The Smiley Smile Message Board

Get it?  HAHAHAHAHAHA....

Anyway, go Tigers?

No.

Ditto.

But...it's this pasttime thing, see?  And uhm...people are supposed to love it...<insert apple pie reference here>.  I'm inviting everybody over to my house for the home opener.  Hope you all like laughs and good times!

Ditto ditto. Sports has never been my thing. I do like baseball better than (American) football, though, which always seems like some sort of pseudo-military exercise or something. :police:

Not particularly, especially because my focus is on the NHL, which is about to get into playoff mode. As for MLB, well, I was sad to see the Expos go. I cheer for the Red Sox and then the Blue Jays. I am not a real fan, but I sort of watch it here and there.

Baseball's a good sport to watch because it's very passive. You could stop paying attention for like 10 minutes and sometimes you won't even miss anything. There's lots of stops and stuff, and the bases and everything make it really easy to only care about watching it a little and still be able to follow everything going on.

How American.

Absolutely PSYCHED for it, Rerun!  Let's Go Mets!

What you think?  My Tigs v your Mets in October??...and the delusion begins to sink in deeper.

I"m ready, friend!  But i'm not sure your boys are...

Not sure my boys are what?  They're 1-0, baby!

go cubs! i like to fall asleep during baseball games...it's an american tradition for me    :lol

*sigh*  My team isn't going to go 162-0 this year...drat.

Since I'm a long suffering Giants fan (I always maintain that girls/women have nothing on the Giants- they're the ones who taught me all about hearbreak by the time I was 8 years old...) I'd like to get psyched about this season, and I found a lot of anticipation and withdrawls over the winter, as the season has gotten closer the controversy around Bonds, coupled with the fact that the team members all seem to be either 24 years old or 40 years old and the great addition of a dismal showing during the cactus league and no depth in the bullpen, I'm kind of feeling like this season will be another "car wreck" season- you know you shouldn't look, but you can't help yourself. Sigh. ;)

That said, since it's the only team sport I follow, I'm glad for the whole spring and summer ritual baseball brings. My son turns 8 on Sunday and I've got tickets to take him to the Giants/Braves game, so it'll be fun.

Not meaning to hi-jack the thread, but I've got to ask- if you can't be at the game, what does it for you- radio, or TV?

I'm a radio guy myself... lot of memories doing yardwork to the game, puttering around in the garage to the game, hanging out on the back patio with the game on, or driving around with the game on, sneaking my radio to school to listen to part of the day games at lunch recess, etc.etc. I don't get to attend very often, but I find that I'll drag my radio to the ball park as well just to catch the commentary! ( I know, I'm a dork...)

Dean

Wow, so we have a Cubs, Tigers, and Giants fan...I don't think this thread can hold anymore heartbreak.

We get the fewest games of all Major League teams on TV, so I'm typically stuck with the radio, which I don't mind, but no matter how nice the commentary is, watching a dominating pitching performance or a great catch trumps it everytime.

Hey!  We've got a Met's fan, too!  Geez!

I am a radio guy tried and true - from the hidden transistor radio during the 1969 World Series to the hidden transistor under the pillow all through the '70s, to taking the radio to the ballpark with me these days [yes, i do that, too!], i am all about baseball on the radio.  I'll put the TV on sometimes and watch sporadically, but always to the accompaniment of the radio play-by-play.  The TV guys don't have to "paint the word picture for you," as the late great Bob Murphy used to say, and so they don't.  They babble on incessantly about meaningless crap.  Some are better than others, but the best isn't as good as a mediocre radio call.

As for Bonds, i wouldn't pitch to him except maybe to break his kneecap.  I don't want him in the game, and i don't want him to hit a single nother home run.  He is not just a cancer; every day that he is an active member of a team is one more day of hypocrisy and lying and cheating.  And there's nothing i hate more than a cheater.

The one upside to this whole steroids thing for me is that it makes my favorite player since childhood, Griffey, look that much better to be able to keep pace with, and surpass, a lot of these players while keeping clean the whole time.  I don't think anybody would argue he was juiced.

I was thinking about that on the way to work this morning - Griffey was maligned for years for his lack of production after his move to Cincinnati, but in retrospect, it sure DOES make him look good, and definitely makes him look clean. 

I dunno- call me a heretic, and I've got to preface this with the fact that I think steroids are the dumbest thing and athelete can do to their body- but this whole revisionist thing with the investigation and Selig and that jazz is a waste of time and energy.

On some level it almost runs parallel to the LSD thing in the 60's (which is another thing that I don't personally condone) it was legal, certain folks partook for better or worse, the feds made it illegal, some folks quit using it because of that, it deterred others from trying it and some did it anyway, knowing that if they get caught there will be legal consequences.

So with steroids, it was dumb, but at the time legal- or rather NOT illegal- and when MLB cracked down most players stopped. Some may continue to try knowing that if they get caught, there will be consequences. So the fact that the government and MLB are on a witch hunt to punish players that, while not deserving respect for their actions, should'nt be villified posthumously either. Regardless of whether Bonds did or didn't, I think it says something that even his most ardent accusers support, that when MLB banned steroids, he quit.

Spend the energy to enforce the current rules and just like we had the dead ball era, we had the steroid era.

On a parallel level, putting an asterisk by Bonds numbers is kind of like saying Smile or Pet Sounds or Revolver or Sgt Pepper's should have an asterisk by them as valid art or gold records or whatever because they were somewhat inspired by drug use and that gave some kind of creative advantage over the recording artists that didn't use drugs to inspire their creativity. At the end of the day baseball is entertainment, art is entertainment - there isn't too big of a stretch with this.

Some folks choose not to like the Beatles or the Beach Boys' (or anyone's) "drug" music because it's presents a conflict for them, they feel as thoug liking it will be a stamp of approval for altered states of consciousness, and that's their perrogative. With some folks they aren't into the drug thing, but they can appreciate it for what it is and some folks think drugs are great and point to this stuff as proof.

There will be folks who think Bonds is a bum no matter what, and folks who don't sweat it. The reputation will exist long after any kind of legal action and will be potentially more damning in the long run than any official saber rattling.

Of course, this is also coming from someone who thinks Landis was unfair to some of the 1919 Sox and that Pete Rose should be judged for his performance on the field. I mean, Ty Cobb was a complete a**hole unless he was playing ball and he gets a free pass and is in the hall.

But this is just my opinion and I completely respect that someone else will totally disagree...

Dean   

Oh yeah...not to prattle on, but I failed to mention why I think the whole gov't/MLB honcho witch hunt is bogus is because they condoned steroid use in the late 90's by failing to make it illegal- they loved the attention the long ball hitters and the 70 home runs per season record chase was giving the biz. They had just come off the black eye from the players strike and baseball was hurting ( which meant revenues were hurting) and this got folks watching and paying attention again- and they loved it. So to take the moral high road after the fact has about as much cred with me as the Nixon administration...

Okay, I'll shut up now....  ;)   
Dean

Okay, yup - baseball had not outlawed steroids in the '90s, when use was rampant.  And they knew about it, and let it happen regardless of the proven health risks.

But it was against the law.  So baseball is complicit in allowing its players to break the law.

Don't they have morals clauses anymore?  I guess not.

Still, what bothers me about Bonds is that the juice was coursing through his system when he hit many of those homeruns that brought him to where he is now.  There's obviously no way to quantify how many more homers he hit because of it, but there's no one who would deny that he DID hit more because of it.  And THAT brings up the record.

He broke the law and is now approaching one of the most cherished records, one of the most awesome, untouchable records in baseball.  If he breaks it, he broke it thanks to a substance that was illegal.  And in my book, that's cheating.

Any comparison between baseball/steroids and music/drugs is ridiculous.  Music is not, by its nature, competitive.  People have never paid money to attend a competition between this composer and that one.  Nice try, but i'm not buying that one, voxnut.

Gotta admit- I wasn't aware that steroids were actually illegal on a government level- how come Giambi and others who have admitted it haven't been prosecuted? Statute of limitations?

Music by nature is not competative- yeah, just ask Brian Wilson!  ;)

Just kidding and I respect your viewpoint, and I'm not an apologist for Bonds. It was a dumb move by anyone who got into that stuff. I think McGuire will be tainted forever as well. I just wonder if the idea of purity in pro sports - particularly baseball was ever a widespread thing, or just a myth. Even now the fact that there has been rampant use of amphetamine in baseball since WWII only gets a cursory mention and lumped into the drug policy as an afterthought- ya know, maybe that was the key to the iron man performance of the pitchers back in the 50's and 60's. Maybe Nolan Ryan is tainted because of being on speed for his blinding fastball or 7 no-hitters. I dunno...in your opinion, is being on greenies cheating?

Dean

4-0, baby!  152 to go...

Hoo boy! Last night was a doozie! Love them Giants and their crack relief staff... Jack Taschner officially has an ERA of 135.00 after last night. Sadly, I'm not exaggerating. Will someone pass the bromo please?

Dean

Holy crap, how many runs did he let up?  I read on some message board people laughing about the giants' relief pitching, but didn't bother to read it.

Rerun - dood - your team is only playing a 156-game schedule this year?!  Sheesh...the things they'll do to help some teams...
;-)

Vox - it's all cheating, and as such it's all bad.  But i believe there are degrees.  Speed amps you up for the afternoon.  Steroids take it to a whole other level.  But yes, both are cheating.

The biggest thing for me is that Bonds should not be awarded any sort of homerun record, because an undetermined number of those homeruns were hit while he was on steroids.  And i realize we can't quantify that, and there is no way of ever knowing just how many he would have hit had he never touched the stuff...but the baseball world has been talking about steroids for quite a few years now, and he continues to deny his use.  So he's a liar AND a cheat.

And yes, i do know i'm fighting a losing battle here.  But i hate cheating...

Damn you Susan!  I meant 158 to go of course...

Damn me?!  Wow...i almost think you mean that...!
;-)

Red Sox fan here.
Like what I see so far,,,so far.... :)

Gotta keep one eye on and one eye off.
It's too early for the obsession.

Also like the Tigers (2nd team)
So happy for them.

Other AL teams I like--
Oakland, Angels, Tampa Bay (wierd, I know, bugt they're fun and actually a Red Sox rival)

Teams I despise--
Texas (boring, no personality)

NL teams?  Like the Brewers based on concept.  Beer.

Wow, it's like poetry...

Just like baseball itself, which is the most poetic sport there is [except MAYBE for well-played basketball, tho that's more lyrical than poetic], and which has engendered some of the richest sports writing known to humankind. 

"It breaks your heart.  It is designed to break your heart."  A Bartlett Giamatti

Don't forget the poetry of horseshoes:

I often ask
is it the iron luck that flips when tossed
or is it the world,
my life,
sanity,
which slowly spirals out of control,
hoping that we can just hold onto something true,
something constant,
something hoofshaped?
Reach great metal staff and grab hold!
Alas, sometimes the most you can do is get close to reason,
or in this case,
a horseshoe.

by G.D. Platte

Susan,
Do you like David Halberstam?
I just read "Teammates"
Great stuff!
JD

I'm more psyched about the NBA playoffs.

I like the baseball haiku!

While I bleed Giants specifically and the NL generally, I have to admit that I don't mind the A's (my mom has been a fan ever since they moved to Oakland) and the Orioles. I lived in Northern Va. in the late 80's and that was the "local" team. But as a rule I'm not an AL fan because I think pitchers should hit- all the while knowing that the AL has a deeper talent pool than the NL, and it's been that way for quite awhile...

Could never get into the NBA or NFL- I was too short as a kid to enjoy playing basketball and too scrawny to play football so I never developed as a fan. I could play baseball so that's what I gravitated to as a fan. As I hit the middle teen years music, girls and cars took over, but as soon as I hit my 30's I found I became a "born again" baseball fan and appreciate it on a deeper level than I did when I was a kid.

Even though there are things in the whole corporate/pro sports set up that bug me, once the first pitch is thrown all is forgiven. There's no denying the beauty and poetry of the sport itself. It's not often mentioned but I think a big thing that lured me back in was that it's one of the few sports that doesn't operate against a clock. I love that. Bein' a working stiff and a parent, my whole life is darned near governed by a clock. You show up at the ball park or determine that taking in the game on TV or radio is going to be your activity for the evening and it's open ended.

Dean

I stopped caring about baseball after the 94 strike. Luckily, I missed the steroid years, although I did get to see McGuires 50 & 51st at Shea. I was a Met fan, and guess I still am. I joined a fantasy baseball league this year which has gotten me back into the sport a little.

I'm counting the minutes until Football season.

I'm afraid i don't know who he is, JD.  Tell me about him...

Susan, our teams are off to some pretty nice starts.

They sure are - and it's SO much more fun when your team is winning, isn't it??

Rarely have I felt the elation...

Which makes it even sweeter when you ARE feeling it!

Come on Susan, don't act like you haven't noticed who has the best record in baseball right now...

dang, my cubbies are doin terrible

I remember when kids would form friendships through baseball teams. There was only two choices for us too. The Yankee's or the Met's. The yankee fans hung out together, as did the met fans.

I haven't watched a game since then. That was five or six years ago.

Dammit man!  Come on down to D-town and we'll catch a game.  It's the right thing to do.

Rerun, dude, your Tigers are ROCKIN'!!!  Maybe we WILL see you in October after all!
;-)

Woo!  Just took two of three from the Sox to extend their lead to 5.5.  Wonder what the trade deadline will bring.  A lot of rumors here in Detroit about what may take place.

Dammit, Susan?  Where are you on this?  I know you saw my Tigers take down the Yankees today to go up 2-1 on the series!  Tomorrow could be something special...

Nobody?  WE'RE IN THE FRIGGIN SERIES, PEOPLE!  Wheres the love for a longstanding boardmember??