Opening Day Losses

Another loss for baseball and this one is embarrassing.  At least to me.  I guess I am all ears on how the fans at Miller Park decided to cheer for Ryan Braun in his first at bat since returning from a steroid suspension.

I think I understand faithful fans of teams so you go out and root for your team, but to root for a guy who lied to you not once, but at least twice, AND who tried to destroy the career of an innocent guy?  This was just as bad as the folks in Pittsburgh who decided they would go out of their way to cheer for Barry Bonds.  Why?

Isn't the game you love important enough to ignore those heroes that weren't heroes?  If you can't go out and win your game honest, why go out and win?  It's a hollow victory and should be embarrassing, not a positive.

I get that in the case of Barry Bonds he was the last player to win an MVP for the team, but there was really no one else to carry the mantle to Andrew McCutchen?

As Jim Leyland noted, Barry Bonds was a Hall of Fame player.  For me, the key here is was.  I realize he theoretically holds the record for most home runs in a season, but clearly steroids played a factor.  In his case though, what bothers me is he was a Hall of Famer when he was in Pittsburgh.  He played hard, he played great.  It is for those reason that his fall from grace should be all the more spectacular.  He was headed to the Hall of Fame before the home runs.

Opening Day should be a reminder of the future and things to come, not a reminder of the incidents which imbrue the past.  These two events were Opening Day losses for baseball and they should be embarrassed.