Time Warner Cable customers will have to find an alternative home for Rangers hockey and Knicks basketball as the Madison Square Garden (MSG) network will be cut off for subscribers at 12:01 a.m. EST, according to MSG Media.

The cable system provider, which provides cable services to the Capital Region and the tri-state area, has yet to reach an agreement with MSG Media. After 12:01 a.m., only customers of Verizon Fios and AT&T will be able to view MSG until a deal is made.

“No agreement is expected to be reached for Time Warner Cable to continue to carry MSG Network and MSG+. Therefore, as of midnight tonight, MSG Network and MSG+ will be dropped from the Time Warner Cable channel lineup,” said MSG Media in a statement released at 8 p.m. Saturday night.

Reportedly, MSG Media wanted an increase for the fee collected from Time Warner Cable from its subscribers, in which negotiations have stalled in recent weeks.

MSG, which is part of the larger Cablevision-influenced network of companies, owns the Rangers and the Knicks directly.

The best known names at Fight Night VII at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center on Friday night were brothers Shawn and Shannon Miller from Troy. Light Heavyweight Shawn (5-1-1, 3 KO) chose his shots carefully, and scored some solid combos. This earned him a first round knockdown against Mark Anderson (2-3-1, 2 KO) and for him – an unanimous decision. His brother Shannon Miller (16-5-0, 9 KO) returned from retirement to beat Montreal’s Taffo Asongwed (2-9-6, 0 KO) by unanimous decision as well.

Shannon returned to boxing after donating half of his liver to his uncle. Realizing the high costs that donors incurred, he created Knock Out Liver Disease (KOLD) to help defray these costs for donors and their families. Tonight’s victories were special for both of the Shannon brothers, who donated their entire purses to KOLD.

The show was stolen however, by two welterweights: Colonie’s Javier Martinez and Troy’s Ray Velez. Both welterweights came into the fight with 2-0-0 records, each with one KO. Early in the fight, Velez seemed unable to find his rhythm against the untraditional, jerky stick and move foot and head work of Martinez. By round three however, Velez hit his stride, and was able to score some solid hits after cutting off the ring and forcing Martinez to fight him head on. Halfway through the fourth and final round, Velez cornered Martinez and both fighters landed multiple flurries. By the time a clinch ended the corner fighting, it appeared that Velez would come out on top. In the middle of the ring, Velez forced Martinez to fight toe-to-toe, but the talented Martinez showed that he could do this as well, and scored a clean straight right, dropping Velez to the mat with less than thirty seconds left to fight.

After winning the match by unanimous decision, Martinez immediately thanked Velez. The show of sportsmanship by a young fighter was much appreciated by the crowd. Martinez went on to say that the two had to “fight for peanuts” and that including training time, the two made two dollars an hour.

No matter how Martinez came to that number, he and Velez made sure that the spectators got their money ‘s worth, and I’m certain that fight fans throughout the Capital Region will be excited to attend Fight Night VIII.

The New York Knicks raised some eyebrows this past weekend when they won the free agency frenzy by scooping up the most coveted free agent out there, Tyson Chandler. New York may have just added the missing piece of the puzzle, something they’ve lacked for years. They finally have a sound, defensive center for the first time since Patrick Ewing. The Knicks are once again relevant.

It would have been great to see Chris Paul land in New York but it seems like it’s just not meant to be. I guess David Stern did give us a slight glimmer of hope last week when he nixed a deal that would have sent Paul to the Lakers, but it’s still pretty unlikely. (What a mess Stern created with that one.) Though to be honest, Tyson Chandler seems like a better fit for the Knicks’ system and Tony Douglas has played pretty well in his limited time at point guard. Chandler is a great defensive center who can play big minutes when you need him and he also finally allows Amare Stoudemire to play his true position at power forward. He has continued to improve over the last few years and was a huge part of the Mavericks’ championship win over the Heat last season. The big plays he continually came up with around the rim frustrated “the big three” throughout the series against Miami.

Knick fans have tried to block out the absolute tragedy that was the Eddy Curry signing back in 2005. The tandem of a 7-foot monster (Eddy Curry) and a 6-foot-9 scoring machine (Zach Randolph) had the potential to be great, but things didn’t exactly work out the way they should have. The only big numbers Curry put up in New York were the ones on the scale that he weighed in on. His weight increased as his stats and minutes decreased, and Zach Randolph couldn’t put the handle the workload all by himself. Randolph was eventually traded but the team still struggled to clear up cap space and win games.

It took more than a few bad seasons to overcome the $60 million mistake that was Eddy Curry’s contract, but finally it looks like the New York Knicks are building a team that can compete for a championship. They have a frontcourt that can produce on both sides of the ball and one of the most dominant scorers in the league, Carmelo Anthony. Chandler’s production will be key this season as the team will rely on him heavily for much needed defensive leadership. The Knicks may not be a finished product, but they are being built to take a serious run at the reigning Eastern Conference Champions Miami Heat. The important word in that last sentence is “built.” Building a cohesive and stable team has proved to be much more successful and fan friendly than just throwing a bunch of all-stars together. Just ask the Eagles or Heat how that worked out for them.

The “New Look” New York Knicks should match up well against pretty much any team in the NBA and will undoubtedly be one of the more exciting teams to watch. They still have some role player needs but with Carmelo pouring in 40 point games, Amare racking up double doubles and now Chandler clogging up the lane, the team is looking good. The Knicks know who they are and they are aware of their expectations, I’m confident they won’t let us down. The NBA season starts in less than a week and a half and I couldn’t be more excited.

There is just three weeks left in the NFL season and the playoff picture for the top NFL teams is coming to light. Four teams have already clinched a playoff berth: Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints, and Houston Texans. That means eight spots are still open. Here is a breakdown of the most likely scenario for the 12 teams that would make the playoffs.

AFC

The only team in the AFC guaranteed with a playoff spot is the Houston Texans, but the New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers have all but clinched a spot, leaving two spots available, the winner of the AFC West which will mostly likely be the Denver Broncos. They have pulled off some amazing victories with Tim Tebow as their QB and had some help from the fastest falling team in the NFL in the Oakland Raiders.  The other playoff team should be the New York Jets, they hold a one game lead over three other wildcard playoff contenders all trying to fight for that last AFC playoff spot.

An Early AFC playoff game prediction

In the wild card round of the AFC playoffs the New York Jets will face off against the Houston Texans and the Pittsburgh Steelers will face the Denver Broncos. Both of these games would be interesting match-ups and the games will get even more intense as the winners of those games will face off against the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots.

NFC

There are currently three teams who have already clinched a playoff spot in the NFC, Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, and San Francisco 49ers. This leaves the NFC East open for a playoff team and two other wildcard teams. As of now the New York Giants would win the NFC East, but they still have to face the Dallas Cowboys one more time to determine the NFC East Champion and that game will take place the last week of the season, so this playoff spot may not be known until then. The other two favorites to win the wildcard are the Detroit Lions and the Atlanta Falcons.

An Early NFC Playoff game prediction

In the wild card round of the NFC playoffs, the New York Giants will face off against the Atlanta Falcons and the San Francisco 49ers will face the Detroit Lions. This is a very early look at the NFC playoffs and with three weeks left in the regular season anything can and probably will happen. The winners of the wild card round will face off against the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints.

With the lockout over and free agency beginning Friday, many teams are getting ready to make moves to improve their rosters. This years free agent pool may not have big superstars like last year, but it’s much deeper in talented mid-level starters than in many years past. A few key acquisitions could make or break any number of teams this season. Players like Tyson Chandler, Nene Hilario and David West could all make huge impacts if they were land on a new team.

Here’s a short list of the more attractive free agents on the market: Tyson Chandler, Caron Butler, Nene Hilario, J.R. Smith, Marc Gasol, Mario Chalmers, David West, Arron Afflalo, Jason Richardson, Greg Oden, Rodney Stuckey, Grant Hill and Josh Howard. Some of these players may end up resigning with their teams, but any and all of them could be heading to a new city within days.

It’s hard to imagine another shift of power in the NBA like last year when Miami hit the jack pot, landing LeBron and Chris Bosh as well as resigning Dwayne Wade, but this year may have a lot of big winners as well. Trade rumors involved with Chris Paul and Dwight Howard have started to surface. Both players are known to be unhappy on their current teams and are seeking a trade before their contracts expire at the end of this season.

Right now the two teams with the best shot at acquiring Howard seem to be the New Jersey Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers. Sources close to Paul have said he has requested a trade to the New York Knicks… but the problem with that is the Knicks gave up so much to get Carmelo last season that now they don’t have enough pieces to make a serious offer. The Knicks aren’t the only ones who want him. The Clippers, Celtics, Warriors and Lakers have all been mentioned in trade rumors.

If either of these two players do get traded, Los Angeles looks to be the city with the best shot at getting at least one of them. The Lakers have publicly stated that they are willing to trade any player on their roster (other than Kobe) to get Dwight Howard and possibly Chris Paul as well. It seems unlikely that they could pull off two blockbuster trades but stranger things have happened. Even acquiring just one of them would position themselves once again as the team to beat in the West.

A few weeks ago the lockout was still looming and it didn’t look good for a 2011-2012 NBA season, but now in only a few short days free agency will begin and the countdown to the NBA’s season opener on Christmas Day will begin.

On Tuesday night, the New York Rangers defeated the mighty Pittsburgh Penguins to move within three points of the Pens division lead.

In Tuesday’s game that was highlighted by a whopping forty-two total penalty minutes, the Rangers really set the tone early in the game with their physical play. They went into the first intermission down by one goal but came out in the second period firing on all cylinders, scoring four second period goals. The second period push proved to be too much for the Pens as they fell 4-3 to the Rangers.

Brad Richards led his team to the win over Sidney Crosby’s Penguins who currently lead the NHL in points. Crosby did end up with two assists in the game but was generally held in check around the net. Richards was the player of the game scoring one goal and dishing off two assists, one of which went to the Rangers top goal scorer Marian Gaborik. That goal was Gaborik’s 11^th on the season.

In a game that clearly put the Rangers in the spotlight, an Albany River Rats Hall of Famer was also in the spotlight, Steve Sullivan of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He had one assist in the game and saw lots of playing time, especially on the power play unit. It’s been over a decade since Sullivan has played a game for Albany’s former AHL team, but it’s still good to see a class act like him doing well in the NHL… even if he is playing for Pittsburgh. He currently has four goals and eight assists for the Penguins this season.

The Rangers have won 10 of their last 12 games and are showing the world that they are a dangerous squad that is more than capable of taking down a top team. The NHL has been put on alert, the New York Rangers mean business.

With additional details surfacing in the child sex abuse scandal surrounding associate basketball coach Bernie Fine, Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor fired Fine on Sunday, stating “(SU) has the responsibility, individually and collectively, to ensure that Syracuse University remains a safe place for every campus community member and everyone with whom we interact on a daily basis on campus or in the community as part of our learning, scholarship, or work.”

Fine, who had been with Syracuse since 1976, is accused to abusing a number of ball boys from the mid 1970s through the 1990s. Syracuse had placed Fine on administrative leave earlier in the month. It was recently revealed that Fine’s wife had a taped phone call conversation with one of the accuser’s parents.

“We do not tolerate abuse. If anything good comes out of this tragedy, it will be that this basic principle is reinforced,” Cantor continued in her e-mail statement sent to the SU community Sunday evening.

Fine’s allegations come just weeks after Penn State’s handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex scandal which resulted in the termination of it’s president in addition to longtime head football coach Joe Paterno.

“The allegations that have come forth today are disturbing and deeply troubling. I am personally very shocked because I have never witnessed any of the activities that have been alleged. I deeply regret any statements I made that might have inhibited that from occurring or been insensitive to victims of abuse,” said head coach Jim Boeheim in a statement. Boeheim had hired Fine in 1976 as one of his assistants.

Some how, some way, the Bronco’s snuck by with another win this Sunday. They beat their division rival San Diego Chargers in overtime in typical Tebow fashion. The Chargers haven’t been great this season… well, they’ve actually been uncharacteristically bad but they’re more than capable of beating good teams with a slew of offensive weapons. Since promoting Tim Tebow to starting quarterback in week seven, the embarrassingly bad Broncos have won four of their last five games and have the potential to make the playoffs. Broncos?… Playoffs?… it’s been a while since those words have been used in the same sentence.

To say Tim Tebow is charismatic would be an understatement. I don’t know if it’s his openly religious beliefs, his legendary National Championship halftime speech or his sometimes obnoxiously positive attitude, but people can’t get enough of him. They either love him, or they love to hate him. Pictures of people “Tebowing” have swept the nation and become as popular as planking ever was. Week after week the Tebow train gains more steam.

If you’ve seen him play, or even just seen the Broncos play for that matter, you might disagree with me that they have a shot at the playoffs. It’s totally understandable. Lets be honest, their games are hard to watch. Tebow can look bad at times… real bad. In any given game he can be seen overthrowing receivers by a mile and starting games with multiple punts because they just can’t move the ball. But even with some of his on field struggles, he does something that many quarterbacks in the NFL struggle to do, he keeps his team in the game and he limits his turnovers. It might not be pretty but he gets the job done. He can’t run an offense as effortlessly as he did in college with the Florida Gators but he’s making due with what he’s got. With each new week, the Broncos coach John Fox is formulating an irregular offense that plays to Tebow’s strengths and gives them a chance to win.

He’s no Cam Newton and he’s definitely no rookie of the year, but Tim Tebow has made an important impact on the Denver Broncos and on the NFL in the last few weeks. He’s only thrown one interception and fumbled the ball once in the five games he’s started this season. He also had zero turnovers in week five where he played late in the game and almost led his team to a miraculous fourth quarter comeback. In his six games played, Tebow has ten total touchdowns while only committing two turnovers. Those number’s don’t shine but they’re good enough to win games and they’re good enough for all the fantasy football owners who are relying on him to keep their season alive.

While some may argue he has no place in the NFL because he isn’t a traditional quarterback or that he isn’t talented enough to lead a team to the playoffs, I say he’s been statistically efficient and plays with an intangible quality that has helped him lead a bad team to within one game of the division leading Oakland Raiders. The guy is just a winner, how can you argue with that?

The reverence of the Happy Valley and the paternalism of Joe Paterno (no pun intended) has come undone in the past few weeks from Penn State’s child abuse scandal involving former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. The larger question that Penn State, its staff, and fans must address is reforming the culture in which this entire scandal was prime to exploit.

In March of 2002, Mike McQueary was a graduate assistant for Penn State’s football program, his alma mater where he had only a few years prior been the team’s record-setting quarterback. After making his own attempts to get into the NFL (specifically with the Oakland Raiders), McQueary went back “home” – to the Happy Valley of State College, Pa. It was on the first day of this month at 9:30 p.m., where McQueary witnessed such a horrific event that no matter how he addressed it would change his life forever.

According to McQueary’s grand jury testimony, the now-assistant coach saw Jerry Sandusky, his former coach during his playing days, performing anal intercourse to a young boy (approximately ten years of age). Critics – including Pa. Gov. Tom Corbett who had been the state’s attorney general – say that McQueary didn’t do enough to stop the alleged abuse. McQueary himself is now backtracking on his own story – saying he informed police, yet the police say that McQueary never reported anything to them. Additionally, the judge in Sandusky’s case, District Judge Leslie Dutchcot, has been taken off the case due to her connection to Sandusky’s charity, Second Mile, in which not only did she volunteer but they threw her a fundraiser in 2007 when she ran for re-election.

Besides genocide, I’d rank child sex abuse as the most heinous of crimes to be committed. According to lore, even hardened criminals who’ve murdered and pillaged look down on those in the “big house” for sexually abusing a child. McQueary’s position – having seen the incident occur in the shower room in the football building at Penn State – put the child and him into a particular difficult position. First, the protection of the child must come first and it’s difficult (according to McQueary’s statements) to say how he exactly “stopped” the abuse from continuing. Secondly, each action that Sandusky needed to take required fast-paced thinking amid seeing the unthinkable.

The quandry that McQueary faced in reporting the incident – first to his father, before speaking with Paterno and other university officials – is a situation that many communities that have a deep reverence to a institution – a community that “takes care” of situations and develops a culture that it makes it a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” predicament. To a degree, it’s the same as what happened in Los Angeles with Rodney King, New York with Abner Louima (“It’s Giuliani Time!”) and Amadou Diallo – building a culture that feels so empowered, that they can do no wrong even though what they are doing cannot be described with simple words.

Let’s say McQueary was more proactive in stopping the abuse, grabbed the boy, and reported Sandusky. How sure could McQueary be asserted that (1) his own career wouldn’t be in jeopardy for “whistleblowing” the situation, even though Pennsylvania has a fairly robust whistle blower law and (2) can he face the pressure of testifying against someone who supported his playing career? And let’s say that McQueary wasn’t active at all and someone found out that he had seen the incident and failed to report? An even worse situation that could have allowed for more abuse to occur.

McQueary is seen as someone who can’t get their story right, but you can’t entirely blame him. Consider that both the 2002 incident and the 2000 incident in which janitorial staff member James Calhoun saw another shower incident – both Calhoun and McQueary reported them to their superiors, in which they failed to ask. Why? Because the culture at Penn State had evolved into taking their of their own (Sandusky) before thinking of the emotional and physical ramifications of the abused child. The riots that occurred after Joe Paterno’s firing, with Penn State students clamoring for the return of Paterno, showed what’s wrong with a collegiate culture that places such reverence upon a particular program.

Besides Penn State, other victims from Second Mile had attempted to report Sandusky, but were assured by school officials that he was an upstanding individual and wouldn’t ever – in their wildest dreams – perform such acts.

In order for Penn State and it’s fans to recover from the onslaught of publicity damage to its institution, Penn State needs to abandon and reform the culture in which it had developed so meticulously of creating a “church” of the Nittany Lions football program, a “church” that saw it’s temple (Beaver Stadium) grow from just over a capacity of 50,000 when built in 1960 to over 100,000 today due to expansions, a “church” that never thought twice to question from within.

Only when they realize that football is only a game, only then will the Happy Valley name be restored ethically.

“Drop the bat!”

That’s my T-Ball coach yelling to me when I was 5 years old. I had this habit of running the bases while holding my bat. Even when you don’t understand the rules, you love the game. But, I wasn’t head over heels until I was 7 years old. That’s when it happened.

My mother, hell, my whole family were Yankee fans. But my mom had an opportunity to take me to a ball game and she jumped at it, despite that it was being played in Queens. The details 16 years later still seem so vivid to me. I remember getting on the bus to the city with the glove on my hand. My heart was beating so fast, it could have leapt from my chest. I remember the agonizing hours sitting on the bus waiting get there – playing hangman and other games with my mom. I probably asked her a hundred times, “How much longer?” or “Are we there yet?”. To which, she always smiled and replied, “Soon” or “Almost”.

Then, I saw it, a building more impressive than any in New York; Shea Stadium. It was so big, I couldn’t wait to go inside. I wanted to climb to the top of this steeple and join all those lucky enough to enter this sanctuary and pity the unlucky who couldn’t join the club. And climb to the top we did. We sat in the upper deck and baked in the afternoon sun, while the athletes got ready for the game ahead.

I don’t remember every out, or, even, every inning. However, I remember Darryl Strawberry hitting two home runs, and Darryl Boston and Kevin McReynolds hitting one apiece. I remember that giant red apple with the Mets logo painted on it coming out of that top hot behind the center-field fence all four times. I remember yelling, “CHARGE!!” with the crowd and cheering and screaming with them every time the Mets got a hit or an Astro struck out. I remember Darryl Strawberry hitting a foul ball so hard that it went just beyond my outstretched glove and into the hands of the man sitting behind me. And, I remember my mom forcing me to eat a hot dog I didn’t want, because, as she said, “You have to eat a hot dog at your first game.”

The Mets beat the Astros that day, 12-0. That’s not all they won. They won a young boy’s heart, along with baseball. From then on, it was baseball and, despite my parent’s valiant efforts to make me a Yankee fan, it was the Mets. I remember the sadness I felt when Darryl and Doc left. I remember Eddie Murray becoming my favorite player during his short stint with the Mets. I remember booing Bobby Bo with the rest of New York.

Most of all, I remember how heart-breaking those standings were year after year.

That one game changed my life. I wanted to know more about baseball than any person on the planet. I bought almanacs and studied the stats. Names like Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Lou Gehrig, Cy Young, became more familiar to me than most of my aunts and uncles. I knew every player with 500 or more home runs. I knew Ty Cobb’s batting average and Cy Young’s win total by heart. I read Babe Ruth’s autobiography when I was 8. I watched “Pride of the Yankees” before my tenth birthday. I read Carl Yastrzemski’s book, and Mickey Mantle’s, and Willie Mays’s and Hank Aaron’s. I was astonished by the Black Sox, horrified by the Negro leagues’ reason for existence, disappointed by Pete Rose. I was in awe of everything baseball.

The Yankees were finally in first place again and so were the Expos. I was excited by the Expos. Matt Williams looked like he was going to break Roger Maris’s record, Tony Gwynn was going to hit .400 for the first time since Ted Williams, and Randy Johnson was striking so many people out some thought he could take Nolan Ryan’s 383. My family and I were taking a three-week road trip out west. It was absolutely amazing, until something happened. It was worse than a last-place finish for the Mets. I can’t remember any woman being more heart-breaking. We were at the Grand Canyon and I couldn’t enjoy it. I remember saying, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a big hole.” I saw the majesty of the sun setting over the canyon; the oranges and the Reds splashing from the sky against the stone. My memory doesn’t do it justice, because I didn’t appreciate it. I didn’t appreciate it because the players had gone on strike. With every passing day I felt a new knife in my back. I couldn’t understand why the players, especially the Mets would turn their backs on me. I couldn’t fathom why they wouldn’t want to play a game for as much money as they made. A game I would’ve played for free. There wasn’t even a World Series. It was the first time since 1904. The game made it 90 years. Not even two world wars and a great depression had stopped it. Nothing; until a few hundred players decided they didn’t make enough money. Even Eddie Cicotte rolled in his grave.

The time between the end of the 1994 and the beginning of the 1995 seasons felt like an abyss. I could actually feel the loss of baseball and, to this day, I still wonder how that season would have turned out. But, no matter how mad or heart-broken or betrayed I felt; I was ready with open arms for baseball to come back. Baseball wasn’t just a game to me, it was my release; my crutch. Everything in life that ever brought me sadness was wiped away by baseball. My first female heart-break came in the midst of the 1999 season. It was as if the Mets were playing for me. They won the wild card and then the divisional series. They went to the NLCS against the Braves (a team that’s not very well-liked in the realm of Shea Stadium). They were down 3 games to none and they came back. It was some of the most exciting baseball I have ever seen. And, after all that, Kenny Rogers walked in the winning run in game 6 to put the Braves in the World Series. I remember that pain more vividly than my first female heart-break.
After the terrorists attacked on September 11, 2001, the whole nation, myself included, fixed their tired, tear-stained eyes on the hope that is baseball. Almost an entire nation was behind the New York Yankees and then the unthinkable happened. The Yankees lost. They lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks of all teams. It was as if baseball was telling us, “Life isn’t a fairy tale, wake up, live, love, and enjoy!” Baseball, the fantasy, brought us reality and all we could do was wait for next season.

The older I got, the more I changed. But, baseball was always my answer. I failed one of the most important tests of my life by one question. I was living in Monterey, California at the time. So, I spent the next two weeks going to San Francisco and Oakland watching Giants and A’s games. I saw Barry Bonds steal his 500th base. Not long after that I moved to Texas and on my road trip I stopped at Dodger Stadium. I was 20 years old at this point and the Dodgers were playing the Rockies. I went in during batting practice and I had a seat next to the field down the right field line. Soon after I sat down one of the Rockies hit a batting practice ball to right field. Larry Walker strolled over and picked it up. He turned and started jogging away and flipped the ball over his head and right to me. Ten years and dozens of games and I finally had a ball. A little boy, probably no more than 9, looked up at me and asked, “Can I have the ball?”

I looked back at him, smiled and said in a soft, sweet voice, “Hell, no.”

The little boy tried to appeal to me some more, but I still have that ball.

Just when I thought 1994 had numbed all baseball pain; in came steroids. Many people, and “true fans”, will tell you that it may have ruined the game. And when all that news first started to break, I felt the same. I began thinking, how could baseball do this to me again? Why can’t the players just love the game the way I do? What do we do with all those padded stats? But, soon, it hit me; the steroid scandal didn’t ruin the game, it just ruined some statistics. I still love the game.

A baseball diamond, any baseball diamond, is still the “field of dreams”. When I stand on a field I can still feel the ball, smell the glove, glide my feet through the blades of grass all neatly trimmed, slide into home with excitement breathing down my neck and raspberries adorning my thigh in some sweet pain of triumph. When I’m in a ballpark, I’m not thinking about the players or if they’re “juiced”; I’m feeling the crowd, I’m keeping score and I’m watching those little men beneath me play the game I love. I used to think baseball and I were in an abusive relationship. Baseball abused me, but I loved it too much to leave. That’s not it, though. There isn’t a relationship. There’s simply no difference between us.