Tommy G.

I love baseball. I love spring training and I'll probably even get back down to Arizona for my second year in a row of spring training. I have been keeping tabs on this Roger Clemens thing since the Mitchell report came out. I didn't really care too much about a lot of it because a lot of the players were no name guys. Yes, I do think it corrupts the sport but I didn't really care.

I did however, take an interest in Roger Clemens. I think he's pretty awesome and is really an icon for what baseball stands for in my generation. Barry Bonds is there too but he pretty much ruined it for me. But, I wanted and still do want to believe that Clemens is not guilty. The only thing now is that I don't believe it anymore.

He was one of those guys that I was happy to say that I got to see and wanted to be able to tell my kids about. Kinda like my dad getting to tell me about Mays, McCovey, Pete Rose, Nolan Ryan, etc. I don't know if I want to any more. My impression of who he is as a man is just tainted.

Anyway, I was reading an article today one ESPN.com about Tom Glavine. It got me thinking about the true icons that I've overlooked. Glavine, Smoltz, and many others I can't begin to name now that really are true athletes in my book. Those are the guys that make me love the game. They come in day in and day out for twenty years and know the true meaning of professional athlete. That's one of the reasons I love the game.

Here's the article I was reading. It got me all jacked about spring training and baseball coming back. (I still don't know how to do a direct link to the page. Sorry, I'll get it figured out.)

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2008/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3248198&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos2