Brett Favre

He is done (I think). He should have retired in Green Bay years ago as a legend. He outstayed his welcome in the NFL and will go down as the butt of a joke. With that said....PLEASE STOP TALKING ABOUT BRETT FAVRE!!!!

This will be my last post EVER about this topic, as it does not deserve any more press than this.

Cheaters Never Win!

Cheaters never win!! That is what my dad told me growing up. But what if everyone is cheating? Is it still cheating? What about the few that don't cheat...are they stupid for not being a part of the times, or are they the real heroes with honor and respect for their profession?

This week baseball invited Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar into Cooperstown as new inductees into the Hall of Fame. While both of these players had some pretty remarkable accomplishments (Blyleven should have gotten in a decade ago!!), Mark McGwire received less than 20% of the vote.

I am now just gonna come right out and say it:

Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, and Rafael Palmeiro have all had Hall of Fame careers and should be inducted as such. Shoot, I will go so far as to say let Pete "Charlie Hustle" Rose (as a player) in too!!

Some form of cheating has all but been encouraged in Baseball. From corked bats and Vaseline balls, to Sandpaper hats and "Performance Enhancing Drugs". I believe that when it comes down to it, the field has always been "level". Sure it may swing from one side to the other, that is the nature of both technology and state of the game. Bats are better made, gloves are lighter than ever, training equipment in professional sports is so advanced I think NASA built half of it!! But the numbers are still the same. Denying players that had remarkable careers their just entry into the HOF because they played in their time I think says more about the sport than it does about the player!!

ALL sports are included in this! In Hockey, Goalie equipment is 20lbs less than it used to be, yet Crosby, Ovechkin, and Stamkos don't seem to be having any problem lighting the lamp! I remember the first time I used an aluminum stick, the advantage over the wooden stick was unbelievable!! Basketball players have shoes that make them jump higher, track stars run with parachutes, I bet even curlers use special brooms!!

The beauty of sports are that they evolve, and yes some of the things that occur during that evolution are not ethical, but that is simply the "error" of trial and error. Roger was "juicing" his fastball as much as Mark was "juicing" his bat...the field was as level as it has ever been!

**Side Note - Pete Rose had one of the greatest playing careers baseball will ever see. For that he should be rewarded as a player. As a manager he has been said to have "broke the integrity of the baseball". As I have written above, there is not much inherent integrity in baseball, but there is a basic code of conduct that we as human beings abide by. During Pete Rose's managing career he broke that. He cheated himself.