Baseball is a terrible sport for a populace to consume. Lacking all of the gentlemanly qualities of multi-day cricket matches, and no sanctioned orderly violence, the sport's simple offering is an introduction to statistics.
But nevertheless, I grew up a Red Sox fan. I can recall an early lesson in life, watching a Red Sox-Yankees game on July 4th, 1983, with my Uncle on a 19 inch black n white. One hates the Yankees at an early age, and when Boggs came up as the last batter, I was cheering for him to get a hit.
My Uncle, who had taught me Yankee hatred--for we all know hatred is taught--told me 'no, we don't do that. This is a no hitter, no matter who it is, you root for the pitcher.'
As the years would go by, I followed other sports but I enjoyed baseball's ability to produce eccentric characters. The drunkards who made up the '86 Mets, Steve Carlton in the bunker, Carl Everett telling a reporter dinosaurs were BS--I never laughed at them, I admired them. That is, baseball was admirable because original characters were still coming up the ranks as the other sports became more corporate.
Enter John Rocker--a man with a professional wrestling type persona whose livelihood as a closer was taken down by a reporter for Sports Illustrated.
It was good to see that he is still relatively unreconstructed, even still liberal, and WND deserves attention for the article on John Rocker.
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