The Day the Icons Died.

It was a rough week for cultural icons. The Gloved One and Farrah going down on the same day was cosmically tragic. This perpetual live coverage of death featured Michael Jackson with Farrah as a soft undercurrent for many of the Yard loyalists. As we watched the impromptu celebration in front of the original Jackson Family home in Gary, Indiana, we could not help but wonder who among them had any of Jackson’s classic songs on their iPod that they played in that hood the previous week?

We grew up watching Michael Jackson grow up. He turned out a bit different than the parameters of his gene pool and other social mores but his song deck is on this parental iPod. In 1970, twelve year old MJ was shaking it on the Ed Sullivan Show for the nation. On another November night in this seminal year, this thirteen year old was shaking before the tribunal council of my parents, Sister Leona and Mrs. Salisbury at Incarnation Elementary School. Jackson had defined his path on his way to becoming the King of Pop. My inquiring parents and educators wanted to know how much more of my youth would be wasted on idle musings and quixotic ramblings about nonsensical things in effort to elicit laughter. There were more questions than answers that night in 8th grade.

Farrah was a tougher blow. We shared an intimate relationship that went beyond the red bathing suit poster. It was introspective and special at a level that only 11 million other teenage boys were enjoying with that angel of Charlie. We broke it off before college without any hard feelings but her passing was a difficult day nonetheless.

Back at the Yard…Laker Fan, we cherish the championship; hope the doctor can keep the band together because the future looks bright. But it is time to lower the purple and yellow flags off the passenger windows of your car. We never quite got on board with Laker Flag Nation but supported the enthusiasm. It is time to store the flags for next May and get out the blue foam finger. Check that off for this holiday weekend.

L.A. Times and Bill Plaschke, enough about the outrage of Manny playing tune-up games in the minors. He paid more for his sins than any other MLB steroid offender ever. Barry, A-Rod, Clemens, Cansecidiot, and the rest of the unindicted legions who never paid a dime while garnering big salaries at ages when most Generation IX Hall of Famers have long retired without recompense. Ramirez is paid by the MLB game so he is not paid while playing in the minors. The Yard argues that is a boon for Albuquerque to have a player like Manram playing before the local fans. It was good for local and national baseball and Manny did not profit. He was docked fifty games pay and he is coming back. We do not need the mea culpa story or the reason just a home run threat in the three spot. We are more concerned about the chemistry of a young team that has played better without him than his confession of a sin most would commit given the skill and the chance.

While all current potential hall of fame players will have their career scrutinized for traces of performance enhancement, Donald Fehr and Bud Selig should be equally scrutinized for their glaucoma laden leadership. Commissioner Bud Selig and Donald Fehr should have asterisks next to their names when and if they come up for election to the hall. They were at the helm for the start of the abuse. Bud Selig became commissioner of the MLB in 1992. Don Fehr has been the Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players association since 1985.

In March 2005, Buddy Selig testified before congress stating that he had no personal knowledge of any PED abuse and that the MLB owners supported the Drug Free Sports Act. Bud knew full well that the players association would fight mandatory testing and that no reliable tests for the HGH existed. He threw down the limp gauntlet towards a players association that was profiting as much as he and the others owners were. He had already cashed out of the pyramid scheme twelve months earlier as an owner. Bud Selig now earns $18.3 million per year as the commissioner of baseball, not bad for a car salesman from Milwaukee!

In May 2005, Fehr as has the head of the players union testified before congress that he felt that the Drug Free Sports Act was a threat to the nation’s most widely held beliefs?! We are still researching what widely held beliefs mandatory drug testing would subjugate these well paid athletes but his patriotic outrage has been well noted. Attorneys testifying to attorneys can be a clever exercise among the smartest a-holes in the room arguing about verbs. Fehr and the boys on the hill did not disappoint.

Don Fehr is retiring and garnering praise for his stalwart leadership. Bud can not be too far behind him. It is hard to imagine that these leaders of the owners and the players union had no idea of the size and scope of the performance enhancing drug issue. MLB Players salaries went from an average of $964,979 per year in 1995 after the last labor strike to $3.3 million this past year. Don Fehr made millions and fought drug testing for years. Bud bought the Brewers for $13 million and sold them for $180 million in 2004 before these scandals under his leadership became public. Turning a blind eye was minimally invasive and extremely profitable for Bud, Don and their minions.

The rain is famous for falling on the just and unjust alike, but if I had the management of such affairs I would rain softly and sweetly on the just, but if I caught a sample of the unjust out doors I would drown him. Mark Twain