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'There's new grass on the field'

Dave D'Amore

There is an old saying that goes, "There is no such thing as bad public relations." Well, this phrase has certainly been tested by Major League Baseball in the past few weeks.

Unless you have been living on a planet that is not Earth, you know about Alex Rodriguez and how he admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs from 2001-03. This fact alone did not surprise me. I was much more surprised when Rodriguez actually came out and confessed to his actions.

The other surprising anecdote from the oft-replayed interview is that Rodriguez claims not to know what drugs he actually took. While I initially do not believe this, I am sure the truth will come out one way or another, as this story does not seem to be going away any time soon.

Just in case you were not tired of hearing stories about steroids in baseball, Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada made the sports news cycle when he plead guilty last week to lying to Congressional investigators about the use of performance enhancing drugs. Tejada admitted that he withheld knowledge about a former teammate's use of illegal performance drugs. He also admitted to purchasing human growth hormone earlier in his career, but never actually used them. For his falsehoods, Tejada could face up to one year in jail. When you take these two stories from the past few weeks and add in the constant stories about Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball has received one huge

black-eye.

Despite this, the sport of baseball received some good news this past week. More importantly, fans of baseball received some good news.

Normally around the second week in February, people like to hear three little words to make them feel special and warm their heart. Well, I heard the seven words that put a spring in my step this time of year: "Pitchers and catchers report to spring training." Ah yes, spring training. For me, the beginning of spring training comes at the perfect time.

Living in Ohio all my life, the weather is usually cold and snowy in February. The NBA regular season does a decent job of filling my week, but it does not really heat up until the playoffs. Football season is over and probably ended long before the Super Bowl, considering the team I root for.

Once the Super Bowl ends, there is that month-and-a-half void where the winter seems to never end and March Madness is just so far away. The sports page of any newspaper is just pathetic as there is little to write about and one can read the whole section in about five minutes.

But now that spring training has started, there is hope. We can start focusing on baseball stories that actually involve action on the field. Baseball analysts can start predicting who is going to win a division, instead of predicting how much suspension or jail time a player will get for a drug-related offense.

Specifically going into this season, there are so many non-steroid related questions that need answers. Who will Manny Ramirez play for? Will there be a dark-horse team like the Tampa Bay Rays who shock the world and make an improbable run to the World Series? Will C.C. Sabathia be able to adjust to New York? Will this year finally be the Cubs' year? These are all intriguing baseball stories that do not require ESPN's team of legal analysts.

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So rejoice, baseball fans. Spring training has finally arrived. As John Fogerty once sang, "We're born again, there's new grass on the field." All across Florida and Arizona, the grass has started to grow and it's time to start thinking about baseball once again. It's time for another baseball season to be born.