Since the early days of my youth, longer ago than I like to think about, sports have been an interest of mine. Over the years I have been far more of a spectator than a player. During my school days I did play a little baseball and basketball in local leagues but little else. We once had a pick-up football team in my hometown but we were never very good. Horrible would probably be a better way of putting it.
Even in basketball I wasnt missed when I wasnt at a game. Only in baseball would I ever hear, Hey Don, are you going to play Saturday? I grew up in a very small town of about 600 so Im not certain such inquiries were because they needed my bat or glove (I played first base) as much as they needed my body to meet the body count.
None-the-less I have maintained an interest in most sports down through the years. Exceptions are auto racing, boxing and professional wrestling (that last one is terrible.) It is bothering me a bit today as I see so many of my favorite leisure time activities under duress. Drugs and lawlessness are taking a toll.
It was a breath of fresh air as I watched Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn taken into the Baseball Hall of Fame. To me they represent the side of baseball that says lets play hard, play to win and play within the rules. I dont think I have ever heard controversy surrounding either of these new Hall of Fame Inductees. I say again; it is refreshing.
We are more than 200 miles from my old high school, which hasnt really existed due to consolidation for a number of years and my kids long ago graduated from our local high school. For these reasons I have lost some of my zeal for high school sports.
However, college athletics, particularly football and basketball, are high on my list of interests and I follow rather closely professional football, basketball, baseball and only slightly less, track, soccer and cycling. To my knowledge of those listed above only soccer has escaped getting black eyes and cuts and bruises, because of bad behavior, or at least accusations, from its players.
Right now I hope Michael Vick and Pac-man Jones never get into a professional football suit again. Yea, I know all about innocent until proven guilty but those two have too many problems at hand.
Professional football is really taking a beating and there arent many teams that have escaped without at least one of its players getting on the wrong side of the law. Right now it is a referee in professional basketball that has created a stir but several players have been in the soup in the recent past. Baseball and cycling have both been damaged by drug use of one sort or another over the past several years and there seems to be no end in sight.
My disgust with all of this has dimmed my interest some but I still pull for my favorite teams and players. Controversial as he might be, Ive always been a Barry Bonds fan and Im pulling hard for him to win the home run crown. He could easily do that before this column sees the printed page.Should he stay with San Francisco or end up as a designated hitter in the American League I think 800 home runs is within his grasp.
In the meantime lets hope the black eyes, cuts and bruises heal and such players begin walking to a different drummer.
Such are the people, places and things that have touched my life in my West Virginia home!
Don Springer is a writer for the Charleston, West Virginia newspapers, but he and his wife often visit in Crosby. He can be reached at touchlife@ worldnet.att.net
