I’m wandering about in my mind today, crashing into everything from Hillary to Rocket Roger Clemens, the thunderhead who in my experience as a professional sports beat writer is not unlike others who make millions playing ball and think they are above the fray and can not do anything wrong.

Not that I should cast stones because I know how easily it is to think you are better than the average Joe when you have everything given to you and are treated like a rock star whenever you appear in public. It gets to you, I know. I’ve seen a lot of good baseball men suddenly turn into what Hillary calls an elitist when they get their first big contract. Some I didn’t think ever would, did.

But that’s life.

If you can survive a reckless youth by avoiding the biggest tree with your dad’s car and somehow manage to age where the mind works well and the body doesn’t, then you know that life goes in stages, from soft and cuddly baby to feeble adult.

That real life fact came to me once again when I was wandering around a track meet last month. Tape was strung across the javelin, shot put and discus areas so unaware walkers wouldn’t get beaned by an errant throw. While looking for the next great story several times I had to get on the other side of the tape, only to find my body saying no. I would walk back and forth looking for a weakness so I could either step across it or duck under it.

Meanwhile, across the track a young male athlete leaped in a single bound over a 4-foot fence to his team’s tent.

But that’s life.

Years ago I would once in a while run across somebody I hadn’t seen in years and watch as that aging friend tried to climb up gym bleachers, sometimes having to get assistance from somebody else. No way, I thought, will that ever happened to me.

Wrong, Kemosabe.

While covering a North Mason basketball game last winter, I tried to navigate my way from the top of the bleachers to the floor through a crowd of sitting fans. I knew it could be trouble before I started, and sure enough I stumbled toward the end and clipped a guy with the clipboard I was holding as I tried to regain my balance. Fortunately, the man wasn’t hurt. But I was seriously embarrassed, and reminded once again what age does to you. The good thing is there no good option to not aging.

All the preseason hype about the Seattle Mariners got me rattled to the point I began to think maybe it’s true, maybe they will contend in the American League West. But I still wasn’t quite sure. Not in my cluttered mine, anyway.

Now that they have stumbled badly, my first reaction was right. I’m not convinced they have one of the best starting rotations, and the bullpen isn’t as solid as made out to be.

But I think the biggest thing working against them is there isn’t a team leader. Maybe Raul Ibanez, but that’s stretching what a true leader on the par with, say, Jay Buhner was for the Mariners. Buhner could be anything needed to get his teammates fired up, including doing some crazy things in the clubhouse that aren’t printable, to being in a teammate’s face, to going out and running through walls every night. He was also a good spokesman for the team to the media.

A team, in any sport, needs a Buhner, a guy who gets down and dirty, yet has a sense of humor and is grounded enough to be humble when the situation demands. It would be better to have a couple of them.

I know when Ken Griffey and Alex Rodriguez were together on the Mariners, people that didn’t know thought that those two were the team leaders. But that was far from the truth. It was Buhner and Edgar Martinez, who didn’t talk much but day in and out was a professional to the umpteenth degree, and a sweet guy very much respected by his teammates.

That’s life, too.

Even though I know that money rules our world, it still upsets me that David Stern is getting away with his collaboration in the great Sonics robbery (the new team in Oklahoma should be called the Oklahoma Robber Barons). The bottom line is that Stern and the NBA don’t believe their billionaire owners can make enough money unless the city has an arena that will guarantee it.

What really galls me is that there is no concern for the average fan. It’s all about luxury boxes and the ability to soak corporations and the wealthy to pay for an outlandish pay scale that makes millionaires of teenagers and billionaires of the already wealthy. There is no room for the average Joe and Mary, unless they mortgage the future for the thrill of the present.

The most outlandish part of all is that Stern and his wealthy buddies want the government to pay for these new ostentatious playgrounds.

I say no. Give to the poor, the needy, the uneducated and the educational systems. Let the wealthy get richer some place else.

That’s life, also.

Speaking of green, I have spent a lot of time the last three or four years in Vancouver, just across the Columbia River from Portland. Our grown daughter and her family and our oldest son live there and I’m amazed the large differences in open green space in Clark County as opposed to Kitsap County.

There are parks and recreational playing fields dotting the landscape, especially in the east valley around Orchards and Camas and north to Battle Ground. The county and city has something for everybody, from Little League to senior citizens. It doesn’t appear government there spares money in keeping the area green and healthy.

Here, there is a lack of fields and gyms and parks. Not that the Fairgrounds complex is bad, but I believe the fields are not accessible all the time. I’m not quite sure what the deal is, but they sometimes are under lock and key, which makes me wonder if public fields can not be used why are they public?

What are we paying for?

Keys and locks?

That, by the way, is not life, not in a free America.

One option for more green space is the old East High School property along Wheaton Way. That piece of school district property would be a wonderful place to meld several things together into one, since it’s in a central location.

I have heard that there have been discussions on what to do there. I know the old gym and the cafeteria are supposed to be saved and the rest of the buildings torn down. Fields are part of the plan.

It would be nice to include a new multi-facility building, which could be used by Olympic College basketball and other assorted events. Locate the Bremerton City Parks and Recreational offices there and maybe we would have a first-class facility that rivals others around the western part of the state, including those in Vancouver.

But it’s going to take a meeting of the various minds – city, college, school district and other interested parties – plus a take-charge leader, a lot of will on the part of the community and a large influx of that other green, money.

Will something get done like that above?

Maybe.

But I’m not holding my breath.

That’s also life.

One other thing that may not ever get done around here is to funnel teenage baseball players upward to one system. I’d like to see Babe Ruth programs, AAU teams and other select teams playing together under one umbrella and then as the players age up, go into American Legion Junior teams and then American Legion Senior teams.

As it has been and continues to be, everybody goes off in their own directions and there is inconsistent funneling into the legion teams. What happens is players go off to other select organizations in the Seattle and Tacoma areas and our organizations here are robbed of their talent.

It is claimed that by playing across the water, these players get better exposure to college recruiters and pro scouts because they travel extensively. That may be true to certain extents, but if all those players stayed home and played in a centralized organization they might have the same opportunities and get just as good coaching.

That’s enough of life today..

Have a great month.

You are loved.

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