Opinion

I was never a fan of Andy LaRoche's brother Adam, and sharp-eyed readers may have noticed my tepid acceptance of Andy in the past.

But in one respect, the younger LaRoche is already "Jack Wilson," which is high praise coming from yours truly. That is, in terms of "citizenship."

He spent half an hour giving the "grand tour" of PNC Park to a boy in wheelchair. That was above and beyond the call of duty and will generate enormous goodwill for the Pirates, both for the one incident and for the many similar ones that are likely to follow.

The issue of parity has come up frequently since the end of last season. Many have argued that MLB has become unfair to certain teams, and several ideas have come of it. However, I believe that I have the perfect solution to the problem.

I might as well get this initial statement out of the way, first and foremost.

There is no greater sport than the game of baseball.

There, I said it. Not that I haven’t said it before, but I’ve typed out several different ways to start this out—and that seemed the best way to go about things.

It encompasses all my thoughts and feelings into 10 simple and glorious words.

Long have been the days of opening our ears to the orchestra of baseball that is Vin Scully.

With fantastic elaborations and a profound prospective of the game, Mr. Scully has surely etched his name in Dodgers lore. Broadcasters on a regular basis come across plain, and at times, disagreeable. When it comes to Vin Scully, he is as irregular as they come.

San Francisco should be a very fun and interesting team to watch this season, and should be able to possibly win the NL WIld Card.

But don't expect for the Giants to be able to win the NL West, because they won't be able to beat the Rockies. The Rockies are just to good.

San Francisco's success will be based on their pitching again, which is still very strong, and possibly even better than last year's pitching. The Giants have some of the best young players in baseball with Tim Lincecum and Pablo Sandoval, along with other young studs on the team.

I hate drugs.

Plain and simple.

No ifs, ands, or buts.

However you want to say it, there are few things that are dumber to me than doing drugs.  There was a time when we didn’t know what some of the effects of certain drugs were, so I guess I can see why people did it; because it felt good, and they didn’t know it was bad.

Jerry Manuel all but punched Fernando Martinez’s ticket to the minors when he met with reporters in Florida yesterday, a decision that will surely cause a stir among the Mets' frustrated and disenchanted fan base.

However, despite the many blunders this organization has experienced over the course of Minaya’s tenure at the helm, this is one move that makes a lot of sense for a number of reasons.

He’s Not Quite Ready

The case for Martinez being on the Opening Day roster is a very legitimate one.

Damaso Marte has certainly had mixed results during his Yankee career, but he was lights-out in the playoffs last year, especially in big spots against Ryan Howard in the World Series.

Consider yesterday payback as he couldn’t even get an out in the fifth inning yesterday as he gave up three runs on a Jayson

Werth homer, four hits, and was removed from the game after Howard hit a liner off his back.

Major League Baseball has a real knack for standing under black clouds and refusing umbrellas.

Just when the nation was beginning to think the league drug testing policy was working, a story is broken about Ron Washington testing positive for cocaine in 2009 and receiving no punishment.

The Texas Rangers manager says that as soon as he found out he would be drug tested last July, he informed league officials and team ownership that he had made a “mistake.”

When you are two-time National League champion, there is little room for non-roster players looking to make the squad.

As a Phillies fan, I am no longer looking hopefully as Ricky Ledee or John Wockenfuss are added to the squad, with past potential or successes leading to a promising Phillies season.

Nope. I am in baseball hog heaven. These are the gravy years.