Check your left shoulder tab

I love baseball more than I like pony rides for my birthday, and I love the idea of pony rides for my birthday. As that kind of fan, this week has sucked for me, baseball fan. Roger Clemens faces multiple indictments for lying to Congress about whether he lied when he denied using human growth hormones and other performance enhancing drugs.


And yet, as that very same kind of fan, this weekend has been great because the Little League World Series has started as always in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The price is right-admission and parking are free-refreshments are between one and two dollars and, because of the demand, there's a lottery for tickets for the championship game.The young teams from around the globe who make it Williamsport are more than living the dream-they are The Dream. 


The number of former Little League players who have also played in the Major Leagues is pretty amazing and eleven former Little Leaguers have made it to the Major League Baseball's World Series which is another reason why I love baseball, the worship of statistics. Nothing is too insignificant to NOT be recorded and cataloged for all time. And you never know when you'll need it.


Yeah, because of the economics of scale they now play with aluminum bats which is not how The Lord intended baseball to be played, and I'm not happy about that kerplink of the aluminum fake. And speaking of fakes, and the sanctity of records and the wonders of statistics, are all the * besides the names of all the the players involved. Hester Prynne had an easier overcoming the Scarlet Letter than those guys will and their number, as we're discovering, continues to grow. 


We've feared for years we would know the ugly truth about cheaters like Barry Bonds and while Mark Mcqwire, would like to think confession is good for the soul, it would appear Roger Clemens will agree to disagree. All you have to do Rocket, since you care so much about the game, is check out the left shoulder tab on the uniform of each player on the field and in the dugout at Williamsport and then ask yourself why you couldn't make that same promise. I know I've wondered.
-bill kenny