Baseball's First Month

By Lou Parrotta

With the first month of the Major League Baseball season behind us, there are some interesting things occurring in our nation's pastime. First and foremost, the biggest surprise is the mighty New York Yankees, who as of this writing are six games under .500 and just one game better than the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who recently took a series from the Bronx Bombers. Thank God George Steinbrenner's horse, Bellamy Road, is the odds on favorite to win this year's Kentucky Derby because it seems that may be the only champion he may see this season. 

The terrific play by the Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago White Sox has people truly wondering if you really need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to win a pennant. 

Brian Roberts, Derrek Lee, Dontrelle Willis, Jon Garland and forty-year-old Jamie Moyer are exceeding every expectation anyone ever had of them. It may only be the first month, but if this trend continues, these are the names you may see when the postseason awards are distributed in November. 

The crackdown on steroids in baseball has resulted in a handful of ten-day suspensions already this season. The two biggest names to be "outed" were Tampa Bay's speedy outfielder Alex Sanchez and Minnesota's middle reliever Juan Rincon. After the spectacle that was held in front of Congress prior to the season's start, one would have thought the names of the abusers/users would have been much more lengthy (although it still could be) and with some bigger names. Where are the stars that former slugger/user Jose Canseco exposed in his memoir that was published this past winter? Where are the Jason Giambis, the Barry Bonds, the Todd Heltons and the Sammy Sosas? 

Speaking of Barry Bonds, after his spring training press conference where he lost his cool (I know, I know, not shocking at all) he has refused to speak to the press preferring instead to "speak" to everyone through his self-managed web site. He also has not played one game this year due to a recurring knee injury that has supposedly resulted in three surgeries and several drainings of fluid. Personally, I feel that this former 180-pound leadoff hitter who was known more for his contact and speed when he was a Pittsburgh Pirate and all of a sudden blossomed into a mammoth power hitter with the San Francisco Giants, has used steroids in recent years. I also feel that he is waiting until his system is totally clear before he begins to compete again. It is eerily similar, in my opinion, to the whole Jason Giambi saga of 2004. 

Baseball has had some interesting things occur in its first month. I cannot wait to see what occurs in the next six.