The MLB trade deadline has come and gone. One of the key themes of the trade deadline as it always is was the 10/5 clause that allows players with at least 10 years of MLB service and the last 5 with the same team to veto any trade. I despise this clause with a passion. When a person decides to become a professional athlete in MLB, NHL, NFL or NBA, they know that there is a possibility that they can be traded. It goes with the territory. Excuse me if my heart doesn’t break for a guy that is making $15 million a year having to move against his wishes for 3 months. Baseball players are on the road all the GD time anyway so their families are used to them being away. You are making $15 million a year…buy some fricking plane tickets and take your family on the road with you if you can’t bear the thought of being away from them. As a fan, my loyalty is to my favorite team. That team was my favorite team long before this 10/5 player came along and it will be my favorite team long after that 10/5 player runs off to another team willing to pay him more money. As a fan, I want what is best for my favorite team. What is going to be best? Having two more months of that player and then him leaving via free agency anyway because my team doesn’t want him anymore or getting some quality prospects that might turn into the next 10/5 guy? It is a crapshoot dealing with prospects. They may never pan out. No one knows at the time of the trade or potential trade. However, I like my teams chances five years down the road with the prospects than without them. Once a player invokes his 10/5 rights and vetoes a trade or makes it known what team he will accept a trade to, it handcuffs the team from getting the best deal. If TEAM A knows that they are one of only two or three teams that PLAYER X will agree to be traded to, why would they offer to give up their best prospects? They have all the leverage. “You can give the player to us for 30 cents on the dollar or you can keep him for 2 months and get nothing.”

Players have every right to exercise an option that their union negotiated for them to have. As a fan, I have every right to think that a player exercising that option is a douchebag for hurting my favorite team. That being said, I hope and pray that the Texas Rangers don’t even make the playoffs this season and that the Atlanta Braves find a way to win the World Series.

Moving on to the next thing on my hit list, the GD Olympics. I don’t think I could hate the Olympics any more than I already do. Between the Summer and Winter Olympics, there is only one event that I even remotely give a damn about on a regular basis…men’s basketball. I love my Kentucky Wildcats basketball. I will watch what I can of their 30 to 40 games a year and I will watch other March Madness games until Kentucky is eliminated. That is it for my interest in basketball. I’m short. I’m fat. I have a 4 inch vertical leap. I’m white. Basketball isn’t my game. I used to love to watch the Chicago Bulls back in Michael Jordan’s heyday. He was the greatest of all time and incredible to watch. He made the game exciting and he won titles for my hometown team. I was a bandwagon fan. However, when he retired for the second time and left the Bulls franchise, I stopped caring about the NBA. Derrick Rose has sort of piqued my interest a little bit in following what the Bulls are doing. One of the biggest regrets of my sports fan life was not getting to see Michael Jordan play in person. I’ve went to 3 Chicago Bulls games in the last couple of years to watch Derrick Rose play just in case he ever gets the Bulls another title. He’s fun to watch but he is no MJ so I’m not 100% invested into the team. So I love college basketball and have mild interest in pro basketball. I couldn’t care less about Olympic basketball other than the 1992 Dream Team even if I tried. I will never be able to understand why anyone in the world would give a damn about synchronized swimming, speed walking, archery, etc even if it is wrapped in an American (or whatever nationality flag you represent) flag. Why should wrapping it in a flag make any difference? Does the United States winning the gold medal in women’s gymnastics end Global Warming? Bring world peace? Cure cancer? Then why should it matter unless you are a big fan of gymnastics? Even the other popular events according to viewership: swimming, track and field…who watches these events outside of every 4 years when the Olympics rolls around? That is to take nothing away from the talent, hard work and dedication that these people have for their sport/activity but I’m not going to sit around and watch a science fair, mathlete competition etc either. I don’t need to watch people swimming or running or tumbling on a mat unless they are swimming away from a shark, running from a lion or getting slammed and hit while tumbling around on a mat.

As for the Winter Olympics, don’t even get me started. I despise winter like I despise hot dogs, the Green Bay Packers and Hunter Hearst Helmsley. I don’t go outside in the snow unless I absolutely have to. Give me 60 degree weather year round and I’d be in heaven. So the thought of watching people play in snow and on ice just depresses the hell out of me and reminds me that it is freezing and miserable outside. That makes the Winter Olympics just absolutely worthless to me.

To hell with the Olympics and I didn’t even get into all the debt is causes the host cities. Look it up. The 1976 Olympics in Montreal put them into debt until 2006 and look at what the 2004 Olympics has done to Greece. The information is out there.

In closing, are you ready for some football? I know that I sure the hell am.