By Brian T. Smith
Assistant Sports Editor / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: January 15, 2008

Another day down, and another sad day for Major League Baseball.
Sports, at their best, are a brilliant, moving and inspiring distraction from the everyday troubles that permeate and cloud the world.
Lately, discussion regarding baseball has been filled with nothing but trouble.
Steroids, drugs, accusations, lies, double-handed dealings, denials and threats.
When will it stop? When will baseball go back to being baseball?
Maybe it is.
Maybe this is what baseball has really looked like all along.
Maybe this is just what happens when you turn over enough rocks and dig beneath the surface.
And it’s not just baseball. Modern sports in general have in many ways devolved into something that looks nice, bright and shiny on the outside, but the inside has rotted out and has been filled in with parasitic greed and nothingness.
Opening Day feels like a long, long time away right now.
The game will survive. The players will stay play. Fields will still look like heaven and the ball will still crack every time it perfectly smacks a glove or bat.
But baseball will never be the same.