Getting to the root of it...

After much thought and a lot of accusations, I am changing my mind... again.

No, I am not going back to the Dodgers.

In my previous post's comments on FaceBook one of my dear friends said, "You're abandoning the team (Dodgers) of Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, and Kirk Gibson for the team of Juan Marichal and Barry Bonds?" (Did you know that Marichal played for the Dodgers his final year and that he and Johnny Roseboro were good friends after the incident?) He forgot people like Maury Wills, Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen, Ron Fairly, Jim Gilliam, Johnny Roseboro, Tommy and Willie Davis, Frank Howard, PeeWee Reese, Jim Lefebvre...

These were my heroes. I wasn't into Superman comics (maybe a little Batman, then Archie) I was into baseball. These men and others such as Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Hank and Tommy Aaron, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Brooks Robinson, Norm Cash, Lou Brock, Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, and many, many more, were my Saints. I loved baseball because these and others played it. They didn't make much money and it was at great expense to them and their families to play the game they loved. People honored them because they could identify with them. Prima donnas hardly existed. No pharmaceutical enhancements, except liquor.

I played it in the street in front of my house, in the playground at school and later at the little league stadium. It was simple: a glove, ball, bat, t-shirts for the bases. Game on. Today the game is not the same as it was back then. I had a shirt that I painted the Los Angeles Dodger's LA on it. Today I could get sued for copyright infringement.

Today it is not about the game, it is about Prima donnas. Tim, I did not abandon the team of these great men, the MLB abandon the game for commercialized racketeering. I decided I am not leaving the LA Dodgers for the SF Giants, I really am leaving Major League Baseball and want to hang out at the local field, whether 3A, women's softball at CSUFresno, or little league, with my sons and daughters and their children and watch baseball, not a team. I am rooting again for baseball not a team.

"It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again..."

I need to announce to all my friends and those who have supported me for many years...

I believe there comes a time in everyone's life when they need to stop and assess what is it that they believe, what they stand for, and what do they feel matters. I realized that I have been angry for many years and not sure what was the root of my frustration and bitterness.

I know that I have alienated many of my dear friends over the years with my view on the church and christian institutional hierarchy. I know many have questioned my faith and wondered if I truly believe in Jesus Christ. Some think I have become too liberal in my politics and backslid into being a radical left winger and heathen.

I need to be honest and not live the lie I feel I have been living for the past few years

I have decided I can no longer sit around and be a follower of an organization that turns its back on the common logic and reason of this world. I can no longer be a hypocrite by reading from the word and wearing the colors but in my heart no longer believe.

I have been praying, meditating, and seeking council from close friends and family, some were very surprised and disappointed in me and some figured it out last summer when I quit attending the fellowship. I never want to be a fraud nor have people think that I am a liar and a pretender. I believe in loyalty and commitment, but can no longer continue in this relationship.

Christel decided she would not leave me over this but is a little concerned if I am just going through a mid-life crisis. I have assured her this would not affect our relationship.

I want to make it official with just those of you to whom I am close.

I have decided to no longer call myself a Los Angeles Dodger fan and will begin following the local Fresno Grizzlies and San Francisco Giants.