Arthur Thompson’s blog

My wife and I were having a discussion on happiness over breakfast this morning.  We generally have slightly different perspectives on things like this and happiness followed that pattern.  I don't know how much she believes it, but she often tells me that she wants other people to be happy.  Lots of peope, people like me, the kids, relatives and various friends.  She wants everyone to be happy, and if their not, then she wants to do something about it. 

This is where we disagree slightly.  I don't think you can make me happy nor do I believe I can make you happy.  Yeah, yeah, I know all the jokes about that statement and I don't mean make someone happy by giving them pleasure.  I mean I can't make someone happy with themselves, their life or their enjoyment of life.  I can't make them appreciate the beauty of nature, the fascination of other people, the joy of discovery, etc...

Happiness is a choice.  A choice we all make on whether we wish to be happy or sad or somewhere in between.  I bring this up because I am very happy.  Happy all of the time.  I enjoy my life, it has been great.  Sure, I've had some disappointments, some terrible things, some lost love ones, etc...  But I think most people have had some tough times in their life, times they had to work extra hard to hold it together and slog through a difficult situation.  I doubt that my life has been more difficult than others.

Not everyone has it so easy.  Some people grow up in very difficult conditions, starving, homeless, sick, etc...  Still, even in these conditions, many people decide they want to be happy, enjoy the life they are given, and do the best they can.  I was in Colorado a few months ago and the cab driver was from the Sudan.  His family had been driven from home and forced to flee.  They headed for Chad.  He and an uncle were sent to the U.S. and the rest are to follow when the means can be arranged.  He was describing some pretty bad times, but he also said he was happy to be here and looked forward to getting the rest of his family here soon.

The rest of us have a responsibility to help each other whenever we can.  There are plenty of conditions in the world that make it tough to enjoy life.  But happy people still choose to be happy and unhappy people still choose to be unhappy.  Money, status, fame, love......nothing can make you happy.  You have to decide and choose for yourself.  Life is a journey of unknown duration.  Enjoy it my friends.

Every year at this time I feel the pull of baseball.  I love the game and always have.  Something about the feel, the movement, the association with hot weather.  The violence.  What?  You thought it was a tame, boring game played by little kids and no one was supposed to get hurt?  Then you don't know baseball.  It is a sport of incredible risk.  And for some strange reason, I think that is one of the most attractive things about it.  Especially when the risk is debilitating injury or possibly death.  I think most players, if drunk enough, would admit that they are very much aware the risk is up there with football and bungee jumping.  In boxing you can pound someone with a gloved hand.  In baseball you can throw a very hard object at another person at 90+ MPH.  I know, I've done it.  In football, you can run into another person with a helmet and injure them.  In baseball you can club that same sphere toward other players at upwards of 140+MPH.  I know, I've done it.  I've also had both done to me as well.  I have the scar on my leg from when another player went into second base and caught me with a spike.  Rippped me good.  Thirty years later another player on another team went into second base and carved up my son's knee in a similar play.  Couldn't count all of the stitches it took to close the wound.  I accidently hit a batter in the helmet in a college game.  He went down like he was shot.  Unconcious, he was totally unaware of the melee that followed as players from his dugout poured out with bats in hand looking for revenge against the pitcher they percieved as "headhunting" their teammate.  I stood on the mound calling for the ball while my teammates came out of my dugout to meet them.  It could have been a south american soccer riot scene, but cooler heads prevailed and we managed to get the player to the hospital.  I spoke to him a year later, he didn't remember anything and held no grudge.

I've ripped and torn my elbow twice.  Different injuries.  I don't care.  I LOVE to throw a baseball.  Don't ask me why, I can't explain it.  I threw hard as a kid, good control, great curve, and nasty sinker.  I loved to hit as well.  Not much for average, but surprising power.  A few home runs here and there over my career.  Oddly enough, I was and remain one of those players that was just born with great hands.  Didn't practice much, didn't like to field the ball much either.  But the ball always stuck in my glove if I got to it.  Just one of those things.

The years have passed and I don't play anymore, but I still follow the game.  And when Spring rolls around I always get the itch to go outside and start throwing again.  Every year.  This year is different because I won't be doing that for the first time in many years.  The elbow really screams when I throw.  So does the shoulder, the back and sometimes a few other places as well.  When I swing a bat, my back always balks a bit, so do the knees and hips.  I think its time to quit.

But I still want to loosen up one more time.  Stretch out in the sun, toss a few, warm up in the bullpen and go into the game.  Aaahh, yes.  Rock back, lift my left leg up while twisting back, coiling like a spring.  Reach back and extend the arm, hands relaxed, fingers across the seams.  Balance.  Find the catcher's glove, focus, focus,...focus, concentrate....see it in my mind.  Now power up, get excited, stay focused.  Go...flex the back knee just a bit, drop and DRIVE.....hard, swing the leg downhill off the mound and plant.   Your pushing......pushing hard....the torso torqueing as your arms extend, the shoulders rotate toward the plate, the wrists tense, then relax, the foot plants and the hips rotate, pulling the arms faster and faster with the elbow leading and the forearm flattening out behind, muscles, tendons, ligaments and tissue all straining to keep up as you EXPLODE off the back foot and snap the wrist in release.  You continue forward and your arm whips around toward the ground, but you don't care.  The missile is released and you don't really care about anything else.  If you did your job it is going about 90 mph and will cover the distance to the catcher in less than 54/100 seconds, the batter will have about 32/100 seconds to find the ball and decide if he wants to swing because it will take him the rest of the time to actually swing the bat.

But I just want to pop the mitt one more time, one more time, just one more time.  God, I love this game.

Sen. John McCain.  Yes, Whether you are Democrat, Republican or totally unaffiliated with the system, it should be apparent by now that Sen. McCain will be elected the next President in November.  The Democratic Party has totally blown their opportunity to finally take control of the government and begin instituting the changes they have trumpeted for years.

It began with the lack of preparation for the coming elections.  The party stood still and did not develop a legitimate candidate for the last fours years even though they knew their chance was coming.  Why not?  The 2004 election was a throw away, but this one was wrapped up in a pretty bow and handed to the Dems by the ridiculously incompetent Bush administration. All the Dems had to do was develop a viable candidate.  They didn't.  Instead we have the retread (Edwards), the civil rights movement (Obama), and the ERA (Clinton).  I'm all for civil rights and the ERA, but NOT NOW!!!  Either one of these would make a fine running mate for a legitimate candidate, but why throw the election away to run them now?

Obama represents the more traditional liberal views of the party and Clinton the more moderate positions.  Unfortunately, given that McClain represents a more moderate Republican party position, he will crush whoever the Dems put up against him.  And there is nothing the Dems can do about it now.

I'm sorry, but the voting population won't elect Obama, and yes, it's because he's black.  Being more liberal than the average voter won't help either.  The same goes for Clinton.  She could probably get beyond being a female if she ran a better campaign, kept Bill under control, and fine tuned her positions so that she could deal with McCain heads up.  But her baggage of being female and Bill, will keep enough voters from electing her that McCain will cruise into the office.  And on top of that, Obama and Clinton can't team up as running mates because that would double the baggage and torpedo the election. 

And Ted Kennedy couldn't be happier if you gave him a keg of Sam Adams' brew.  You see, he deliberately divided the party and killed any chance of the Dems pulling together and going after the oval office.  When he saw that Hillary was starting to look like a shoo-in for the nomination, he through his endorsement to Obama.  Why not?  Obama is the more liberal candidate and the closest to representing Teddy's position on matters, so why not?  But that's not why Kennedy chose to endorse Obama, nor why he chose just before Super Tuesday to announce it.  He could have waited for the party to choose and the people to vote, but he wanted to tank Hillary's chance on Super Tuesday.  Why?  Because he would rather be the top dog in the losing party than concede power to a fellow party member.  He knows Obama isn't electable, but he couldn't take the chance that Hillary might be nominated, he would rather work with McClain, possibly cut some deals.

So we will go into the election in Novemeber and the hard core Republicans will vote for McCain because he is a Republican.  The moderate Republicans will vote for him because he is their candidate all the way.  And the hard core liberals will vote for whichever Democrat the party nominates.  But the more moderate Democrats will split their vote between the party candidate and McCain, some will vote for McCain because he is a moderate, some will vote because he is male, some will vote because he is white.  And because of those swing votes, McCain will be elected in November despite his baggage, which is that he is older and he is associated with the existing Bush administration that has created war, eliminate citizen rights and totally tanked the economy.  But I think McCain will convince the voters he wasn't responsible for any of that and win the election.  And because the economy will recover on its own, he will be re-elected four years later unless his health suffers.

If you have read anything at all about the "Mitchell" report in baseball regarding the use and distribution of steroids and HGH, then you probably have an idea of what should be done to deal with the issue.  In a nutshell, the Mitchell report mentioned that over the last decade of play the use of "Performance Enhancing Drugs" (PEDs) was widespread and pervasive in every aspect and organization of baseball including both past and present major league players, trainers and organizations.  In short, baseball players have been using steroids and HGH for years with the full knowledge and protection of the fans, owners, management and organizations.  The MLB Players Union has resisted any attempts to limit, discourage or investigate the use of PEDs during that time.  Baseball owners as represented by Bud Selig and the commissioner's office, have turned a blind eye and tried to ignore the issue each and every time someone presented evidence of use.

Top to bottom, baseball has tried very hard to pretend that there is no problem with PEDs and that all of its newly created records of success are "pure".  But how can that be?  Don't we have testing?  Hasn't there been a rash of books on the subject?  Isn't the Mitchell report itself proof that baseball wants to clean up the game?  Pretty much yes........and no... to all above.  Baseball as a whole never wanted the public to hear anything about drugs, from when the whispers of drug use began to appear in the late 80's and the fans began to chant. "STERRRR-oooids" whenever certain players came to the plate, to when a sports reporter noticed a large bottle of "Andro" in Mark McGwire's locker during his record breaking homerun season.  It was quickly hushed up, the reporters berated for accusing an icon of the game of looking for an edge.  Damage control included issueing statements that Andro and Creatine were not steroids, were "perfectly legal" and available at the local health food stores and did not help you play baseball, but were only used to recover from workouts.  Besides, the announcements went on to say, "Everyone used them" so the playing field was still level.  Let's move on, there's nothing to see there, ignore the man behind the curtain.

Records were broken, set, and boken again.  And again.  As the Mitchell report informs us, at this time baseball, the owners, the organizations and the players all knew that the big homerun hitters, i.e., Canseco, McGwire, Bonds and Sosa were taking steroids and HGH to increase their size and strength and hit more home runs.  Many others were as well.  Now the report says what was known all along.  And it names "names".  The same names that have been known by rumour for years.  Nothing new there.

So where are we now?

We're in quite a sports mess.  The game is suspect, the players have been cheating, and the owners and fans are only concerned with identifying and punishing players on teams other than the ones for which they cheer.  The OTHER guys are cheating, but not my guys.  Baseball doesn't want to catch anyone, its drug testing program is very weak.  Baseball doesn't want to punish anyone, McGwire, Bonds and Clemens have yet to be punished in any manner.  Worse, baseball works very hard to protect its star players, they hide and cover up evidence of drug use or knowledge until the player has completed his year or career.  McGwire, Bonds and now Clemens have been known to have taken PEDs for years now, yet baseball continued to protect them from investigation or interview.  None.......NONE of them were allowed to be interviewed by Mitchell for his report.  NONE of them testified to Congress committee several years ago when steroids began to cause concern.  McGwire was there, but he refused to comment.

What can be done?

Very little as it turns out.  Mitchell want to "put everything behind us" and recommends that baseball not punish past offenders and cheats in order to "mover on" with the game.  Bud Selig has indicated he will likely do that.  Does that mean the fans are screwed forever?  Will we never know how many homeruns a player can hit in a single year without steroids and HGH?  Probably so.  But I have a suggestion:  Re-commission Senator Mitchell to sit down and interview ALL current players and ANY former players going back at least 10 years.  Offer the players a simple incentive to speak truthfully and candidly, i.e., no punishment for past offenses to future playing careers and inclusion on Hall of Fame ballot for retired players.  Any players that refuse to cooperate are suspended for 100 games beginning now (whenever that is) and any retired players are simply BANNED from the HOF ballot just like Pete Rose.  Likewise, any player that testifies, but is found to be lying, is banned or suspended as well. 

I believe the players would start talking and clear this mess up in a hurry.  What do you think?