If you wonder why the gap is widening between the haves and have-nots, consider this latest scheme from the Atlanta Braves.  This new marketing ploy is sure to catch on like wildfire not only through Major League Baseball but through all sports.  Now baseball has joined furniture stores and electronics stores as places where you can buy a product on a “90 days same as cash” plan.

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Having been out of town makes this post quite delayed and I wouldn’t even revisit it if it weren’t for the side story.  I was going to my first ever NHL playoff game last Thursday at Philips Arena and I usually park in a garage across from Centennial Olympic Park.  I don’t mind walking through the park, especially during the holiday season when it’s decked out in festive lights, and it allows me the ability to not get stuck in a massive logjam that most people encounter as they try to leave.

Ahhh, it’s baseball season!!!  Spring is in the air, Mark Prior and Kerry Wood are injured yet again (mentally and physically), Barry Bonds is ready to assault baseball’s most hallowed record while under suspicion, the world champ’s manager gets busted for DUI, players are stonewalling a congressional investigation into steroids, the Extra Innings baseball package for TV is now not available to anyone who doesn’t have DirecTV, and Sammy Sosa is trying to make us all forget he was juiced up when he hit 60+ homers for 3 consecutive years.

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While I stopped following the NBA years ago, I have to give kudos to two of their current players who are swimming against the tide.  Stephon Marbury has introduced a line of $15 basketball shoes.  Not only is he selling them, he also wears them during games so they must have at least some kind of quality workmanship applied to them.  This really is a breakthrough idea whose time has been overdue for two decades now.

Until a few years ago, the mere mention of spring training would make me drool in anticipation.  Now that that has tempered off a bit, I attribute it to several potential factors, with the possibility of it being a combination of them.

1 - Baseball means springtime and springtime meant warmer temperatures.  When you grow up in the & ...

Oh, I’m bitter today.  I’m fucking agitated.  I don’t let the teams I root for fortunes affect my emotions any more, but I think last night was an exception.  I’m in a foul mood and cursing all things Indianapolis, that little turd of a burg in the middle of a state that smells like cow shit and doesn’t look much better.  I need to down some coffee in order to have that wonderful elixir called caffeine elevate my spirits.

With the Super Bowl come all the odd bets that Vegas allows people to wager on.  The one that got my attention was the over/under on the time it will take Billy Joel to sing the National Anthem, which is currently at 1 minute, 44 seconds.  If there’s one thing I don’t like about sporting events, it’s when singers decide to drag out the anthem as long as possible.  You can tell by the second line whether you’re going to be done in 2 minutes or 3+ minutes.  I’m all for artistic expression, but leave the anthem to its basics and don’t add any notes to it, otherwise it comes across as self-serving.