Baseball Has Almost Lost Me

When I was a kid growing up the only thing I wanted to do was play baseball. Yep, I was a tomboy...surprise surprise.

An evening of fun at my house was my dad taking me out in the backyard and throwing a hardball at my head as hard as he could and telling me," You will either learn to catch or get a bloody nose." I never missed. Well, except for once because it was getting dark and I could hardly see the ball. I caught one in the forehead which really explains why I am sometimes a little dense.

I played t-ball. My 1st year I was a pitcher which basically consisted of shagging ground balls and throwing people out at first. The next season I became shortstop. I loved baseball. It was what I wanted to do from the moment I woke up in the morning until I went to bed at night. I wanted to be the female version of George Brett. I just thought he was the greatest baseball player ever. He was my hero and a great one he was.

Once I got a little older it was made clear that I should be playing softball with all the girls but I thought softball was lame. I wanted no part of it. So that pretty much ended my baseball career. I still loved the game though.

After the past week in baseball, I am not sure how much longer I can love it. I am deeply disappointed with the liars and cheaters in baseball. This game is a thing of beauty and they are destroying it.

I don't know, maybe this is our fault...the fans. We spend our money on jerseys and tickets and MLB packages and we play fantasy baseball. Maybe we have created so much pressure on the players they feel they must cheat in order to keep us happy. Or maybe they just cheat because with being a great baseball player comes great rewards. A little padding of their pocketbook.

I don't have any answers for the problem but neither does Bud Selig and he is making $18 million a year. So Bud, I beg of you...if you don't know how to fix this, then hire someone who does. I desperately want my game back.