Back At It...

I for one am happy that football at the pro and college levels are getting back to work. I know that most coaching staffs feel the same way. The off-season can weigh heavy on the minds of young men and their youthful minds can be difficult to control.

Since last season ended, a lot of pro players were arrested for a wide range of offenses, including murder. I’m not sure how anyone can think that taking another’s life is ever a good thing to accomplish. Unfortunately, some believe that they can eliminate any possible problem by eliminating a witness or an enemy.

Anger management be damned! It really is too bad that fine athletes aren’t always exemplary citizens. Most are but many have a bad element that surrounds them and those few can have a very negative influence.

College athletes have also been making headlines at times and not good ones. It is usually the same thing when good kids and bad ideas meet. So many of these kids are hundreds, if not thousands of miles from home and for some reason believes they are anonymous and often times invisible.

It is unfortunate that those few troublemakers tend to give their teammates a bad reputation even though a vast majority keeps their noses clean. It is fun to see great players making great plays.

I hate to see their talent go to waste because of bad behavior.

Strange things also happen when so many youngsters from differing backgrounds become teammates. Some of these mixes are quite helpful for the player that wants to mature and get away from those that can influence badly. It sometimes takes the right combination to positively change a life for the better.

It will be a long season filled with interesting breakthroughs, injuries, surprises, big wins and huge upsets. Loving the game is important but having success can keep the competitive juices flowing for a very long time.

On Monday, Major League baseball came down hard on several players for breaking the rule on using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) by suspending 13 players for 50 games. Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) has been suspended for the rest of this season and all of next year. It could have been 211 games total, but A-Rod is appealing the suspension, so the Yankee got in his first game of the season that same night. How long A-Rod will play this year is yet to be determined, but just like a traveling circus it should be interesting to watch.

Seattle Mariner catcher Jesus Montero was also suspended from playing in the big leagues for 50 games but he hasn’t been playing for Seattle since May and oddly enough can still play for the Tacoma Rainiers for the rest of the season. There is a good chance that Montero won’t play catcher for the Mariners since at this point in time he isn’t even the fourth best catcher in the organization

My thought is that he should be traded for a prospect that can at least run a little. If Montero is actually using PEDs it hasn’t helped his speed any. He is a detriment on the bases and has trouble scoring from second unless a double, triple or home run is hit. Montero had a few moments last year where he looked decent but he isn’t the future for the Mariners as a DH or first baseman if that is what the organization is looking for.

So football is back at it and pretty soon we’ll see our favorite teams playing hard and it will be fun. Baseball will regroup and hopefully lessons will be learned and the game cleaned up and respected again.

Well we can always hope that is the case.