Major League Baseball

I'm not just about American Football, I also have a love for Baseball. I played little league as a kid, both in Right field and second base. Life got in the way and I never played after that ONE season in little league, but a love for the game was born. I remember watching on TV as a kid, loving the Indians (now the "Guardians") and for a short period in time, following the Atlanta Braves. I followed the Braves because I grew up in the infant years of cable TV and the "Superstation" out of Atlanta was one of the stations that were part of the cable package here in Florida. With the Superstation came Atlanta Braves games, and that was the only team I could watch, as this was before the "Rays" in Tampa and before the Marlins in Miami so the Braves were the only team I could watch and I became a fan. The Braves had a monopoly on my fandom, and Skip Carey was the voice of the Braves and I was a fan through the middle of the 90s. One of the fondest memories I had as a Braves fan was in 1992, game 7 of the NLCS and the Braves were playing the Pirates (Pittsburgh) and Franciso Cabrerra came up to the plate with runners on 2nd and 3rd and the Braves down 1. He swings and hits the ball into left field, David Justice scores to tie it and Sid Bream, old, out of shape, hobbling from 2nd base to round third and scoring the winning run to send the Braves to the World series. My baseball fandom shot up to the next level that night. I was staying with my girlfriend at the time and when Bream scored I leaped up in the bead and kicked her in the side and nearly seriously injured her with my flailing (Sorry Cheryl!!) but it was one of the most exciting times I remember as a baseball fan, and I will never forget where I was at that time for the rest of my life. the braves lost the World Series that year to the Blue Jays, but it didn't matter after what I witnessed in the NLCS.

Three years later my fandom for the Indians came back to the surface when they faced, ironically, the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. The Indians lost that series (the only World Series that talented Braves team won the entire decade) but my love for baseball was back and I couldn't get enough. Over the course of the next 25 years, I maintained my MLB fandom, following the Indians year after year never wavering from my love of the game, and my hometown team. They went back to the World Series in 1997 and again in 2016, losing both just like they did in 1995. My fandom never wavered, and even when this past offseason the Indians became the Guardians, I was prepared to follow them again this season.

Then... The lockout happened...

This offseason will go down in history as one of the lowest points in the history of the game. The owners caused this lockout, the players want to play but ownership is greedy and will keep it in place until they get their way. I don't have the knowledge of the behind-the-scenes goings-on with this whole thing. All I know is that the owners are greedy, they control the outcome and they are attempting to enforce their power over the league and the players. This has the potential to put the same black eye on the game that the 1994-1995 strike had on the league, one that MLB did not come back from for 5 years when the summer of Sosa and McGuire happened. It may take something like that to bring the fans back because we are pissed and as of right now, this fan could care less if they play or not. Get it together MLB, the future of the game depends on it.

The guys and I will continue our conversation on this issue and other issues going on in the sport this Sunday night on The Sports Nerds:

Join me and my cohosts @jongolson, Ken Costlow, and Eliot "Big E" Lomba each and every Sunday night at 7:30 PM Eastern time for The Sports Nerds! 90 minutes of sports talk, trash talk, and laughs as we discuss the week in sports.

https://www.vimm.tv/c/the-sports-nerd
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839617396217126