Crumpled Notebook

That’s what I told my family as I was leaving Kentucky just a few days over 4 years ago. Unless I’m off a day or two on my dates, and I don’t think that I am, today, January 20th is my 4 year anniversary for being in California, based on when I arrived here.

That is  officially as long  as I was in high school and as long as I was a WKU.

I still just kinda feel like I just moved here, but the truth is, I’ve been here as long or longer than I’ve been any place else since I went to college.

But anyway, it’s been 4 good years. I still miss Kentucky sometimes, and I definitely miss my family and friends there, but this is my home, at least for the time being (and I don’t have any immediate plans of going anywhere).

Auburn 80, (18) Mississippi 77
Cincinnati 62, (15) Pittsburgh 59
Kansas State 75, (10) Texas A&M 54
USC 72, (4) UCLA 63

And of course, the best for last…
Maryland 82, (1) North Carolina 80

That’s what I call good basketbal.

For those that read regularly, I’ve added something new to my sidebar called “Shared Stuff.” Basically, just stuff I come across in Google Reader that I find interesting. So, check it out.

This has bugged me for a while, and since I’ve been inspired to write more lately, I’m going to say it publicly.

Doesn’t Congress and Senator George Mitchell have anything better to do than worry about baseball? As one friend says, “it’s ridiculous that they’re even involved.”

I don’t think I’m the only person who feels this way either.

I guess maybe I could be wrong. I guess maybe I was always taught that our government, our congress, legislators, and President’s job was to look out for the welfare of the country. You know, things like, a thriving economy, peace with other countries, taking care of those who need help, making sure every child has a proper education, and making sure Americans get proper health care, just to name some more obvious ones.

But it seems, at least lately, Senator Mitchell has made baseball his only agenda. Yes, baseball players using and abusing steroids is not good for baseball, but come on, in the grand scheme of things, where does that rank on the priorities of our country? Is there any presidential candidate running on the platform that MLB needs to crackdown on steroid use in baseball? Is that on the list of questions of issues that are important to the people who live in the country? The answer is NO.

So I ask, why are you, Senator Mitchell, wasting my tax dollars on something that I, and most Americans, already know? Shouldn’t MLB be allowed to govern itself? Since using steroids illegally is a crime, shouldn’t law enforcement just be cracking down? I’m just saying, it would be like my city council coming in and investigating our high school sports teams here are drinking too much gatorade, or practicing in the off-season, or even using steroids. That doesn’t happen. If a coach, school official, or police officer suspects that, they’ll do something about it. Not our city council or mayor or anything like that. And if they did, I would still say it was ridiculous.

Sure, maybe MLB should have done a better job of monitoring it. Maybe the coaches and trainers and team mates should have taken some responsibility. Why aren’t you investigating Bud Selig for not doing his job if you care that much? If you have to go in an investigate the coaches and players under him, should that say that he hasn’t been doing his job and should just be fired? My opinion is that he never cared until the government started caring. Why would he? You have records being broken…something that gave baseball it’s first breath of life in I don’t know how many years. And all of that happening under baseball commissioner Bud Selig. Now he’s playing “hard” and cracking down. He should be. He should have been all along because there of course is steroid use in baseball. There still is. And there was even before Congress decided to make it its mission to strip any record-breaking baseball player of their credibility, whether it’s true or not.

Maybe the Babe never used steroids. Maybe he did. Maybe there was something else he used. The fact is, people have been cheating in baseball, and probably every other sport, since the inception of the game. It doesn’t make it right, but it also doesn’t make it a matter of national security either. If Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens took steroids, and you busted them for it, is that going to help my future children have a good education? Is that going to ensure that when they retire, they have social security there (or when I retire for that matter)? Is that going to help ensure my mom gets the medication she needs just so she can get out of bed and get up and move around? Is that going to help find a cure for cancer or Parkinson’s disease? This that going to make sure that we don’t go into another recession during the Bush administration? This that going to bring peace in the middle east and our troops home safely? Reduce crime rate? Get drugs off the streets? Boost our economy?

No. It’s not. You, Senator Mitchell, and anyone else in Congress who helped with this witch hunt, should be ashamed of yourself for wasting not only tax payers dollars, but more importantly, your time. That time that we elected you to be looking our for “our” best interest and the best interest of our country, not the best interest of America’s Pastime.

Some others are joining in on the fun. eHarmony Blog (unofficial) makes a good point. No one from the eH offices has ever bothered to comment on their blog, which served over 47,000 pages in December. Hopefully their new headline will work on getting some comments from eH offices.