Why am I talking about Toronto? They are .700 this season so far. Not to shabby, eh? I won’t go through my normal run down of who is where and my predictions. It’s far too soon for all that. But since I pointed out the best in MLB at the moment, let’s talk about the worst.

Washington Nationals. I hate expansion teams. I’ve said this a dozen or so times on this blog. I really do. I don’t hate the about Toronto Blue Jays era expansion teams, but just basically any team formed after I was born (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, etc…). The Nationals are .235 on the season. That means they are 4-13. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long season for them.

My SF Giants have improved in the last week and are almost above .500. They have plenty of time to get stronger.

But perhaps the best thing about this season is this: Pittsburg is .611 so far. They are 2nd in their division, back only 1.5 games on St. Louis. That means if the season ended today, they would at least be the NL Wildcard. They are tied for the 6th best team in baseball right now.

I told you this was their year. If they make the playoffs, you can bet your buttercups I’ll be sitting in PNC park watching them play.

.611 is respectable and makes me happy.

By the way, the last time the Pirates were in the playoffs was 1992.

This is their year.

Here is the rundown.

Back in 1994, Bud Selig, then owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, was the acting commissioner of Major League Baseball after the owners had ousted Fay Vincent in 1992. It was thought that the owners were going to find a permanent commissioner and George W. Bush, then an owner of the Texas Rangers, was a potential candidate. As reported in Sheehy’s column (2000 Vanity Fair Article), Bush wanted to be the commissioner of baseball more than anything else in his life, and when he was approached by Texas Republicans about running for governor, he initially put them off, thinking that he was in line to become the commissioner.

But alas, Bud Selig had other plans. He kept the job for himself after a six year search.

Just think how things could’ve been if not for this man. We know Bush would’ve cracked down on the steroids much sooner than Selig. He could’ve hunted them down! Al Gore might have been President, or at least anyone else that could have been better. See, I think W. would have made an excellent Baseball Commissioner. How much more likeable would he have been to the world? But no, the selfishness of one man led to the where we’re at today. And no one can say that is a good thing. Perhaps, if Selig had made Bush Baseball Commissioner, we might actually be able to afford to take our families to the Great American Pastime game.

Tampa Bay Rays. Philadelphia Phillies. Seriously?! I mean, can anyone honestly say pre-season they picked these two teams for the World Series? Can anyone (other than fans of those teams) honestly say that they would have picked either of these teams? I think not.

Tampa Bay was the worst team in baseball last year and have never been to a World Series. They’ve never been to the playoffs for that matter in their ten years. Maybe dropping “Devils” from their name helped out.

The Phillies haven’t been to the World Series since 1993. That’s five years before Tampa even had a baseball team! Their only World Series win was in 1980. Coincidentally, did you know that they used to be the Philadelphia Quakers? Really only in 1883 (105 years before Tampa had a team), was that the official name before they started using the Phillies, but it officially ended in 1889. I’m thinking of Phillies fans now and picturing those hard-core fans cheering for the Quakers. If you bring your horse and buggy into Philly from New York, expect to have your horse tagged up.

Okay, so now is the time for me to make a prediction. I’m torn really. I want both teams to win in some way, but at the same time, have no connection to either. I have reasons to want them both to lose as well. So here is what I’m going with…Tampa Bay will win their first World Series. I however, will be cheering for Philly.

I’ve already told you why. I cheer for NL teams unless they are on my bad list. But I’ll be equally as happy for whoever wins. Besides, if Philly can win a World Series after a long drought, that gives me hope for my Pittsburgh Pirates!

I love baseball. I read a great post today by Walt Mueller about baseball and grace. It actually reminded me of something I was talking about the other day with someone. Maybe I’ll blog about that later. Anyway, here is his post that I liked. For anyone who doesn’t know, Walt Mueller is like the man on Youth Culture and how that fits in with our Christian lives. I heard him speak at Boot Camp in January and he was really good. He is a Phillies baseball fan so, but I won’t hold that against him. What about those Phillies? (Sorry Crystal, I couldn’t resist).

You like how I did that? I did a post that wasn’t about basketball, but still had to mention it, huh? Of course, now you get a post or two about baseball, then I’ll be silent on it probably until my trip, and then again until my next trip, and then again until, just before the playoffs.

Doesn’t Congress and Senator George Mitchell have anything better to do than worry about baseball? As one friend says, “it’s ridiculous that they’re even involved.”

I don’t think I’m the only person who feels this way either.

I guess maybe I could be wrong. I guess maybe I was always taught that our government, our congress, legislators, and President’s job was to look out for the welfare of the country. You know, things like, a thriving economy, peace with other countries, taking care of those who need help, making sure every child has a proper education, and making sure Americans get proper health care, just to name some more obvious ones.

But it seems, at least lately, Senator Mitchell has made baseball his only agenda. Yes, baseball players using and abusing steroids is not good for baseball, but come on, in the grand scheme of things, where does that rank on the priorities of our country? Is there any presidential candidate running on the platform that MLB needs to crackdown on steroid use in baseball? Is that on the list of questions of issues that are important to the people who live in the country? The answer is NO.

So I ask, why are you, Senator Mitchell, wasting my tax dollars on something that I, and most Americans, already know? Shouldn’t MLB be allowed to govern itself? Since using steroids illegally is a crime, shouldn’t law enforcement just be cracking down? I’m just saying, it would be like my city council coming in and investigating our high school sports teams here are drinking too much gatorade, or practicing in the off-season, or even using steroids. That doesn’t happen. If a coach, school official, or police officer suspects that, they’ll do something about it. Not our city council or mayor or anything like that. And if they did, I would still say it was ridiculous.

Sure, maybe MLB should have done a better job of monitoring it. Maybe the coaches and trainers and team mates should have taken some responsibility. Why aren’t you investigating Bud Selig for not doing his job if you care that much? If you have to go in an investigate the coaches and players under him, should that say that he hasn’t been doing his job and should just be fired? My opinion is that he never cared until the government started caring. Why would he? You have records being broken…something that gave baseball it’s first breath of life in I don’t know how many years. And all of that happening under baseball commissioner Bud Selig. Now he’s playing “hard” and cracking down. He should be. He should have been all along because there of course is steroid use in baseball. There still is. And there was even before Congress decided to make it its mission to strip any record-breaking baseball player of their credibility, whether it’s true or not.

Maybe the Babe never used steroids. Maybe he did. Maybe there was something else he used. The fact is, people have been cheating in baseball, and probably every other sport, since the inception of the game. It doesn’t make it right, but it also doesn’t make it a matter of national security either. If Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens took steroids, and you busted them for it, is that going to help my future children have a good education? Is that going to ensure that when they retire, they have social security there (or when I retire for that matter)? Is that going to help ensure my mom gets the medication she needs just so she can get out of bed and get up and move around? Is that going to help find a cure for cancer or Parkinson’s disease? This that going to make sure that we don’t go into another recession during the Bush administration? This that going to bring peace in the middle east and our troops home safely? Reduce crime rate? Get drugs off the streets? Boost our economy?

No. It’s not. You, Senator Mitchell, and anyone else in Congress who helped with this witch hunt, should be ashamed of yourself for wasting not only tax payers dollars, but more importantly, your time. That time that we elected you to be looking our for “our” best interest and the best interest of our country, not the best interest of America’s Pastime.