Rant #1,437: Odds and Ends

It is almost funny how things work out.

Did you see the Classic Rant for today?

It spoke about actor Patrick Swayze, who had died of pancreatic cancer a couple of years ago.

Just the day before, in my current rant #1,436, I talked about a fellow I knew growing up that died of the very same disease.

So funny that it is so sad.

Yes, this guy's passing continues to reverberate with me, and I really don't want to prolong your agony on reading about it, but just let's say I got some closure yesterday by speaking, over the phone, with another childhood friend during lunch about it.

He actually knew this person far longer than I did, and he had a very good perspective on things.

It served as some type of closure for me, and it is always a nice thing to renew acquaintances.

But the next time, let's speak when things are better.

Anyway, I see that my Yankees remain in first place. I am completely amazed, to be honest with you.

I admit, I was one of those naysayers who thought this season was going to be a complete disaster.

So far, I have been happily wrong.

They are pitching well, they are hitting a lot more than they did a year ago, their bullpen is perhaps the best one in the major leagues, and they are doing the little things that a team needs to win.

No deflate-gate here. They Yankees have inflated their stature, and they are fun to watch again.

And yes, I am pulling for Alex Rodriguez to have a good year.

My feeling is that players have been using performance enhancers since at least the late 1960s.

Uppers, amphetamines, you name it, and yes, later, PEDs.

I am fully convinced that of all the thousands of players that have played during the past 50 years or so, probably 75 percent of them used something to get the most out of themselves.

Wrong, absolutely, but unfortunately, that is the environment we live in in sports.

ARod was juiced up, we know that, but so were many of the pitchers he faced.

He hit them. He was successful. So be it.

And are you telling me that players aren't taking things right now?

They are probably concocting undetectable PEDs as we speak.

Again, I am not saying it is right, but let's not make ARod--who homered last night--the poster child for our angst.

There is a guy pitching for the Mets--who are also in first place--Bartolo Colon, who leads the major leagues in wins, at six.

Guess what? He was suspended a few years back for PED use, too.

Get used to it, fans. So many players use something to boost their performance that I think it is unusual when one doesn't use something to make them perform better, even with all the checks and balances now in place to thwart this.

And then we have the baseball weather.

It seems that we went from winter right into summer.

Right now in my neck of the woods, we are going to have a day pushing 90 degrees.

This is only about a month after we saw our last snowflakes of our horrid winter.

It really won't matter to me that much. I will be in a hot office, where they seem to keep the thermostat at 79 degrees year round.

It is so hot in there that at times, I could swear I hear and smell an egg frying in my part of the office.

Without a pan and a flame.

So it can be 90 degrees out if it wants to; I am going to be sweating anyway.

I am just looking forward to my family's vacation, where we can cool ourselves off in some tropical paradise, where 79 would be a pleasure because it is about 20 degrees higher outside.

That day will come, but right now, enough with my rambling, it is back to work for me, or at least back to preparing for work, since it is nearing 5 a.m. in the morning.

I still have some time to go before work begins, so let me relax while I can.

And let me prepare to sweat, because it is sure to get real hot in the old salt mine today.