A Diamond In The Rough.

No matter which way you slice it, and they're tough to slice, a diamond is still a diamond. I'm talking about baseball diamonds, of course, and how the majority of fans and players these days want to follow suit with the New York Yankees in building 1.5 billion dollar stadiums to further pamper their overpaid players (Teixeira, Sabathia, AROD!) leaving the Wrigley and Fenway cathedrals to likely go the way of Shea and Yankee Stadium.

Now, in my opinion, which is, in my opinion, the most important opinion on the planet, baseball is the best game that can be played on this earth, and it DOES NOT MATTER where the game is played. As long as the bases are ninety feet apart, and the mound rubber sixty feet, six inches from home plate, I am as happy as a Northside Chicagoan watching the Cubs win the World Series... not that anyone under the age of 100 would know what that feels like (BAZZZZING);)

Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs' ace pitcher was just quoted at New Yankee Stadium saying:

"You come into a ballpark like this and you see great things. You wish that Chicago'd build a new stadium for the Cubs".

Whoa there, Big Z; great things? Like what? A martini bar? Touch-screen LCDs in your locker? What about Wrigley Field's ivy walls, or the completely hand-operated scoreboard? Being a diehard Reds fan since birth(and you have to be diehard...), my hatred for the Cubs is runner-up only to that of the Yankees, but before I'm a Reds fan, I'm a baseball fan, and therefore can't imagine Northern Chicago without historical Wrigley Field. Besides, there's no better place for my Redlegs to lay the hurt on the ol' Cubbies:)

But seriously, baseball predates even the civil war. It isn't about flashy scoreboards, or luxury skyboxes, it's about two teams playing eachother on a warm summer day. It requires nothing more than eighteen players, some hotdogs, four bases, and a pitching mound. I can't stomach the idea of Fenway being torn down just to allow 10,000 more seats. Fenway Park has been a baseball icon since 1912. It's the oldest park in in Major League Baseball, and I think it should remain so until it literally crumbles to the ground during a sell-out Sox/Yanks game.

Parks like Wrigley and Fenway give you those nostalgic, Coca-Cola commercial, father/son feelings that can't be replicated in a 1.5 billion dollar colosseum. George Hermann Ruth, Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, and Joe Dimaggio, just to name a few, all played and sweat on Yankee Stadium, and now it's gone by the wayside of extravagance? Weak... Yankee stadium was itself a testimate to the longevity and greatness of the game of baseball, and it hosted the greatest players to ever play the game, but I guess replacement is the fate of all that is good in the world. Yankee Stadium will be torn down piece by piece and sold to the highest bidder so that the already filthy rich Yankees can generate even more revenue.



Where does it end? Babe Ruth's home field will be demolished. Will Wrigley field, where he called his shot in the 1932 world series, be destroyed too? Is Fenway soon to be replaced by a dome with astroturf? It may not be the prettiest ballpark in the world, but it sure as hell has the most character. Pesky's pole, the curse of the Bambino, the Royal Rooters, the green monster. Character, not extravagance, is what so many in this country need to learn to appreciate.

A diamond in the rough...