Reflections on the Sports Landscape of the 2000s

Looking back at the decade that was in sports, there were a lot of memorable moments. Time and space do not allow to cover all of them but here's the ones that register in my mind. Feel free to comment about yours:

*The Music City Miracle: I was there and I saw it live. It was considered one of the top 10 NFL plays of the decade (it was even in the top 5) and I saw it in person. To this day, I still remember the excitement and the celebration that happened when Kevin Dyson scored that TD. Hearing the radio call later by Mike Keith and Pat Ryan still gives me chills. Awesome.

*The World Series in 2001: Probably the only time in my life that I liked the Yankees. After the events of 9/11, it almost seemed fitting that the Yankees were in the World Series that year. It was something to watch that series and see all the dramatic elements that came with it. In the end, I was glad that the Diamomdbacks won but for a time, I did like the Yankees.

*Steroids at the forefront in baseball: Nothing disappointed me more than all the things that came out when steroids, HGH and performance enhancing drugs were brought to light in baseball. It's sad to know that for most of my life, especially my childhood is now tainted by the label "steroid era". If there's any good that comes out of this, I hope it cleans up the sport. But it doesn't take away (like the strike in '94) the disappointment.

*Return of football to New Orleans in 2006: I watched the first game in the reopened Superdome with the Saints and the Atlanta Falcons. It had the feel of a Super Bowl and it showed. The game itself was a good one and it was really cool to watch.

*The Olympics: It was a good decade for the Olympics. With the Winter (2002, Salt Lake City, 2006 Turin, Italy) and the Summer (2000, Sydney, Austraila, 2004, Athens, Greece, 2008, Bejing, China) there was a lot of memorable performances. It'll be interesting to see how the next few Olympics turn out as well.

*Red Sox and breaking of the Curse: Obviously, the championship run by the Boston Red Sox in 2004 was memorable. To beat the Yankees four straight in the ALCS after being down 0-3 was simply sweet and then to then sweep in the World Series was icing on the cake. 86 years without a title and then finally one. Along with winning in 2007, it was a good year.

All this and more made for a memorable decade. Looking forward to the sports decade that is the 2010s

Steroids: The Continued Black Eye on Baseball

It seems like the consequences of the use of steroids and "performance enhancing" drugs still seems to follow baseball like a shadow. The news that broke today that Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking steroids back in 2003.

Personally this saddens me. Understandably, I'm not a fan of A-Rod to begin with. This goes back to him leaving Seattle for that huge contract and then ending up with the Yankees. But it would have been nice if he wasn't on steroids so that there was the possiblity that he could break the records of Barry Bonds and 'clean' up the records. Now, that will not happen.

Growing up, I really did like baseball. But it seems like in the past decade and a half, the sport has done a lot to itself that it needs to make amends for (the strike, steroid scandal, no salary cap which makes for little parity). The sport has tried to turn things around. But it really needs to make the effort to do it. Otherwise, the sport will be supplanted (if it hasn't already) as "America's Pasttime"...

(The story itself can be seen at this link at SI.com