Welcome Back, Baseball

What an Opening Day (I don't count Yanks/Red Sox day as opening day). The Mariners win (Kotchman and Figgins for Co-MVP!), Pujols goes deep twice, Jason "The Kid (again)" Heyward hits a homer in his first Major League at bat, and Mark Buehrle makes one of the greatest plays I've ever seen. I think only because of the context of it does the Jeter play against the A's in the playoffs beat it, but seriously, how the hell did Buehrle pull that off?

In other news, I missed baseball to an almost unhealthy degree. Welcome back, baseball!

Play ball!

Junior back in a Mariners uniform

Opening day of the Major League Baseball regular season has always been one of the best days of the year for me. I've been a baseball fanatic since I was about five, or about when Ken Griffey Jr. came into the league (this is going to sound weird, but I've always thought of time relative to Griffey coming into the league, as that is the first really, really significant thing I clearly remember), and this opening day was a special one was it marked Junior's return to the Mariners. Sure enough, he hit a home run and the Mariners won, just the way it should be.

Anyways, the point is, having baseball back just feels right. I love walking outside during breakup in Alaska, right when the dry ground starts coming out and mixing with the melting snow. It signifies that spring is coming, but also, it signifies something else: baseball. Every year, I walk out and smell that, and I have a tendency to say "it smells like baseball" to my perplexed friends or family members. I guess in a way, baseball represents everything that's right to me.

No less, welcome back Major League Baseball, Mariners, and Ken Griffey Jr. May all of you have a great season, and let's try to keep the steroids talk to a minimum, okay?

Betrayed

T-Shirt by Nike, forearms by Balco

In a whirlwind 48 hours, Alex Rodriguez went from a legendary ballplayer embattled by Madonnagate and an inability to hit in the postseason, to a man who allegedly failed steroid tests in 2003, to a man who was openly admitting to taking performance enhancers during his three greatest statistical seasons.

This is the man who people would point to during this questionable decade of major league baseball and say, "at least the best was clean."

This is the man I grew up wanting to be as a baseball player, growing up a pitcher but wanting to play in the middle infield like A-Rod, the shooting star of the Seattle Mariners.

This is the man who every day during my hour as library aide in the year 2000 inspired me to incessantly refresh ESPN.com in hopes that the headline would say "A-Rod Stays in Seattle" in bold letters.

Of course, little did everyone know, he never earned any of that respect and adoration. With the word about the three years of taking performance enhancers and his admission of that, there are two more questions I have: was his admission because he honestly felt bad, and were those really the only seasons he took them?

The first answer is obvious. A-Rod has always been a cold and calculating ballplayer, always looking at the bottom line and never really thinking about the game as a sport, but as a business (besides a certain ridiculously awesome dogpile that took place in 1995 when the Mariners won their first playoff series). When I was younger I didn't see it. I was little and I only had blind adoration for my sporting idol. However, now I recognize A-Rod as a man who saw the respect and relative survivability presented by the prospect of admission.

Over the past 48 hours, I'd wager A-Rod and his publicists were studying the two forks in the road that were presented as options. You have the admission route, successfully parlayed into furthering of careers and even gain of esteem by both Jason Giambi and Andy Pettite. Then you have the "wha? steroids? me? no!!!" route that Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens followed, which led to a complete disappearance from the world of baseball and what essentially is the most thorough blacklisting since McCarthyism.

Shockingly, A-Rod's savvy team suggested the former option, which would be similarly effective if it weren't so blatantly transparent.

As for the other question, what about the other years? No one knows besides A-Rod (or A-Fraud as Joe Torre so lovingly calls him) and his confederates. However, with 2005 and 2007 appearing to be statistical anomalies in comparison to the rest of his career (omitting 2001 to 2003), perhaps the weight of the New York limelight led A-Rod down the path of the less than righteous once again. These are just inferences by yours truly, but if he lied once, why wouldn't he lie again?

People say this invalidates his career and makes him just another fraud, and I don't necessarily disagree. However, the concept that one of the most naturally talented players ever to play the game cheated in itself isn't the worst thing to come from this. It's the fact that young ballplayers around the world just lost a hero, and the fact that he robbed people like me of a boyhood idol. I can't wait to burn my A-Rod posters hanging up in my room from when I was little this week.

What happened to the good old days when you just find out years later than your idol had slept with 20,000 women ala Wilt Chamberlain, or that they were a filthy alcoholic or racist like so many baseball players from yesteryear? Is it really so much to ask for that we just have to put up with debauchery and shenanigans, and no more of this cheating business?

Why can't it always be the weekend?

This weekend was pretty much stellar. Nearly everything about it was fantastic (some small things really bug me, but nothing is perfect) and I enjoyed the heck out of the whole thing. Sadly enough I am without one shred of photographic evidence even though I managed to have my camera the whole time. How does that happen?!

Anyways, instead of giving a very lengthy breakdown of everything that happened, I'll do a Cliff's Notes version with a bit more detail afterwards.

Top 10 reasons why this weekend ruled

1. Claire d'Loon
2. Rocking with Puma Town
3. Better Letter
4. Palmer Trip
5. BBQ at Jason's
6. BIG BEN!!!
7. The Homie
8. AK Wild
9. Ryan Zimmerman's walk off blast
10. The Crew

1. Amy and I are big fans of fancy dinners. There is something awesome about having a really nice dinner with a great friend, sharing a bottle of wine and having delicious food. We've typically went to Mixx Grill, but this time we decided to (oh god, pun alert...) mix it up and go to Claire d'Loon. The experience was exceptional as the strange little bistro that was Da Loon turned out to be excellent, in spite of the fact that there were literally no other patrons and that they played Kenny G. Our food was great, our waitress looked exactly like Naomi Watts, and it was a great time having dinner with Amy like always. A+ experience.

2. Due to Lacey leaving, our Rock Band experience has been nameless lately essentially as we had to abandon the Hey Hermano moniker. As Amy, Hannah, Jason, and I still wanted to play, we needed a new band name. Friday night, we had our first session as rock superstars Puma Town. It was amazing, as Princess Btown, Whammy Town, Blaze Town, and T-Rex Town all melted faces and we downloaded 6 new songs, the new Boston song pack and "El Scorcho" by Weezer. Puma Town rules.

3. Amy and I crafted our fourth exceptional cover letter as our fledgling business continues to grow. This one may have been our best one yet, and it was a grand and very rewarding time like it always is.

4. Late Saturday afternoon, Hannah, Kim, Amy, and I drove out to Palmer to get coffee. Yes. We drove three towns away to get coffee. And it was delicious, fun, and well worth the trip.

5. In a freak occurrence, I managed to be in Eagle River three consecutive days. My bubble is getting dangerously close to being burst at this point. Saturday evening Jason had a get together at his place as he had bought a new BBQ, and we grilled up burgers and steaks and had a great time drinking and being merry. BBQ season is making me very happy, and it's as early as it has ever been.

6. At the BBQ, I played old reliable drinking game Kings Cup for the first time since college. Due to an extreme lack of alcohol, we played a highly modified and far more fun version of the game, more based off interactivity and less off volume consumed. I highly recommend incorporating the rule called Big Ben as the new rule for the ten card. It involves standing up and forming a clock tower over your head with your arms. It's pretty amazing.

7. The Homestead Lounge is the bar in Eagle River. I'm sure it isn't the only bar there, but from my experience it might as well be. It was my second experience out there, and it was a great time again. Any night that features winning all four of my games of foosball, dancing the Cuban Shuffle, and a bizarre bald man that was utterly shocked by me washing my hands has to be considered a success.

8. Hannah, Jason, Colver, Lorna, and I attended the AK Wild's second home game today. The AK Wild is Alaska's second year Intense Football League team, and amazingly enough we won our second game this season in just four attempts (took us 11 attempts last year). It was a great time, being a far smoother experience than the first game this season and being more strangely entertaining as well (unintelligible referees + hilarious linesmen crew + mega wave = hilarious good time).

9. The Washington Nationals officially kicked off the season against the Atlanta Braves today (sorry Red Sox and A's, this felt like the real start to the season) in style, with Ryan Zimmerman launching a blast with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to win their season opener. Perfect way to start the season I say.

10. Last but not least, the Crew. I have to admit, it's been a while since I've had a full gang of people to hang out with at any time, but it feels great to have one again. The friends I've made through Amy are awesome, and this entire weekend was full of them. Hooray for the Crew! You make your country proud.

So yeah, it was a great weekend. This somehow still ended up being fairly long, and I casually omitted some things that went less well (the end of the Homie experience was not as good as the preceding hours...I'll leave it at that) but all in all, it was an awesome experience. Why can't it always be the weekend?

The Frozen Rope

This is just a quick note to say that I'm starting a second, sports only (primarily baseball) blog with Ryan Atkins. We're just getting it off its feet (quick design, discussing how we want it setup and what our focuses are, etc.) but I'm very excited about it. I was internally debating whether or not I'd start a second blog (original idea was a focus on comics), but that decision came together quickly when Ryan displayed interest in writing with me.

Without further adieu, I present the Frozen Rope. Look for updates aplenty this upcoming weekend. As of right now, there is just a joke post by yours truly to demonstrate how its run for Ryan. Enjoy!