Steroids in Baseball

Steroids has done alot of damage. Damage done not only to individuals, but to teams, and leagues as well. I think it is so sad to have this Mitchell Report come out about Major League Baseball. Children and adults alike look up to professional athletes and also relate to them as athletes. Viewing their heroes as individuals who take steroids can have a very negative affect on people who are influenced by these athletes. Children often believe that professional athletes can do no wrong including taking steroids. High school athletes look up to people such as Roger Clemens and often believe, "If Roger Clemens takes steroids, then it must be good stuff and I should take them too." This isn't the only way performance inhancers can have a negative affect on society. In the future, people will look back on their favorite teams of the past and have doubt on whether their team was steroid free. Fans, including myself, may think, "Maybe the reason my favorite team was so good was because there were athletes on the team that took steroids. Which made them better players by the wrong means." I just think that baseball and all of sports are hurt by this. It questions the honesty of the sports and their athletes involved.

Current Events

I've had the house to myself for the past five days. My parents are in Texas since last Thursday visiting my grandparents. It's been pretty nice to be able to have the house to myself, and being able to do pretty much whatever I want. No monitoring when I come home, where I go, and whatever else I do. I like the freedom and I like to have some of my friends over whenever I want. I do miss my parents though as well. Just a little bit.

I also met with the sports editor of the Blazer (the JJC newspaper), last Wednesday and he told me that my baseball article was pretty good. He told me that he really didn't need to do much editing to it because it was an overall well written article.

Tonight I am going over to Shannon's house to have dinner and play games.

So there's a little update on my life since I haven't written on here lately.

2008 Men's Baseball Preview

Here is a rough draft of my first ever newspaper article. I think its pretty good actually.



The JJC men’s baseball team has a lot to live up to in 2008. 2007 was a very successful season for JJC, and head coach Wayne King. The Wolves won 47 games, had six all-conference players, and finished the season as the national runner-up. However, the Wolves have lost 5 of the 6 all-conference players, and are returning only 11 wins from last year’s pitching staff.
The team will start the season with a road trip that includes schools from Tennessee and Kentucky. The Wolves will play 11 games in only 6 days. Coach Wayne King likes the early challenge, “Those early games are a good way to see who can do what. The freshmen have practiced all fall, but now they have to come out and play in the real games. So it will be interesting.”
The Wolves pitching staff is a very young and inexperienced group. There are only three pitchers returning from last year. Head coach Wayne King believes his young pitchers will play a huge role in the success of the team, “Our freshman pitchers have got to step up this year. They’re going to have gain experience early in the year, and hopefully gain confidence and be ready for the rest of the season.” Some of the freshman pitchers that will have an influence this season include Zack Giertych, Jake Bowman, Ryan Bethard, Brian Shirey, Kevin Barnett, and closer Steve Styck.
JJC will also return some key defensive players from the ’07 group. Catcher Casey Colbert, second team All-American short stop Ed Koncel, pitcher Joe Colbert, Dillon Roark, third baseman Ryan Voitik, center fielder T.J. Stanfield, outfielder Brandon Howard, Shaun Thomas, Alex McCluskey, Joe Maggio, and Chris Vidmar are all returning sophomores for the Wolves.
The key to success this season for JJC is hitting. With a young pitching staff, hitting will be even more important to get back runs that the pitchers may give up. Never the less, a quality defense will also play a large role in the success of the team.
The Wolves are the defending N4C conference champions. However, there are teams in the conference that will challenge JJC for the championship this season. Coach King knows the quality of the competition he will be up against, “Dupage and Waubonsee will give us all we can handle this season. Those are two teams that will threaten us the most for the regional championship.”

Zero

I don't have any thoughts or emotions running through my head right now. But I did feel like I should write something here. I think I'll go read the newspaper...

Needed to Get Out

This afternoon I was so sick of being in my house. I also very sick of hearing my dad blow up on me for no good reason. I was pissed at him. I had to get out of the house. So where did I end up when my best friend is out of town and I have nowhere to go? I stopped at the near-by Barnes and Nobles. I walked around for a little while and looked at the shelves, nothing caught my interest so I walked over to the magazines. I picked up the newest Sports Illustrated issue and sat down on one of the benches. After a little while my neck and back started to hurt so I walked into the Starbucks section and got a table. I ended up reading SI for two hours! I then put it back and bought an issue of SportingNews. After that I drove the Mcdonald's and bought a Big Mac. I came home after being gone for two and a half hours. It was just the break I needed. I got home and I felt alot better.

JJC Blazer

I officially have an assignment from the school newspaper at JJC called the Blazer. I contacted them about a week ago and set up a meeting. My first ever assignment for a newspaper is.... the write a preview for the 2008 men's baseball team. I am very excited about the column. The paper itself isn't due until Feb. 20th, but I've already started working on it. I actually need to send an e-mail right now to the head coach to set up an interview with him. This should be interesting and I am definetely going to post the article on here.

Intensity= Word of the Day

On Thursday night I had my first head coaching experience. It was something that I probably just wasn't ready for. Besides not knowing what to say at points of the game, came not knowing who to sub in at times. When Grant and myself addressed the team during the pregame the word INTENSITY became the key word. Knowing the team played soft and inconsistent on Tuesday, I asked the them what were some of the poor things they did on the game two days ago. They came up with some excuses but no one mentioned that they just weren't fired up. I told them that the reason they lost was because they just didn't play with intenisty, and that Aurora Christian was definetely beatable. Instead of using the normal chant after a huddle of 1-2-3 ATTITUDE, I implemented a new word for Thursday's game... 1-2-3 INTENSITY. It appeared to work for the first three quarters. Up by two at the end of the first, Down one at halftime, and down only three going into the fourth quarter. Myself and Grant were very intense for the entire first half yelling out commands and looking like real head coaches. However, the second half we kind of lost ourselves. With ACS making runs and the boys getting tired, we didn't know what to say any more. At timeouts we told them meaningless stuff because we were confused at what to do. We ended up losing the game 38-22. They just blew us out in the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter blowout came in part due to the lack of subbing in the first three quarters. We were exhausted and just couldn't hang with them any longer. Overall it was a good experience, and definetely a learning experience. Later that night I recieved an e-mail from coach Lowry telling me that I would be the coach again on this Thursday's game. I am interested in seeing how I will do again as a head coach. Hopefully this time it is against a lesser team!