FanNation

The Spring of Our Discontent

That first month of the baseball season was pretty awful, don't you think?

Actually, pal, I think it was very awful.

My inner voice is right and the organization known as Major League Baseball had better pay attention.

When the news came on Sunday morning that Cardinals reliever Josh Hancock had been killed in an automobile accident, it marked an unbelievably   terrible end to a miserable month.

Nothing else that happened can compare to the tragedy of an athlete dying young and we don't mean to equate anything with Hancock's passing, but there are clouds hanging over MLB that are obscuring the great game of baseball.

Love Hurts

Hey, Nation, did you miss us?

It feels great to be back in my literary hole in the wall with a little bit of a new look and lots more chances to tell what I think, what I believe and what I know, sometimes all at once. With Sports Illustrated helping to drive the FanNation train, this will be a bigger and better place for all the Citizens and for sure it will be fun.

Taking a few days from the blog, got me thinking about something I really love—hockey. Yeah, that’s right, hockey.

To those who know and those who take a little time to learn, hockey is a beautiful sport—faster than any in which engines or horses aren’t involved, as physical as you’d like and, at its best level, more skilled than all the others. While you could argue those thoughts, here’s one thing you can’t argue: No sport shoots itself in the foot, no sport gets more literal and figurative black eyes, no sport makes lead out of gold more often than hockey does.

A few weeks ago, when the National Football League’s offseason news was more police blotter than free agents, we called for the NFL players to exert pressure on their own and support strong changes in behavior. We cheer the moves the NFL and its players have taken

Now it’s time for National Hockey League players to take their game and themselves in hand and stop acting so dumb.

Spend Bud Selig's Money

Who was not stunned by the recent report that MLB Commissioner Bud Selig had been paid $14.5 million for running the business in 2005? We resist calling Bud Selig Baseball Commissioner because that would give him dominion over the game I adore and I'm not sure he's earned that along with his money.

But hearing that Bud is getting 14.5 million samoleans for this labor of love made me think that he could solve some of baseball biggest problems in a classic way--by throwing money at them.

It's Baseball: Reason to Believe

Imagine that you are a baseball fan living in Washington, DC. You waited almost 34 hopeless and hopeful years for a big league team. You waited while teams moved, teams were born by expansion, teams were almost contracted but none ever came back to that old baseball town.

And then, wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, the Montreal Expos avoided the contracters' noose and survived. And one fine unbelievable day, the Expos became the Washington Nationals. And just like that the Nation's Capital seemed to have a big-league team again. Well, it had a team that played other major league teams on a regular basis, 162 times a season in fact. But who among us could really call what is being put on the field in DC a major league team? Take a look at these guys and you start thinking of the 1962 Mets or the 2002-2003 Detroit Tigers--a bad team of historic proportions. The only saving grace is Ryan Zimmerman at third base. First baseman Nick Johnson could almost be in that category but he's injured and gets hurt with regularity. And as a result Dmitri Young is going to be the first baseman and what a frightening prospect that is.

We're not going to take this anymore

You've seen the clip even if you haven't seen the movie "Network". Peter Finch, playing a TV news anchor named Howard Beale on the verge of madness, gets his audience to say they've had enough:

"I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'm as mad as hell , and I'm not going to take this anymore!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell  'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get MAD!"