Jay Fidanza

Baseball has been important to me for as long as I can remember. I love the game. I love it’s pace. I love the intricacies and subtleties. I love “history,” so I love baseballs history. I prefer to read about baseball above all other subjects. I love the characters and their nicknames and the quotes. I love the strategy. I love the feel of one of my gloves on my hand, and the weight of a bat as I swing it. I relish that there’s no clock in baseball. As a wiseman once said, “You can’t take a knee in baseball.” How perfect is this game? 90 feet between the bases. A little further and everyone would be out. A little closer and everyone would be safe! Fans are always comparing “this era with that era…” Players are/were faster/stronger…BUT, there are, and there always have been, bang-bang plays at first base. Always. And, always at 90 feet. I like that there are official dimensions (distance from the mound to home, and from base-to-base) BUT, those “official” dimensions are laid into ball parks of all shapes and sizes. A wall here, not much foul territory there, a hill or a green monster in the outfield, bullpens you can see, bullpens you can’t see, and so forth.

You don’t have to be 7 feet tall, or 250 pounds, or have been raised on ice skates. ANYONE can be a baseball player from Albie Pearson to Grahame Lloyd.

I’m rooting for my 3rd team, now. I started with the Sandy Koufax Los Angeles Dodgers in 1962, 63, 64, 65 and 66 (So, contrary to popular belief I DO have a baseball championship under my belt. Two, actually!), left them when Koufax retired and took up with the Carl Yastrzemski Impossible Dream Red Sox in 1967 and figured “This is going to be a breeze!” But, well, you know…1968, 1972, 1975, 1978, 1986, 1990. Ouch, ouch, ouch and ouch.

I loved the game, and the Sox, so much that I couldn’t take the pain and switched to the complete opposite of everything I believed in. From 2000 on I’ve been a Derek Jeter Yankees fan. This is NOT an easy thing to be in New England. I don’t have to go into it because if you’re a New Englander you know what I mean. If you’re not a New Englander there’s no way you’d understand, anyway.

The reason I’m writing is because recently I was starting to feel as if I’d been betrayed by the game I love. If you’re my age (mid 50’s) and you’ve followed the game as closely as I have, with as much passion and in-depth study as I have, then you know that things have changed.

It’d be easy for me to write off all the crap that’s been going on by saying that it wasn’t the game that changed, it was the players that changed. BUT, the players haven’t changed. Not when it comes to human nature.

Honestly, when it comes to steroids, what else can it be? How good do you have to be? How much money do you have to make? How much adoration has to be given to you?

I’m tired of it. I like what David Ortiz said: Random testing 3 or 4 times a year. And, if you test positive you’re gone for one year.

 I agree that there should be random testing BUT I believe that if you test positive you should be banned for life, and your stats should be erased and your information in the Baseball Encyclopedia, and elsewhere, should state “Banned from Baseball for Life for Drug Use. No Reliable Statistics Available.”

See, I’m the type of guy who feels that if you’re caught drinking and driving that you lose your license…for life. AND, if you get caught AGAIN that you go to jail FOR LIFE.

And, I’M an alcoholic!!!!

And, being a baseball fan, for me, is the same as being an alcoholic. I didn’t wake up one day when I was 10 and say “You know, I’d like to have a drinking problem when I grow up and mess up my life and the lives of others! Yeah! That’d be awesome!”

Neither did I wake up one day and say “I know what I want! I want to be a baseball fan!”

 I just am. And, I don’t like what human nature is doing to MY game. I will NOT let people who are weak steal it from me. I will, though, pray for their character to develope, as I pray, also, for my own character to develope. BUT, something else has to be done.

It must be clear and it must be strong and it must be enforced.

I agree with at least one thing A Rod said in his Yankee press conference…start with today, judge from here on out. What happened happened. Even Henry Aaron said there’s nothing that can be done about the records. But, maybe if the human nature could be controlled the individualism in this awesome individual/team sport could be lessened, and the personal records would mean less and team success would mean more.

Welcome to this new section of the new WHAI site, which none of us understands how it works, but, we’re Americans, dammit, and we’ll figure it out….so, there.

I don’t know what it will start out as, nor do I know where it will go, BUT, believe me when I tell you…it WILL go somewhere.

Well, you know what? I don’t care. I don’t care if Alex Rodriguez was on “steroids” back when a “testing survey” of Major League players was done. 104 tested positive out of about 1,200.

I thought the results were supposed to be condifential.

And THAT’s what I’M concerned about. I’m concerned about this country. The confidentiality of those tests results was guarenteed? Yeah, right.

 The process used by Selena Roberts and the rest of the slanted, biased, media in this country is flawed. There were 104 names on the list that tested positive, yet only one high profile player is targeted?

Why?

Because the media knows that anything concerning A-Rod grabs the headlines and “sells papers.”

  There was a breach of confidentiality. Privacy rights were violated.The Federal agents, those who leaked the information, and Sports Illustrated should be called into account. 

 When will we wake up and realize that when it comes to much of the “media” in this country…enough enough?! 

Another superstar athlete — Michael Phelps — made headlines recently when photos of him smoking marijuana surfaced the web. USA Swimming has suspended the Olympian for three months, and Kellogg’s has dropped its endorsement deal. Which I find strange seeing that former major league pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee once said he sprinkled marijuana on his Rice Krispies. I’d have thought this would be the perfect tie-in… 

Here’s a decent “email” that was sent to me recently. It sums up what what we “should” be feeling about this winter.

COLD IS A RELATIVE THING. . . . . . .              
                65 above zero:
                Floridians turn on the heat.
                People in the Pioneer Valley plant gardens.
              
                60 above zero:
                Californians shiver uncontrollably.
                People in The Valley sunbathe.
              
                50 above zero:
                Italian & English cars won’t start.
                People in the Pioneer Valley drive with the windows down.
              
                40 above zero:
                Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, and wool hats.
                People in The Valley throw on a flannel shirt.
              
                35 above zero:
                New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
                People in The Valley have the last cookout before it gets cold.
              
                20 above zero:
                People in Miami all keel over.
                People in the Pioneer Valley close the windows.
              
                Zero:
                Californians fly away to Mexico.
                Pioneer valley residents get out their winter coats.
              
                10 below zero:
                Hollywood disintegrates.
                The Girl Scouts around here are selling cookies door to door.
              
                20 below zero:
                Washington DC runs out of hot air. (Okay, that’s a stretch)
                We let the dogs sleep indoors.
              
                30 below zero:
                Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
                Valley folks get upset because the Snow-mobile starts “hard.”
              
                40 below zero:
                ALL atomic motion stops.
                People in The Valley start saying…’Cold enough foh ya?’
              
                50 below zero:
                Hell freezes over.
                 I announce, over the air, that schools have a “2-hour Delay.”