A Sign of Not so Good Things

Sunday marked a sign of not so good things. Maybe this isn't the biggest story of the week, but it certainly has gotten my attention.

On Sunday Yankee's third baseman Alex Rodriquez, one of the highest (if not the highest) paid professionally athletes on the planet was playing against the Oakland A's in New York. His wife, Cynthia, came to the stadium to watch her husband play. She wore a T-shirt with the words 'F@*% You" on it.

The New York media, obviously, has been following this as have the Yankees, etc.

Several things come to mind.

A-Rod has been booed once or twice in Yankee Stadium. He has put up big numbers but during the post season his productivity has been very poor. Many/most Yankee fans will say that paying him all of this money and building the offense of the team around him has been a mistake. Thus he has been booed a few times. He's also been cheered.

He's also making millions and millions of dollars to play a game. The people sitting in the stadium are paying good money to watch a game. They don't need to be insulted by his wife or any other play or any other player's family members.

But, most of all, people take children to baseball games. Baseball has been a part of the American landscape for a long time. Great plays of almost mythical proportion are burned in our memories.

Bobby Thompson hitting a game winning and playoff winning home run off of Ralph Branca in 1951. Or Mookie Wilson grounding the ball down the first base line and going through the legs of Bill Buckner. The second memory I remember all so well. It was late, my wife and 1 year old daughter were asleep upstairs. I had my finger on the 'off' button of the TV so I could immediately switch it off and not watch the Red Sox celebrate on the defeat of the Mets, and suddenly the game changed directions. I woke both of them up screaming and dancing downstairs. (Red Sox fans had a somewhat different reaction to this great event, by the way...)

Baseball has an almost mythic quality and the love of the game is passed on from generation to generation. Wearing T-shirts with obscenities on them to a ballpark is an affront to all those introducing their children to this very American game. Shame on her.