Major League Baseball has, for the past few years, been fighting quite the steroid scandal. There’s nothing new there, we’ve all watched America’s Sport be knocked down and dragged around and covered in mud.

Now, whether they’ve earned it or not, that’s a decision that can only be made up in the minds of the fans… or the not fans. However, baseball has just been handed a perfect opportunity to prove that they care, that they want to fight back … and it’s come from our allies across the pond.

The United Kingdom Anti-Doping Agency has delivered the first positive test for Human Growth Hormone, or HGH, as well as the first suspension for the use of the drug.

Terry Newton, a former player for the Wakefield Rugby club who was fired after the positive test, has also been banned from the sport for two years. It’s the first positive test for HGH, as well as the first suspension for the drug, in a major sport.

Baseball, as well as most other professional sports in North America, have put a ban on HGH that’s been in place for as long as ten years. However, there hasn’t been a test capable of detecting the use of the substance, and their have been rumors of its use throughout the major leagues.

The UKADA has defended the test, and stated an enormous belief both in its accuracy and reliability.

Here’s hoping Major League Baseball takes the hint.

-rb

Rob Brown General

Let’s have a moment of silence, please. If you don’t mind - please minimize your browser, open up your iTunes and play the “Lonely Man” song and take just a moment with me, if you don’t mind, to celebrate the life and times of Colonel Reb, who was officially dumped as the Ole Miss mascot this week.

Since his birth, he's bee.... well, really, he's ALWAYS looked old.

Of course, Colonel Ed hasn’t ALWAYS been a hard nosed representation of the always serious Southern gentlemen and, some say, Civil War veteran (come on. They’re called the Rebels. Don’t play coy with us, Ole Miss…)

What a stud...

Anyway, the school has gone ahead and asked for the students to vote on

1) If they want to replace the mascot at all, and
2.) What the new mascot should be.

I, of course, feel that not having a mascot is akin to wearing only pads on the field. Why in the world would you do so? I mean, it’s your IDENTITY. How in the world do you identify yourself without a mascot? I mean, some people may have been (understandably) upset by the Rebel mascot, but at the same time, how the heck are they going to identify you if you have NO mascot at all?

So, I present to you my proposal for the new Ole Miss mascot:

Come up with ONE Rebel more well known than this one. I challenge you. GO OLE MISS!

Rob Brown General

Very rarely does a topic come along that elicits a serious, stragith-faced response from me.. mainly because I am, for the most part, incapable of delivering one.

However, my stance on the Tiger Woods situation has climbed to one of those types of events.

This morning, I attempted to make my stance on my new opinion of Tiger VERY clear, and I thought that it was rather simple - apparently not.

Let me start with the brief history of my Tiger fandom.

I bought and wore red Nike shirts-because that’s what Tiger wore. I drank Tiger Gatorade-because that’s what Tiger drank. I swang Nike irons on the course-because that’s what Tiger swang. I wore Nike spikes-because that’s what Tiger wore. I played Nike Ones, my first “real” watch was a Tag-Hauer and I learned how to bounce a golf ball on the end of my pitching wedge when I was bored - because all of that made up Tiger Woods.

And Tiger was the best.

Tiger wasn’t a golfer. And he wasn’t a model. And he wasn’t a playboy. And he wasn’t a billionaire. He was the Ken Griffey Jr. of our day - the guy who was just cool. The million dollar smile, the ability to stand over a 17 footer and almost seem to say “watch this” before knocking it down to win his next six-figure prize check and trophy.

Tiger was the best. He took a sport that I loved and became so good at it, owned it so much, that it seemed instead of saying “I want to be the best golfer ever,” you started to say “I want to be Tiger Woods.”

I saw full grown men playing on Sunday afternoons wearing Tiger Woods gear. He could take men, who are supposed to idolize no one but themselves, their families and their own fathers, and turn them into fans. Fanatics. No… FANATICS.

But what does it take to have that much admiration for someone? Whether it’s Tim Tebow, or Drew Brees, or anyone else who plays a game for a living?

You have to like them. You have to be able to say “I like the way that person is.” You have to be able to say “I’ll defend my opinion of them.”

Unfortunately, I can no loner do that with Eldrick Tiger Woods.

What he did crossed a line. Listen, I’m not a prude and I’m not stuck in the 1700’s. Stunningly enough, people sleep with more then just their spouses now a days. Do I agree with it? Moot point. Fact is, it happens.

But Tiger wasn’t just another billionaire playboy athlete with money to burn and a libido to much. A 24 year old single wide receiver goes out and pulls stunts like that - whatever. He’s got no commitments, he owes nothing to anyone.

Tiger isn’t a single 24 year old. Tiger is married. Tiger has professed undieing love to a woman. Tiger has fathered two children with this woman and Tiger started a family with this woman.

And he didn’t just “cheat” on her. It wasn’t an “oh my God, I screwed up, I’m so sorry, let’s fix this” kind of thing. This wasn’t one mistake, one thing to forgive.

This was a choice. And a choice. And a choice. And a choice, and a choice and a choice and a choice and a choice……… for three years.

I don’t like Tiger. I find what he did reprehensible and unacceptable and while I can’t say “unforgiveable” because I’m a very forgiving person, I can say it absolutely disgusts me.

And I don’t like Tiger. I can’t be a fan of Tiger. I can’t ever look at him and just “forget” what happened, that he did this to a family and to the woman he said he’d love unconditionally forever.

Is it my business? No. Hell no. Not a damn bit of it.

But now I know about it. Now I know the real Tiger.

And I don’t like him.

And if you don’t like someone, you can’t be a fan.

The shirts are put away, I’ll switch back to VitaminWater, and the hats will be donated to Haiti or wherever else they’re needed. I can’t do it. I can’t be a Tigermaniac anymore.

I don’t like him, and I can’t be a fan.

Rob Brown General

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