Moments ago Barry Bonds belted a full count fastball into the 4th row of the right centerfield stands to become baseball's all-time leading homerun hitter.  Homerun number 756 was greated by amazing positive fan reaction, and amazingly, a video salute to Barry by the one and only Henry Aaron. 

Hank showed his class, which had been questioned recently, toward a man who truly deserves any praise that he recieves.  Barry Bonds is one of the three greatest hitters of all-time, and the greatest player since Willie Mays himself. 

I've said often that Barry's unfair treatment by many fans and the media is the reason I started this blog over a year and a half ago.  It's only fitting that I say goodbye to the Fox community on the night that my guy becomes THE GUY on the MLB homerun list.  Hats off to you Barry!  You deserved nothing but accolades on this night.  Let me be the first on this blog site to congratulate you!

The questions have seemed endless in the days leading up to the creshendo that was the Spurs 4th title in 9 years last night.  Are they a dynasty? 

To understand if they are or not, we must first understand what a "dynasty" is.

Webster defines "dynasty" as a succession of rulers of the same line of descent, or a powerful group or family that maintains its position for a considerable time.  The world of sports obviously uses the second definition when throwing around such a powerful word.  Are the Spurs a dynasty?  They are not even close according to Webster.

The key phrase in this definition is "maintains its position for a considerable time".  The Spurs have never even maintained their position as champions for two consecutive seasons.  San Antonio supporters may point out the overall depth and toughness of the West as support for their claim.  The mere fact that they've won the West so many times should count for something shouldn't it?  It does count toward their historical significance in NBA lore, but a dynasty they are not.

Sports fans and writers throw this word around as if it meant, "really good for more than a couple of seasons".  That only cheapens the few real dynasties the sports world has seen.  These are the only true dynasties in sports history:

1 - 1956-1969 Boston Celtics won 13 championships in a 15 year span including eight in a row from 1958-1966.  Loaded with Hall of Fame players, and the NBA head coach of all coaches, the Celtics defined dynasty for the NBA for all time.

2-  1936-1943 New York Yankees won 6 championships in eight years.  This stretch saw the end of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and the beginning of Joe DiMaggio.  Featuring Murder's Row and legendary pitching, the Yankees claimed the fans of New York from the Giants and Dodgers, never to give them back.

3-  1947-1962 New York Yankees won 10 titles in 16 years including five in a row from 1949-1953.  This era of Yankee dominance brought about Mickey Mantle, Maris' 61, Larson's no-hitter, and other moments that live forever in the annals of baseball history. 

4-  1964-1975 UCLA men's basetball cut the nets down 10 times in a 12 year span including seven consecutive titles from 1967-1973.  Jabbar, Walton, Johnson, Wooden, and others decorate the college basketball history books like no one has before or since.  They tought the people of Lexington, KY and the rest of the country what dominance really was.

5- 1956-1960 and 1976-1979 Montreal Canadians won five and four straight Stanley Cups respectively.  "Toe" Blake led the early version to success behind legends like Rocket Richard,  Jacques Plante, and Henri Richard.  Scotty Bowman raised the Cup behind the "new blood" of Guy LeFluer, Ken Dryden, and Rick Chartraw.  The Canadians and Yankees are the team with the best arguement of haveing two seperate dynasties, since some of the players carried over for the Yankees.

That's it.  That's the list.  Any attempt to include others only lessons the greatness of the aforementioned teams.  Many will try to include the Bulls of the 1990's, but the arguement would be better to support Jordan as an individual more than the team.  The two great Houston teams between their three-peats eliminates them from the conversation.  The Rockets were great in the middle, thus ending their run of a "considerable time". 

(Information was gathered from nhl.com, nba.com, mlb.com, and ucla.edu)

As the last few days and weeks have rolled by in the world of sports, I have made two observations.  The first is that some of the most amazing things have been happening.  Things that a true sports fan lives to see.  We've had fantastic finishes, great team and player stories, as well as historically significant individual efforts.  There has also been things that have dominated headlines that are nowhere near "newsworthy".  The crime in this is that many fans' attentions are being diverted to this garbage, and missing these wonderful events in sports. 

As a teacher, I always assume that when people behave inappropriately it's because they don't know what the appropriate action is.  Therefore you, the fan, will no longer need to miss the unmissable.  I, XEA76, will help you navigate your way through the trash and find the treasure.

Worthy:  Derek Fisher

This guy flies 2/3 of the way across the U.S. to pray for his potentially dying child, support the mother of his child, and be there when a man needs to be there most.  When he knows all is safe, he flies back to Utah, suits up, and inspires his team to a huge OT win. 

Not Worthy:  Racially biased NBA officiating

You have to ask what the agenda is of any organization that would even support such a study.  Anyone who actually saw the raw numbers knows that the illedged discrepency of calls of officials to players of another race were not statiscally significant.  Translated, this is why all polls have a "margin of error".  The statistics were not so skewed that there appeared to be a problem, but there was a SLIGHT descrepency.  If you really want to help the racism problem, don't make it the issue everytime people that don't look the same are in the same room.

Worthy:  Barry Bonds

I started this blog over a year ago because of this man.  Barry is a jerk.  Barry MAY be a cheater (probably).  Having said that, Barry is the greatest baseball player I've ever seen, BAR NONE!  Baseball fans live their whole lives wanting to see records broken.  He's already broken the big one.  Now he's going for the #2 record in all of baseball, the all-time HR mark.  Don't miss this because of a stupid grudge.  This is what you want to tell your kids about.  If you ignore him, you make him a mystery to the next generation. Educate yourself about him.  Teach the kids why he's so good.  Explain why cheating is bad.  However, do not miss one of the most amazing feats by one of the five greatest baseball players of all time.

Not Worthy:  Curt Schilling

Speaking his name in public is difficult to do.  This is a guy who gives the media the quotes they want, so he gets a pass on being an ####.  He is not a Hall of Fame player.  That's right, being an outspoken member of the 2004 Red Sox doesn't make you one.  Sorry Kevin Millar.  I'm not sure any person in sports is less socially significant while being oblivious to that fact at the same time.  He thinks he's important.  He speaks for political candidates.  He's a social commentator.  And frankly, all the Beanbrains want him to do is get people out.  That's right Curt.  If you make the country less dependent on oil and have an ERA over 5.00, then Boston will hate you.  I promise.

Worthy:  Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Jr. is leaving the company his father founded.  NASCAR's biggest star with it's biggest sponsor is officially a free agent (at the end of the year).  This event really has no other worthy comparison.  There is no other athlete more popular, in his prime, and about to be persued by about 15 Nextel Cup teams, the idea of starting his own team, or even other racing outfits like the IRL or Formula One.  Junior is the biggest free agent in the history of American sports. 

Not Worthy:  Car of Tomorrow

NASCAR made it.  NASCAR uses it now.  NASCAR wants it full time in 2008.  That settles it.  Shut up and drive it.

Worthy:  Tiger Woods

Tiger is on another dominating run.  He's winning almost every tournament he signs up for.  He's back to his dominating form with his 15th different swing.  He got to the point in 2000 when he decided to compare himself to himself, and not to the other players.  Now he's back to being so far ahead of the field it's almost laughable.

Not Worthy:  Mike Vick

He's the biggest bust since Ryan Leaf.  He's a punk who's popularity so far supercedes his accomplishments that it's obsurd.  He's a great athlete who can't play QB.  He's a spoiled brat who has robbed me of the 60 seconds of my life that it took to write this blurb.  I'm out!

As a Yankee fan, I've had the priviledge of watching Mariano Rivera more than most people.  I remember him struggling as a young starter in 1995.  While setting up John Wetteland, he anchored a bullpen that allowed me to experience my first Yankee championship as a freshman in college in 1996.  Since becoming the closer in 1997, he's been on the mound in both my most charished and painful Yankee memories.  He's given up big hits to people like Sandy Alomar Jr., David Ortiz, and Luis Gonzalez to name a few. 

 Mo has also shut down these same men, along with literally hundreds of others in the same time period.  Mariano Rivera runs a close second to Derek Jeter as my favorite Yankee.  Metallica's "Enter Sandman" give me goose-bumps everytime I hear it both at the Stadium and in my car.  Mo is my guy!

It now pains me to publically admit what I've felt has been coming for two seasons now.  Mariano is coming to the end. 

The most remarkable thing about Rivera's career, in my opinion, is that he has had all of this success while basically using one pitch, the cutter.  When he first came into the league, Yankee fans remember, his style was to "stair-step" the four-seam fastball.  Strike one was at the knees.  Strike two was at the belt.  Strike three was a swing and miss at a letter high fastball.  It was about 1998 when the cutter came the pitch du jour, and the rest is history.  Now, sadly, Rivera may be as well.

When a pitcher throws one pitch, usually he's bagging groceries at the A&P.  However, Rivera was nasty enough to make it happen.  Now, the velocity is waning.  The desire to prove something is gone.  As the Barenaked Ladies sang, "It's all been done". 

Now the Yankees have done what they have refused to do in the Steinbrenner era.  They've held on too long to a player because of his past accomplishments.  Rivera hasn't yet had a season that doesn't meet his standards.  This may be the first, and because of that, it may be his last.  What a sad thing to say.

Philosophers say that we live in the post-modern era.  Post-modernism is a belief that the only absolute truth that exists in the world is that there is no absolute truth.  Despite the glaring philosophical contradiction that Stevie Wonder could see, many people endorse this way of viewing the world.  "What you do is up to you, and what I do is none of your business" they say.  If this is your world-view, that's fine with me (hints of relativism are all over that statement), but its amazing at how relative we are with our morals in sports.

NASCAR found that Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, and Michael Waltrip all qualified with illegal cars on Sunday.   The punishment for the crimes of Kahne and Kenseth's teams were reported by the Charlotte Observer as suspensions for each team's crew chief.  It amazes me that NASCAR refuses to park cars and teams for races.  I'm not sure that these violations would warrant such a punishment, but the bottom line is that such a punishment isn't even an option.  Sure, they say it is, but Kasey Kahne would have to attack and kill Dale Earnhardt Jr. to ever be suspended from a race.  NASCAR has gotten neck-deep with these sponsors to the point that they run the show.  You will NEVER see a race without a Home Depot, Dupont, Lowe's, Budweiser, or Dodge sponsored car.  At least not because NASCAR made that decision.  That fact doesn't even consider the star power of the former champions and superstars that carry the corporate torch for the aforementioned companies.  It's amazing that so many fans turn the other cheek to rules violations in NASCAR.  The unspoken motto of most crew chiefs in the sport is, "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'".  Everyone seems to be fine with that, even when the large portion of the fan base resides in the "morally conservative" South of the U.S. 

Then, of course, there is baseball.  A sport in which anyone who has ever touched a bottle, vitamin, beer, or even baby, is under tremendous scrutiny and su####ion.  Why?  Are they both cheating?  Yes.  It amazes me that steriod use is considered the ultimate form of cheating in sports.  The steriod rule reminds me of what Jerry Seinfeld says about the helmet law.  He finds it humorous that we would have a law that functions to protect a brain that is functioning so poorly that it doesn't protect itself.  I agree.  When race cars are too fast, they put lives in danger of more than just their drivers.  When athletes juice, who are they really harming?  Your post-modern mind should now kick in and say, "They aren't hurting me, so what they are doing is fine."  However, it doesn't say that at all.  You want to be noble.  You want to be the helmet law.  You want to protect that athlete that is so starved for money and fame, that he/she will literally kill himself/herself to get it. 

I don't feel cheated by Barry Bonds.  I don't feel cheated by Kasey Kahne.  If Kasey Kahne's team deems it necessary to bend the rules to make him more competitive, then install rules that discourage that.  NASCAR does that.  If Barry Bonds wants to use a substance that, until recently, wasn't even banned by MLB and hurt himself, so be it.  He can be the Homerun King, while suffering through health problems and a lower quality of life.  That's his choice.  My question to you is.  If Barry is only hurting himself, and Kasey, Matt, and Michael are putting others at risk as well as not risking nearly as much from a personal, physical standpoint, who has committed the greater crime?  Barry will be tarnished physically, emotionally, and publically for the rest of his life.  Kahne and Kenseth won't even miss a race.  What gives? 

By now, everyone knows that there is no more self-righteous, self-absorbed, and ridiculously arrogant entity in the world of sports than the Baseball Hall of Fame and all that it entails.  It routinely plays God, passing eternal moral judgments on people like Pete Rose, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, and the most recent heathen, Mark McGwire.  Today, two of baseball's most recent saints (and very deserving players) were promoted to the third heaven in the angelic forms of Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn.  No one disputes the fact that these two deserve their wings.  However, who are you, Major League Baseball, to #### the gavel of justice like you know anything about people like Mark McGwire?

Who else shall you shun, oh judge of judges?  Do A-Rod and his imposing figure deserve your ire?  We all know that Rafael Palmeiro will feel your wrath, oh mighty smiter!  Now that Jason Grimsley has proven that your "banned substances" are not limited to hitters, shall you pass your judgment on the great Roger Clemens, whose physical conditioning despite age and years of use, seem to defy the very laws of nature that you so quickly embrace as law.  Have you gotten to the point that all it takes is to be born at the wrong time and you are suddenly guilty because you performed in the alleged "steroid era"?  You are the same people that have embraced casino employees (Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays) in a time when baseball was much more sensitive to gambling.  You have endorsed users of other illegal drugs (Fergie Jenkins among others), womanizers (Babe Ruth), racists (Ty Cobb), drunks (pick a Yankee from the 50's and 60's), as well as many other participants in a variety of moral "transgressions".  Where is your line?  What is your standard?

In the United States of America, as well as Canada (that covers the Blue Jays and Expos), there is a presumption of innocence until guilt is proven.  You obviously are above that!  You can sit on you little perch and call people like McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds guilty, while pronouncing so many others innocent.  The rest of the human race wishes it could be so careless and indiscriminant in its judgments!  Not only are you punishing those who have been proven anything but guilty, but you yourself, Major League Baseball, have perpetuated this very problem!  It's your inactivity that led to the problem you had in the 1990's.  You had labor issues.  Your game was struggling.  So you sold your soul to the needle-packing devil, and now you have the gall to stand and pass judgment on the very people that you needed to survive through your darkest hour?  How dare you?  How dare you?

If all this isn't enough, you've robbed Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken of the greatest day of their individual careers.  Instead of writing about going to Memorial Stadium as a kid and Camden Yards as a teen to see #8, I have to talk about this.  Instead of paying homage to one of the greatest hitters I've ever seen, my generation’s Ted Williams, I'm left to bloviate about the crime and the shame that you have dragged some of your brightest stars through.  Why?  Why have you done this to our game?  If you would've done something about these steroids when you should have, we'd be talking about the greatest Hall induction class since the very first one.  However, we are not!  We're talking about steroids!   I blame you Major League Baseball!  I blame you! 

It seems that just about everyone complains about media bias.  Conservatives hate all of the major news media outlets because they are too liberal.  Liberals hate Fox News and talk radio because it is too conservative.  Moderates hate them both because both are too over-the-top for them.  Everyone agrees that there is media bias no matter what side of the political isle they are on.  However, why do the sports media get a pass?   Outrageous statements, foolish predictions, and pointless comparisons have become par for the course for the sports fan who is simply trying to keep up with the happenings in his/her favorite hobby.  The U.S. government knows that competition in our economy is good, and a company having a monopoly is bad for the consumer.  Knowing this, I wish someone, anyone, would step-up and challenge the “worldwide leader in sports”.  I’m so sick of that network I could scream.  However, what other choice do I have to keep up with the only hobby I’m truly passionate about, sports?  Every night, during that “news” program that they air at 6 p.m., I must watch a stupid top-ten list that I, nor anyone I've ever met, care anything about.  I have to listen to speculation about who had the best draft, who will pitch to Barry, and will Kobe score 60 points tonight.  I have to listen to Sean Salisbury talk about how foolish the Texans are to draft a defensive end over Reggie Bush.  Then, literally 45 seconds later, he is asked "what is the most important position on an NFL team other than QB", and he answers a pass-rushing defensive end.  Doesn’t anyone see how stupid these people are on this channel?  Sure they do, but what other choice do they have?  Earlier this week, the “worldwide leader” had a link to a story on their website that read, “Jeter is no Honus Wagner”.  Who cares?!?  Can we please just watch these guys play and not put them in a historical context?  Derek Jeter is in the prime of his career.  Why do we have to put him in the Hall of Fame already?  Let the man do his job.  Comparing players across generations is impossible.  Sure it’s fun to talk about with your friends, but I don’t want to read or hear about it when this program is supposed to be informing me.  If ESPN was a newspaper, the news would be on one page and rest would be a bunch of bloviating editorial garbage.  So please, someone, anyone, compete with these people.  Fox, CBS, NBC, or someone, give us an alternative.  We need it.  We want it.  If they can support five different channels, I’m sure you can support one. 

Barry Bonds is a jerk.  Barry has never cared much about the media, fans or his teammates.  I am convinced that at some point, Barry Bonds used performance enhancing drugs.  OK, I've admitted it.  The world knows it.  Can we please leave this man alone?!?

My whole contention about the "steroid controversy" in baseball is that it’s not about steroids at all.  IT'S ABOUT BARRY BONDS.  People hate Bonds.  They don't want this jerk to possibly be considered the greatest player or hitter of all-time.  They'd rather glorify the Gentleman Henry Aaron, or the legendary Babe Ruth, or the splendid Ted Williams.  "Anyone but Barry" is the baseball fan's cry.  So reporters that he has shunned have spend endless hours trying to dig up evidence to prove something that people are already so starved to believe the evidence is just a nice side note (the guys who wrote “Game of Shadows” are investigative reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle).  People in the cycling world will tell you that just as compelling and convincing a case can be made that Lance Armstrong is juicing.  Americans don't want that.  He's the American guy that went to France of all places and dominated their most hallowed event.  We like that over here.  Lance gives good interviews.  He dates celebrities.  He overcame an ailment that has or will touch all of our lives at some point.  He's a "hero".  We can't tarnish him.  So we say that all of the French media he has shunned over the years are just jealous and out to get him.  They are French after all!  But the San Francisco media, they are fine upstanding Americans who are just looking after the game we love.  You all mark my words.  Once Barry's career is over, you'll never hear the steroid controversy again.  At least, not anywhere near as loudly.  Notice that when present players test positive it’s just a blurb on the banner on ESPNews.  That's because people don't want Juan Rincon to test positive.  Who cares about him?  We want Barry Bonds to test positive.  That way we don't have to call him one of the 3 greatest hitters of all-time, which he is.  We don't have to call him one of three greatest players of all-time, which he is.  We don't have to call him the greatest player in baseball since Mays, which he is.  We just get to call him a cheater and pretend he never existed.