A-Rod on Steroids? I Find I'm Shocked

Yawn.

Turns out New York's darling, Alex Rodriguez, used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).

Really? I find I'm shocked. Shocked, I say!

Okay, not really.

Baseball is the only sport that I follow on any kind of a regular basis, but I'm not a fanatical fan. We enjoy going to games several times a year, and if the Rockies (or the Reds) do well, we enjoy watching their success.

But the steroid/HGH/PED thing? I'm not at all surprised to learn that top players are doing this. In fact, I'm surprised when it's determined that top players aren't doing PEDs.

And while I'm not going to join the pitchforked mob in demanding the head of Bud Selig (although I do think his response has been a bit...cavalier), I think there's a group deserving of my loathing. Yes, player's union, I'm looking at you. While I can understand a desire to protect your members, your behavior has been nothing less than shameful. Cheating should simply be unacceptable, and you essentially actively defend the practice.

There's a reason many Americans look upon Unions with fear and loathing. They don't all suck, but enough of them do that suspicion seems to be the wise course of action.

Things I Leared at the Baseball Game

• My Smart Man and I are not the only couple who plan on attending a baseball game in every MLB stadium in the country.
• Tickets to baseball games at Coors Field are more expensive than at other stadiums.
  
• If you're doing a Todd Helton bobble-head give-away, you'll sell a lot of tickets in Denver.
• Soft Serve Ice Cream is popular at baseball games.
  
• Brian Fuentes is indeed the best closer in Rockies history.
• The Denver Police Department is too busy preparing for the Democratic National Convention to provide traffic control at Coors Field this weekend.
• If you continuously miss your turn when attempting to get on the highway from LoDo, you'll eventually end up in a bad section of town.
• The Denver Police Department deploys their riot squads in Chevy Suburbans, with the squad members riding on the outside of the vehicle. They deploy without sirens or lights. They look kind of scary.
• That is all.

Reds vs Rockies

My Smart Man is a Reds fan. He grew up in Ohio during the 70's, and his Grandmother was a huge baseball fan, both in general and especially of the the Big Red Machine. So each year for our anniversary, I get my him tickets to the Reds vs Rockies games here in Denver. The Reds typically only come here once a year, so he gets to see his beloved team at least once.

We always enjoy seeing live baseball, and when the line-up is anything but Reds vs Rockies, we both root for the home team. When the Reds are in town, the Smart Man roots for the Reds, I root for the Rockies.*

This year, both the Reds and Rockies kind of suck, which is too bad. But we're going to the game tonight and again tomorrow, and we'll enjoy ourselves anyway, because we both like live baseball.

So we'll be out and about today and tomorrow. Have a nice weekend!


*No, this does not cause domestic strife. We really don't take sports that seriously around here. It's just a game, people.

Baseball Today!

Today my Smart Man and I will be going downtown to watch the Colorado Rockies versus the Arizona Diamondbacks in Coors Field.

After making it to the World Series last year (and getting swept, but that's another story), the Rocks are current 1-4, tied for last place in the National League West.

Why yes, that is depressing.

But it's still pretty early. While I don't expect them to pull off a winning streak like they did last year, I do hope they do better than they have in years past.

We try to get to the ballpark once or twice a month during the season. Coors Field is a pretty cool venue, and we enjoy watching live baseball.

My Smart Man and I have been Rockies fans for many, many years, although the Reds are still his favorite team...a holdover from his youth in Ohio.

So we'll continue to root for them, regardless of their record. Just like always.

Another Season of Rockies

Tickets for the 2008 season of the Colorado Rockies went on sale on Saturday. Not surprisingly, Opening Day sold out fairly quickly.

My Smart Man and I usually go to Opening Day, but this year we've decided to go to another game in the series, since we're not sure if he can get the day off for Opening Day. I'm sure it'll be fun, but I'm going to put on my curmudgeon hat for a minute.

My Smart Man and I have been going to see the Rockies for 10 years. We usually try to catch at least one game a month, going with various family members or friends. We follow their progress with interest, but we're not obsessive about it.

For most of those 10 years, they have really sucked. It was only last year that they started to perform in a way that caught the interest of the general public, and guess what? Fair-weather fans started to come out of the woodwork. Suddenly everyone was a Rockies fan, and wanted to get in on the act. You couldn't get post-season tickets to save your life, and the World Series ticket sales process was a Class A Goat Rope. Even though we really, really wanted to attend a post-season game, we had no chance to do so.

I'm a curmudgeon because I think all these fair-weather fans can blow me. Smart Man and I have supported the Rocks through thick and thin, and now that they're finally champions, everyone acts like "they knew it all along." Yeah, right. I'm sure they "knew it" the whole time we were going to games in a half-empty stadium.

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

I'll continue to support the Rockies, and I'll continue to think fair-weather fans suck. Because I'm a curmudgeon, and proud of it.