Leaning Left Is Branching Out

Thanks in some part to this Blog being used as an audition, I’ll be a contributing writer on another website.

Most Valuable Network, or MVN.com is a sports blog type website that I found while reading one of my favorite writers, The Cub Reporter. While checking out the rest of the site, I noticed they were accepting applications for writers, so I threw my hat in the ring.

Since my favorite team is already being covered by the aforementioned writer, I’ve been named a new correspondent for the SanDiego Padres, in the San Diego Spotlight. I’ll be joining the very talented Rich Campbell, who I hope won’t feel I’m treading on his turf. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity and would like to thank Cory Hume, who is my new boss over there (and a contributing writer for the “Pittsburgh Lumber Company” which is the Pirates page on MVN) for the chance to do something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.

I hope everyone will check them, (and myself when I finally write a column there) out often. You’ll find they have a very professional and entertaining style.

Stay Tuned……………..

Why Jackie Robinson Day Made Me Sad

No it wasn’t because the man is gone, and it took 60 years for a tribute to be carried out in the right way. It’s certainly not because I’m one of those tools who thinks it’s racist to celebrate this one black man. (I’m not kidding I heard that 3 times the last couple of day) I’m sad because Jackie Robinson embodied everything this country desperately needs, and he did it so long ago, as was pointed out ad-nauseum on Sunday, many kids will have to ask why players are wearing number 42.

Despite the lip service being paid to Jackie and god knows there was a ton of it, I still get the feeling that there are a lot of people who just do not understand the kind of man Jackie was, and the effect he had on this country. Jackie was a man who put simply, had to be perfect in every way. Not only did he have to be a damn good baseball player, but he had to be a good man. He had to take everything that was thrown at him, and not only survive it, but rise above it in a way I just don’t think a person would, or could do in this day and age.

Can you imagine Barry Bonds in Jackie’s situation? He would have set the cause back 15 years! Not because he couldn’t play baseball, Bonds was a hall of famer before he took steroids (allegedly) but because his enormous ego would not have allowed him to be the conciliatory person Jackie was. That’s not to say that Jackie was a “step ‘n’ fetch it” type guy, from all accounts he was incredibly principled. But he knew when the situation called for standing his ground, and when it called for blending into the background.

Jackie put an entire generation’s, and every generation after hopes and dreams on his shoulders, and did it willingly, and knowing full well what he was doing. I don’t believe there has ever been a time when this country needed a leader like that more, and then we do now. Leadership, both in the civil rights movement and in general now seem to be more about who can get the most face time. Does anyone really believe Al Sharpton stood up and railed about Don Imus for any reason other than to get some free press? Does anyone feel comforted by George Bush’s expressed outrage at the Virginia Tech shootings, while commenting how important it is to have the 2^nd amendment? Why in the name of god, do all our leader embarrass us more than uplift us? When did being a “strong leader” mean being stubborn? In an era when getting the most votes from a bunch of pre-teens means you’re a great musical talent, will we ever see a leader that makes decisions based on our best interests, instead of what they think will be accepted? And please don’t tell me Dubya is doing that, however small his fan base becomes, he’s still catering to a specific group, and in no way shape or form is he thinking of the greater good. If he thinks he is, he’s stupider than I thought. I’m honestly asking is the era of the man (or woman) that puts others ahead of themselves, without exception, gone? Can we ever get it back?

Thoughts like that are why Jackie Robinson day filled me with pride, and then almost immediately, filled me with sorrow.