Spring Training 2009: Can We Talk About Baseball Now?

For the past two months, it has been nothing but steroids, steroids, and a book. What is wrong with this picture? I know steroids are a big deal and have hurt the prestige of the game, but the easiest way to keep everyone pushing forward is to talk about baseball, not to dwell on negatives in the past.

Don't get me wrong, every once in a while, main stream sport outlets like ESPN will present a story about Griffey going back to the Mariners or Manny finally finding a team, but it is always the secondary story to a controversial topic, making it appear as if its not important. For example, I am really tired of hearing about Barry Bonds linked to steroids or Roger Clemens being under investigation for lying.

Now to spice up the sports world, Joe Torre writes a book about his years as the manager of the Yankees. The coverage of this appears to be right out of an episode of MTV's Real World. Who would have guessed that it wasn't all good times in the Bronx? The media is acting like Torre went up to George Steinbrenner and punched him in the face.

Now to take center stage, A-Rod took steroids when he was a Ranger. As much as I think it is a shame that he did, he is just one man in an entire league of teams in MLB. He was the topic of over a week of coverage by ESPN and I was sick of it by the end of the first day. Nothing new ever came up; it was just people asking others the same questions. I think it is time to let him get on with his work and be done with it.

I don't think I am out of line about this whole matter, and if I am, please let me know.  I'm not being too demanding when I want to hear stories like if the Mets will finally make it to the postseason or if the Rays will repeat last year's success. I think we deserve stories about baseball and not stories that are by-products of people in baseball. It is officially spring training, so let's talk about some baseball!

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