He seems like a decent bloke... for a bloody journo...

So I've been banging my head against the wall for the last week or so wondering how I wanted to pop my Merely Adequate cherry... I knew it was gonna have something to do with sports, mostly cause that's what has been getting on my nerves lately, and I kept thinking it was gonna have something to do with my annoyance with Major League Baseball and more so the way the media has covered MLB as of late. And then it hit me...

I should first state that while I do consider myself a sports fan, I'm not one of those guys who spend hours a day running twenty different fantasy teams or watching Sportscenter on a loop all day long. During the NFL season I devote my Sundays to my Direct TV, but who doesn't? I love March Madness, but unless the Knicks are in the playoffs I have a hard time getting into the NBA. And I'm gay for USA soccer and the UFC. So that being said, I'm a casual sports fan. I'm 18 to 35 years old. I like beer and I'm willing to spend my money on it. I'm what ESPN, the NFL, the MLB, and everyone else is shooting for. Now that you know where I'm coming from...

I've been losing interest in baseball lately because it's all so negative. You can't throw on any kinda show that deals with baseball without being bombarded with steroids bullshit. A-rod this, Manny that, whose clean, whose dirty. Who gives a crap? Stop ruining a sport that I loved as a child with your TMZ style coverage. That's the rant that I didn't wanna do for my first Merely Adequate blog. It didn't have any kinda direction... it was gonna come off as me being angry and dramatic (which I am, but I don't need it documented)...

And then it hit me...

I was watching Around The Horn and they were discussing UFC 100 and Brock Lesnar. Two of the panelists were very dismissive with the UFC, and it became apparent very quickly that it would take Jesus Christ himself coming down for UFC 101 and taking the belt to get a lot of sports journo's to acknowledge how big this sport was becoming. So I sat there chin on fist, elbow on desk, and pondered... Why is this sport so big with people under the age of 30 and yet the 40 plus crowd sprints away like Usain Bolt?

Click.

I have an XBOX. And an iPod. And internet access. A subscription to Netflix. A girlfriend. An unhealthy addiction to beer and cigarettes. A job... and yet I don't even think I have a lot going on. I can devote 16 to 20 Sundays a year to the NFL. I can watch March Madness once a year. Every month I'm willing to go watch men in underpants three sizes too small for them (GSP I'm talking about you) beat the shit out of each other. That's what these sports are built on. Events. Most people don't have time to watch 162 baseball games a year... not when Captain Phil is blowing their minds on a weekly basis...

So I guess that's my problem... I don't give a flying monkey tit if the French think Lance Armstrong is juicing... to be honest I care very little about Lance Armstrong and even less about the French cycling community... Zero reason it needs to be brought up every other day on ESPN for ten years now... mention it when it matters, move on... Stop creating content that belongs on daytime TV and then wonder why people freak out about the USA making the Confederation Cup Final or why the UFC is becoming as powerful as Rodimus Prime... Baseball is great, if it's triple plays, perfect games, and rally caps, but not if it's Days of our Lives. Sporting events that happen everyday aren't meant to be epic. People trying to make an extra buck by forcing sports to be something they're not does nothing but sully the happiness they are supposed to bring us. There's a reason why the Super Bowl and the World Cup are so huge. They're events, not just another game. You can't make a Dodgers/Mets game in July that important, no matter how hard you try. So let us have our sports the way we want them, innocent and fun... stop mucking it up by spending hours upon hours telling us why we should hate these people. We know why we should hate them... It's your job to show us why we should love them...

And there I go being all angry and dramatic...

I'll leave you with a quote I find fitting, from one of the greatest minds of our time, Brody Bruce...

"Breakfast come and go Renee... Now Hartford? The Whale? Hey they only beat Vancouver once, maybe twice in a lifetime."