I’m going to stray from my usual blog meanderings today and switch into Proud Dad Mode regarding this past weekend.  If there’s one advantage to interleague play, it was the fact that it allowed me to take my daughter to her first MLB game and see her dad’s hometown team.  Last weekend the Tigers came to town and, as fate would have it, the Saturday game was at 3:55 PM since it was a Fox broadcast.  Most games I can’t take her to as a 1 PM game is around her nap time and 7 PM is only an hour from her bedtime.

I can’t let the passing away of Rod Beck yesterday go unnoticed on my blog.  While a majority of his fame came when he was a reliever for the Giants, the two seasons he was in Chicago made him my favorite Cub (and Megan's too).  What’s not to like about a fat guy with a Fu Manchu and a mullet that made Cubs fans forget all about the previous reliever who went do ...

I don’t have boys for children and I’m years removed from competitive baseball but once baseball is in your blood, it stays there.  For that reason, I’m encouraged to see a new rule that was adopted by the Little League this year.  With the curbing of all things we did in our youth seemingly growing each day (all in the name of "protecting our youth") – Dodgeball, Smear the Queer, Detention (now called “Opportunity Time” in my sister-in-law’s school district), crunchy McDonald’s apple pies – it’s refreshing to see pitch counts implemented in the Little Leagues now.

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.