind eye to all this stuff. Hell, if I'm watching TV and the station cuts to show Bonds' at bats as he gets close to the record I'll watch. And if he hits the one that breaks it I'll nod my head and go about my day. I'm not going to get worked up into a fervor one way or the other. I didn't say it wasn't interesting, hence why I'll watch, but I really won't care.

There are many reasons why I don't care so I won't run through all of them, just a few of them, or most of them. I don't care primarily because this is being treated as some holy pious matter. It's sports, pure and simple. I love sports a great deal, but I also realize there are a far many things that are much more important. To hear some of the sports pundits talk about it Bonds is committing a high crime against humanity. He's cheated all of us and he's cheated this wonderful game that we hold dear. He's despicable, a detriment to society a menace. And you know what, most of those may be true, but I still don't care.

Bonds is dirty, there's no question. He's also an egomanical jackass. And you know what, I still don't care. I don't like having moral life lessons being stuffed down my throat, by sportswriters no less. Where are the cries for ethics from them when the drum up non-controversies or twist and mis-construe quotes? I'm sorry, but I can't handle being told what's moral by a body of people who in large part deal in shady ethics on a daily basis. Also by a body of people who blast a man for his massive ego and over valued sense of self worth and when a great many of them have massive egos and over valued senses of self worth.

Another reason I don't care is because we're in an era of baseball where everything is pretty much tainted. Steroids and whatever else everyone is taking will be hanging over the game for a long time. And while Bonds sure is dirty and thus are his home runs, what about all the pitchers who have been on the juice. If Bonds has homered off of pitchers who were juiced up, does that constitute some kind of double negative and make those homers clean? Sure Bonds was dirty, but so were a lot of others and while it's easy to throw Bonds under bus, it doesn't make it right.

Plus, what kind of hypocrisy is it we can give an award to a guy who was on the juice and basically won the reward as a result of his past transgressions. Confused? OK I'll put it simply. Jason Giambi won the Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2005. Giambi hit .271 that season wtih 32 home runs and 87 RBI. Impressive for a guy who in the previous had played in only 80 games and hit .208 with 12 homers (and yet he was still an All-Star). On the surface, seems legit. Well lets get past the surface here. Giambi missed most the year with a host of mystery ailments, one of which was later revealed to be a benign tumor on his pituitary gland, a side effect of steroid use. Giambi was also noticeably less hulking when the year began and eventually held a press conference (I can't quite remember if it was at the end of the 04 season or the beginning of the 05) where he apologized to his teammates and to fans and to the Yankees organization, but no one ever knew for what because he never told us what he was apologizing for. Safe bet it was most likely in regards to his steroid use.

Anyway, so Giambi was on the juice too. Too his credit, he got off the juice or at least it so appears. Well the juice withdrawl seemed to be the cause of his bad 2004 campaign, so does anyone else see a problem with he being given an award from Major League Baseball celebrating his comeback from a self induced injury, particularly one that most likely came from performance enhancing drugs? I would hope so, but it seems that no one has done so yet and that is sad. I really can't care about something (Bonds stuff) when it seems that nobody else cares about something (the Giambi thing) that at least has some correlation to the current issue. I don't get how major league baseball and sportwriters can say they care about this issue, when they overlook somewhat major things that relate to.

I could go on, but it's late and I need to go to bed. So I'll leave you with this. If for some reason you care about all of this stop. It'll make you're life a lot easier, less stress you don't need to have. Bonds will hit a home run, people will scream with outrage, cry foul, weep in sadness, water will turn to blood, locusts will block out the sun, the four horsemen will ride and then the sun will rise again. This isn't some holy event, it's not going to change the world. Just let it happen, I promise it won't hurt. Trust me apathy is the way to go on this one, it reall is. But that's enough from me because it doesn't really bother me that you care one way or the other, quite simply because I don't care.

Just stop

Wow, has it really been a month since I last wrote something? All three of you who read this must be disappointed....damn good thing I don't get paid to do this. Anyway I was watching some TV last night when I heard some one say something stupid, and you know me when it comes to stupid I simply can't resist.

First the background of everything. For those of you who don't follow sports, this past weekend was the NFL Draft. It's basically a giant get together where NFL teams pluck eligible college players to help build their team. The New England Patriots (the team I happen to follow) picked a safety out of the University of Miami with their pick in the first round, his name is Brandon Meriweather.

OK, some more background time, but back during the college football season, the University of Miami and Florida International got into something of a brou-ha-ha during their game this season. By something of a brou-ha-ha I mean it was pretty much a giant brawl with both benches emptying, punches being thrown, helmets being swung as weapons and players kicking and stomping other players that were already on the ground. It wasn't pretty, we'll just leave it at that.

Well Meriweather happened to make the highlight reel from the brawl for all the wrong reasons. He was shown, quite a few times stomping and kick Florida International players who were defenseless and on the ground. Seems to call to question his character a little bit doesn't it.

This unfortunately was not the only incident involving Meriweather. Back in July Meriweather fired a gun a man outside his home in Miami after the man had fired at he and his roommate (and actually hit his roommate, read about it here).

So why am I bringing all this up? Well on top of drafting Meriweather, the Patriots have traded for wide receiver Randy Moss who has his whole own litany of character issues. It's been something of a frenzy here in New England (at least amongst the media) over the Meriweather and Moss (more so Moss) because New England has always valued players of character or talent laden yet trouble finding players, blah, blah, blah whatever.

Real quickly, is this something of a change from New England has done in the past? Sure. In fact the Pats released a draft pick (Christian Peter) a while back before he ever set foot in New England after learning he had some domestic violence charges on his rap sheet. But this is not the same place it was then. They have a lot of high character guys and a lot of leaders, so it enables them to take a risk on some guys with unquestionable talent and perhaps questionable character.

But since this is the all in the realm of the Boston sports media, it's been made to feel like some kind of crime against humanity has been committed and that the Patriots are just another team looking to win. Hello? Isn't the object of playing sports to win? Didn't then Jets (and now Chiefs) coach Herman Edwards say "You play to win the game?" So the Pats took a couple of chances here, big whoop. Sure they value character and since they've done so for a ling time, it allows them to take a chance and who knows, maybe they can help develop some more character.

OK, but back to the stupid here. In discussing Meriweather's character the brawl incident and the gun incident have been brought up. The brawl incident is fair game to discuss. Did he use good judgement? That would be no. Did he get caught up in the heat of things and get carried away? Most definitely. If you were involved in an incident like that how would you act? My guess is you wouldn't be a saint and neither would be most anyone else.

But that's not the stupid thing here really. It all has to do with the gun incident. OK, I'm not all that enamored with guns, nor people who find the need to carry them. If I could go back in time and fix two things one would be slavery, the other you ask? Rewriting the 2nd amendment to the constitution to be much less ambiguous and much more specific. That all being said, Meriweather owned the gun legally and used it legally.

To run through the incident quickly in case you didn't click the link above. Meriweather and his roommate saw a suspicious car outside their home at 6:30 in the morning and they went outside to investigate, Meriweather with his gun in tow. They saw a man exit the vehicle, there was some yelling back and fourth then the man shot at Meriaweather and his friend, striking Meriweather's friend in the ass. Meriweather then fired back and the assailant fled. Bear in mind, Meriweather legally owned the fire own and used it legally as well.

Now here comes the stupid, this being something I heard on TV the other night and I have heard on the radio and read about since. The question has been posed on more than one occasion in more than one medium, "What would you do if you saw a suspicious looking vehicle outside your home in the early morning hours?" The answer of course has been all week, "call the police." OK, on the surface this doesn't seem stupid at all, quite sensible actually. The stupid comes though with who is leading the discussion and who is being discussed.

Being discussed are young black men who have grown up in poor urban (nice word for ghetto) settings for most of their lives. The people doing the discussing are middle aged, upper-middle class white men. So the question here is being posed by people that have grown up in quiet run of the mill towns or suburbs and now live in comfortable middle class areas with a pretty fair lack of major crime.

See, if you live in a podunk town or a nice area of suburbia, you call the police when things look suspicious. You trust the police, hell chances are you even know some of the police (or if you town is small enough, all of them). But this really isn't the case if you're a minority (specifically black) growing up in an urban background. Chances are you don't trust the police that much and that the police aren't all the quick to jump to your attention when something goes wrong in your neck of the woods.

So taking all that in, where does someone who has never experienced life in a ghetto, surrounded by drugs and violence, living in a constant state of fear even to begin to have the proper perspective to discuss an issue like this. It's simple, they don't. Listen, I'm not condoning Meriweather's actions, in fact I don't think his actions should be condoned. But, if you haven't at least peeked into another person's perspective on life, where do you get off telling him what he should have done instead?

Again, it's more than valid to say that Meriweather's action bring up some questions about character, but if you don't have the proper perspective or understanding then you don't have any real ground to say, he should have done this instead.

The world is not all one color, people don't all react the same the way. What you and I may do, some one else will not, pure and simple. And since when did sports writers and pundits become arbiters of moral authority anyway?

Listen, I'm not saying you can't call into question some one's character. We all do, it's how we evaluate people, it's how we decide who we'll call our friends. Just don't tell people to do something else when it appears you don't understand why they did it in the first place.