It goes back so many years. Yes, there are always memories of the day to day stuff, normal, reality, which can bite! But there is always sport. Whatever it is, for some football, others ballet. Which reminds me, I saw a T- shirt that read, “If ballet were easy they would call it football! " Regardless it is sport.

  It is the fresh faced kid kicking up dirt on a sunny afternoon, falling in love with the smell of leather that will be instilled in his memory as forever being, baseball. It isn't the win or loss, who is taking what, where is my contract!!!!! No, it is just a game, the game, any of the many games that remind us that no one is bigger than it.

  This concept fades as we get older. Most think only of going green, and that doesn't mean they buy a Prius.  Curt Flood fought hard, but for what? Confused? I am too, ask Scott Boras for that answer. For some, the game retires us. That maybe the first year of Junior Varsity, or the last year of college. It could even be a scout that says that forty time just doesn't equate to the NFL. Like most things, it will end. Again, no one is bigger than the game.

  This is when we are all reminded of what the game meant to us. Not money or fame, a shoe contract or an undying entourage. It is passion for something that moves within that to an outsider (Like Boras) they would have little idea. It has to be experienced before it can be understood. Remember, when the kid makes the shot at the buzzer while also playing announcer, it is usually for The Championship, not the next Nike Commercial.

  Passion for sport is, and will always be, pure. Sure, games will be wagered, athletes will look for an edge and some parents will most definitely make it impossible to enjoy.  But for all of this, the better side, the pure side, will always win out.

 How can I know? I know this because of guys like Brett Favre. A man who played through injuries that would make even a strong man quiver. Yet, that same man is brought to tears, like a child that just gave up the winning base hit, when the thought of not having the game enters his mind.

 I know because of coaches like Mike Krzyzewski. To most, Bobby Knight is a chair tossing #### that deserves no credit whatsoever. To Coach K, he was the mentor that helped him  develope as a man, a coach and now a mentor to others. Achieving 800 wins and thanking a man such as Coach Knight may be worthy of confusion. Not understanding it however is what makes most of us fans, nothing more. 

 There is no real way to end a thought such as this. Sport will move on. For every Roger Clemens, there are three rookies, that did it clean, waiting their shot. For every Travis Henry, there is a high school kid that is up at 5 a.m. running the bleachers because he doesn't want that scout to be the one who tells him to hang them up.

 Contracts will come and go. They will also grow. There is a kid right now throwing  a ball up and hitting it in a quite, dark field. Little does he know that his hard work and dedication to the game, while his friends are off playing Wii, is what will make him the first $ 500 million dollar athlete. Corrupt, maybe, love of money over the game, possibly. But right now he works on hitting because of the tear he shed in the bottom of the seventh. He wants to be the go to man on his team and all the money in the world couldn't buy back that strikeout with runners in scoring position. That is true passion for sport.

And That Is The Inside Dirt.