Steroids....Still?

Ok, it's the end of June, a few weeks from the All-Star break and the biggest news in baseball is that Sammy Sosa took steroids 6 years ago. I think a more important topic to address would be the fact that attendance is dropping faster than the dow jones. I realize we're in the midst of a recession but I'm not letting the MLB off that easy. Let's not forget that owners have continued to increase ticket and concession prices to the point that it costs more to head to the ballpark on a Saturday than it does to buy your groceries for a week.

So, I'm trying to wrap my head around this: Our nation's financial infrastructure is at best in a slump and at worst completely caving in on itself. The industries that brought our nation unparalleled wealth since the industrial revolution are going the way of the 6-tape cassette changer in a Mercedes, and owners of major ball clubs have decided it makes sense, financially, to charge $8 for a beer, $6 for a cup of Pepsi and $5 for a bag of peanuts that you could have bought from a vendor right in front of the stadium for $1.50?

Listen, I realize running a major league operation requires some serious dough, especially since you have Steinbrenner and his boys buying up every piece of talent from Beijing to Barbados. But do they really think raising prices at a time when disposable income is the lowest it's been in decades is a practical way of drawing fans to the stadium? You can have it one way or the other. Either rip me off on my ticket and make refreshments more affordable and less of a complex financial decision, or let me through the gates for a reasonable price and swindle me into buying a dixie cup of beer for $10 once you have me trapped inside.

The point is, until baseball becomes more accessible and gets it's act together the sport is going to lose those of us steadfast and die-hard fans who have enjoyed it over the years, not to mention an entire new generation of potential fans.

Like I said, it's late June and the biggest news related to the sport involves a guy who juiced during Bush's first term. The entire era merits an asterisk next to it for the simple fact that we can never truly know what really happened and who might have been involved. We need to face facts, you can't pick and choose which ballplayers to crucify for using steroids. Instead of dragging up the past and focusing on the scandals of a generation that is defined by a few bad apples who ruined the whole bunch, emphasis needs to be focused on the future of the sport by restoring integrity and accessibility to our once national past-time.