About Me

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I am a retired English teacher and department head, the mother of three grand mother of four, and have been married to the same man for 52 years. I subscribe to Dr. PM Forni's concept of Civility. I was born in South Philadelphia and grew up in the 'burbs. I love soft pretzels and cheesesteaks, the Phillies, the Eagles, and San Diego. I love being Mom, Aunt Kathy, Nona Kathy, and Teacher. I spend a lot of time in my gardens in the spring and summer, and in the winter I plan what I'm going to plant. I also am an avid reader and photographer.

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Sunday, May 10, 2009

An Open Letter to Bud Selig or The Boys of Summer Had Better Take Heed

I love baseball. There was a time when I attended as many games as I possibly could, rooting for our Orioles. Many a night I sat in pouring rain; many a day in 100 degree temps just to see Jim Palmer, Boog Powell, Cal Ripken and many, many more. I thrill at the memory of watching Randy Johnson then of the Seattle Mariners pitch his famous 100 mph fast ball. Sitting right behind home plate, I saw him pitch, but never really saw the ball. I've sat in 'nosebleed heaven', in corporate boxes, in suites, and bleachers -- it didn't matter, I loved the game.

Now I'm just disgusted and for lots of different reasons. The latest is the controversy surrounding Manny Ramirez of the LA Dodgers. Seems he used not a steroid, but a testosterone-elevating drug he thought was legal -- 'for a personal problem.' Ramirez is suspended from 50 games, costing him 7 million dollars of his 25 million dollar a year salary. Big effin' deal!! Big effin' deal for two reasons: I'm a retired public school teacher. There were decades marked by insufficient funds to give us cost of living increases in salaries. While these clowns (and the clowns playing football and other high-paying sports) were pulling in big bucks, a lot of my colleagues were holding down additional jobs, and collecting food stamps just to pay the bills. This is a real perversion of values. The second reason is this drug thing. Not just performance-enhancing drugs, but the 'big stuff' as well. Look how long they tolerated Darryl Strawberry's antics before finally canning him.

It's time for zero tolerance for all drugs. Suspending a player for 50 games and costing him 7 out of 25 million is not going to do it. Owners need to get tough and get tough fast. I understand that game attendance is now only slightly off -- teams owners need to realize that a lot of people, like myself, will refuse to contribute hard-earned money to subsidize the arrogance of players who disregard common decency, true sportsmanship, and the love of this great game. Soon, if the owners don't have the courage to take a stand, the fans will.

7 comments:

Purple Flowers said...

Bravo!

jane said...

Great post Kathy! BTW, between you and me I think teachers are one of the noblest professions. You rock Kathy!- Our society does sometimes have their priorities a little mixed up... P.S. I´m still laughing at your joke!! Hugs-Jane

Lena said...

Agreed!

Jay said...

I have a hard time getting worked up over steroids. Baseball has always been dirty. They've been cheating since day one. It's part of the tradition.

And, Bud Selig is such an incompetent poopy head. The owners and MLB mgmt cheered the steroid era on as much as anyone. for them to be so holier than thou about it now just drives me crazy.

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

Great post, Kathy. When I think how I spent a whole summer rooting Sammy Sosa's home run spree and I was so naive I never considered he was juiced. I feel used.

Sweet Virginia Breeze said...

I agree with you.

Brad said...

I saw Mark McGuire once speaking about his chartable work and just couldn't get passed the fact that he cheated. Wrong is wrong what ever your reasons for cheating. (i.e. the "everyone's doing it so I do it to be competitive" nonsense)