As Alex Rodriguez became the youngest baseball player to reach home run number 600 in the history of the game, it is important to note the different transformations the game has gone (for good or for worse). Throughout all that however, medical advancements have been made, players have started training much more intensively and took better care of their bodies along with the addition of performance enhancement.

Should baseball strike out all pitching records if the pitcher involved had gotten Tommy John’s surgery? Certainly that wasn’t available back in the early- and mid-1900’s so that’s got to be a competitive advantage. With all the video accessories available to help teams scout and prepare for their opponent was never available in the early days of baseball, why isn’t that a competitive advantage that wasn’t available to other players/teams of the early years?

To me the record books are very clear, Hank Aaron held the all-time home run record for 30+ years but records are only kept because someone someday will come along and break it. Barry Bonds did that and he is without a doubt, the all time leader. A-Rod hitting his 600th today became the youngest all time to reach that mark and even though Babe Ruth did it in far less at bats (something around 2,000 less ABs) it does not mean he is the fastest, just the one with least at bats. It doesn’t entitle him to some record because he simply just did not hit enough home runs and that is all that needs to count for an all-time king.

A very important point my friend Mike (of Empire8.tv and Matchday Live) just made to me. Maybe it is time I don the pinstripes for the betterment of humanity? However unlikely it is to happen, definitely something worth contemplating.

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I can’t really wait for the baseball season to start so in the meantime, enjoy these two Red Sox Nation commercials going after the Yankees in the meantime.

There have been plenty of angry comments on both of those videos by the bandwagon New York fans and I guess it doesn’t really surprise me. One would think after all these many years, they would understand what a rivalry is but I guess that might be expecting too much from them. Visit the You Tube page by clicking on the video to view the comments directly from the source.

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We have seen Congress intervene on Major League Baseball’s steroid policy and now Barack Obama is talking about using his influence to finally get rid of the hogwash that is the BCS system. The two ideas could not have been met with receptions from different ends on the spectrum.

The intervention by Congress was met by questions of skepticism and outrage that shouldn’t Congress be doing other things like improve the economy and figure out a way to bring our troops back home. Yet when Barack Obama suggested on Monday Night Football right before the election and on 60 Minutes last night that there should be a playoff in College Football, all hell broke loose and everybody thought it was a great idea.

So why the double standard? Don’t get me wrong, I have been a fan of Obama for President since 2004 when he first gave the speech at John Kerry’s convention but just notice the different that a likability factor or personality factor carries with a person or a body of people. Congress generally has low approval ratings and them trying to mess with America’s pasttime was not going to improve any matters. On the other hand, a well liked President-elect recently getting support of nearly 55% of the American electorate weights on a topic (sports) that politicans usually tend to stay away and he has rattled some sticks.

I certainly hope that college puts BS bowl system away and institutes some sort of playoff format to truly decide a national champion. Maybe this is the President who can cause change all across the board from health care to a vast majority of Americans to improved tax situations for the middle class and even a playoff system for the college football fan.

Back on March 29th, I made baseball predictions about where the teams would finish and here is what I had said back then.

AL: Boston (East), Detroit (Central), Los Angeles (West) and Toronto (Wild Card)
NL: New York (East), Chicago (Central), Los Angeles (West) and Philadelphia (Wild Card)

As of right now, 2 of those picks are dead on (Los Angeles Angels and Chicago Cubs). 2 of those picks are flat out wrong (Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays). What is going to be interesting is the race down the stretch to see if Boston can make up 3.5 games to win the division, whether the Mets hold on to win the division (up by 3 right now) as well as if the Phillies can gain 4 games on the Brewers with a little over 20 to go. I didn’t know it then, but what a story it would be if Joe Torre makes it to the playoffs with Manny Ramirez and the Yankees don’t make the fall classic.

I can go from having as little as only two correct picks or I can have as much as six out of the eight possible teams in their correct location.

Down the stretch analysis after the break…

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