A national sports treasure. That’s what Yankees Catcher Yogi Berra was for so many years. Really, a national personality for so many decades.
I know I should probably be a better role model to young athletes and talk up the clean-cut players who drink protein shakes and run eight miles a day, but the sad truth is, I’ve always rooted for the bad boys in sports.
Sometimes teams today willingly limit their future for the sake of immediate gains. The Houston Astros come to mind in this respect when they traded away their center fielder, Myles Straw, as well as one of their youngest and most promising sluggers, Abraham Toro, for some relief pitching. Straw’s eplacement dropped a catch in the following game for an error. Toro played against the Astros in the next two games for Seattle and hit two home runs. The game after the Astros left Seattle he hit a double and ran like an olympian for a single. He will most probably be a standout player for years to come. Houston hopes the added relief pitching will improve their chances of winning in this year's post season.
Before I get into my sports column about baseball umps, and why I wish I was one, I have to mention famed gymnast Simone Biles. The greatest and most dominant gymnast in modern times, as most people have already heard, she bowed out of this summer’s Olympics after developing a bad case of the “twisties,” which can cause a gymnast to crash and burn in the fatal sense – broken neck, etc.
In the end, it’s always a case of follow the money, isn’t it?
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