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I just have to wonder how baseball players and their families do it.  It can’t be easy dealing with the uncertainty of baseball.  Players who seemingly have a solid contract can really be traded at anytime.  Bench players are fodder for deals that can happen at anytime.  Families get settled into some kind of normalcy only to be thrust into a state of transition at the drop of a hat.

The days where a player remained with the team that drafted him are LONG gone.  Loyalty and committment are no longer part of the vocabulary.

This, they say, is the name of the game.  Part of the package.  The cost of being a sports celebrity.  Nobody is forcing them to do play professional baseball.  Deal with it.

Most of the Scout.com forums have a thread dedicated to trade rumors.  Many are over 15 pages long.  I get exhausted reading through them.  On a forum not related to the rumor mill a poster claimed that his wife was sick of his ranting so he rants on the forum site.  Great…now we get bombarded by his inane comments. 

Today my friend, Joel, asked me if I heard that the Padres were looking at Milton Bradley.  I asked him where he had read that information.  He claimed it was just a rumor. 

Yeh, I read that rumor three days ago…on the madfriars.com Scout site.  Rumor.  Drivel. Non-sense.  At least that is what I am hoping.  Why would a sane man like Kevin Towers bring on someone like Milton Bradley?

Last year when the trade deadline rolled around, I remember thinking how nice it would be for players to know they were settled.  Perhaps now they could huncker down, focus their batting average, paying  attention to fine-tuning their game rather than worrying about what team they would be playing with by the end of the week.  I learned a lot last year: trade deadlines aren’t really deadlines.

I still don’t understand the whole thing but a trade deadline doesn’t really mean a player can’t be traded.  I remember asking my husband last year why do they even have a trade deadline when there are so many exceptions!!

With so much uncertainty, no wonder I spend so much time on the internet trying to keep abreast of the latest baseball news.  As I surf I question myself wondering who really knows the truth?  Forum trollers?  Heck no.  Sports writers?  Maybe, but even they have ulterior motives.  Maybe this is what keeps the game exciting when games are not taking place, you know…all the off-field moves.

But I am just a fan.  My life does not depend on my batting average or defensive skills or the need for power at the plate or the whim of a general manager.  If my favorite ball player gets traded, I still wake up in my nice, new king-sized bed.  My job stays the same even if my favorite ball player changes leagues.  And I don’t have to worry about being away from my family if I move teams that are on opposite sides of the country. 

And so goes the game of baseball.