Apparently, a day cannot go by without talking about America's pastime, Major League Baseball. To continue from where we left off yesterday, Albert Pujols should stick to hitting the ball, and not hitting people. A quote from an article in the MLB section of www.espn.com, "It's something where you react. It's part of the game." This quotation is credited to Mr. Pujols, showing, yet again, that sports players are made up of more braun, than brain.
If Albert were a boxer, I would not complain; afterall, it's their job to hit people. Fighting is not part of Baseball, or Beisball either. Hitting the ball real far, yes. Taking out your roid rage, no. Thankfully, it sounds like Albert Pujols will be suspended, however there was no mention of anyone else involved getting suspended.
I would like to focus on something else though, something I think is more important; The MLB All-Star Game. The Midsummer's Classic, which is to be played tonight, has had it's fair share of controversy ever since that horrendous tie game last year (Yes, I would have suspended both managers for their actions). I'm sure you've heard the hype "NOW THIS YEAR IT MATTERS!!!!!" All it's missing is the Monster Truck announcer going "TUESDAY! tuesday! TUESDAY!"
This years game is not without controversy either. When looking at the lineups one can see a bunch of weirdness going on. There's been a lot of change in the lineups. Many people who were voted in as starters, or selected by the managers as backups, are not playing due to injury and have been replaced. While this is legitimate, I am bummed. Alright, so I really wanted to see Manny Ramirez play in the outfield instead of Home Run Derby king Garret Anderson, I can be selfish. But Roger Clemens instead of Barry Zito?
Many thought Clemens should have appeared at the game anyway due to the fact that Capt. A-hole got his 300th win and his 4,000th strikeout this season, even though he has missed win 301 in four straight starts. You wanna give Roger a parade, go for it. Remember though, this is the guy who said he'd boycott his own induction into the Hall of Fame and have a private ceremony with only his mother in attendance if he didn't go into the hall with the hat of the team he wanted on. My two cents? Put him in as a Yankee, he's disowned in Boston anyway. We don't want him.
My anger gets in the way, I apologize. Back to the point. Barry Zito, young star pitcher for the Oakland A's, gets the shrug because he pitched two days ago, on Sunday. Because of those 106 pitches he threw, manager Ken Macha and pitching coach Rick Peterson thought he shouldn't pitch 2 innings in the All-Star game. This was apparently relayed to everyone but Zito. He found out at an interview session involving him and the other Oaktown players going to the All-Star game. Ouch.
So what's the big deal? In a season that's seen several idiotic maneuvers, from all the fighting to a corked-up Sammy Sosa (no, he'll never live it down, even if he hits 800 more home runs), this is just another in the long list. This guy won the Cy Young award last year, shouldn't he get a nod? Where's his appearance for the sake of appearing? Was this just a move to satiate an assholic Roger Clemens? I'm not sure, but when trying to build up a game, having talk like this appear on SportsCenter, and the news, does not help undo the tarnished image of Major League Baseball.