on baseball

I'm no fan of Mr. Esolen's, but, since I am avoiding writing a paper about less important matters, I will write some reflections about baseball. Mr. Esolen says:

The owners, colluding by their silence, allowed the players to inject these dangerous drugs into their systems -- anything to keep the baseballs flying over the fences and the buttocks in the bleachers, anything to help the fans forget how both owners and players, rolling in a sea of money, managed to disgrace the game with their shutdown in 1994.

I won't forget. Baseball was pretty much the only professional sport I followed. I avidly read baseball history, developed rigid opinions about the moral superiority of the National League over the American, grass over astroturf, daylight ball over night games, and even collected baseball cards using what little means I had. But, after the strike, I refused, as a matter of principle, to pay any attention whatsoever to professional baseball. How could I care anymore? They betrayed me: it is as simple as that. The course professional baseball has taken since then only confirms I made the right decision. And that is how I stopped caring about professional sports.

Of course, the [temporary] retirement of my favorite player, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, as well as the departure in previous years of other key figures in the Cubs lineup made it easier to cut all ties.

It's a sad game that we play.