Cub Scouts To Save Us All!!!

Well, I guess you can't blame them for trying! According to a post on Tuff Stuff Magazine's website, the MLBPA is now looking for Baseball Card Hobby Shops to host events, Baseball Card Clubhouse, for Cub Scout troops all accross the nation, so they can earn a merit badge for collecting and the shops can get people to their stores in an attempt to create collectors. The idea is solid, they give the kids a free "kit" that includes a pack of cards and they get to play games, but they apparently are having issues with finding hobby shops to host the events. Hobby shops that cater to baseball fans have become more scarce over the last 10 years, with an owner in Maryland telling me that there are approximately 1200 in total in the whole United States, as of 3 years ago. That comes out to approximately 24 per state. I have seen many hobby shops over the last 10 years that have given up on the 'brick and morter" stores to go web / internet only! Lower overhead, no insurance for accident liability protection, the store and it's inventory, less out of pocket money to get started, no sting operations to see if they are buying stolen product from walk-in traffic, much easier hours to operate and they are basically open 24/7. You still deal with competition, but can reach a much broader audience as well. Back to the article, while I applaud the MLBPA for trying, I still think that the real issues are going to continue to erode the hobby. The fact that the game of baseball is tainted by it's players, who apparently believe that without them, baseball would be nothing at all! Without multi-million dollar paychecks they won't play. They apparently don't realize that without us, the fans and supporters of Major League Baseball, they have no jobs in baseball and they wouldn't get endorsements for products related to fitness and baseball. They, the majority, act like they are above everyone else, because of their ability to play baseball. They expect to be given special treatment as if they were royalty or something. Don't get me wrong, I love baseball! I enjoy playing it, watching it and collecting memorabilia from it, but long gone are the days of world famous players, like Babe Ruth, who recognized the need to make the public happy as well as play great baseball! Look through baseball history books, and you will almost always see a picture of Babe Ruth with some fans, posing for pictures, signing and giving away bats, balls, shirts, whatever they had and the public wanted. For the most part, I believe, players of that era remembered that they were just as human as their fans were and could remember the time before there was professional baseball. Yes, there have been scandals about sports for as long as sports have been played, but baseball overcame all of these until steroids and other drugs became available. Corked bats, DUI's, Spousal abuse, Fist fights both on the field and off, Drug use, Steroids, Strikes over multi-million dollar contracts and the list continues to grow! When will the league and the players finally realize that we the public are the real signers of their paychecks and we don't like what they have done to today's baseball! This brings me back to the Cub Scout tie-in: The Boy Scout's of America, is an orginization that is attempting to educate and train our male youth to do just the opposite of what is currently happening in MLB by these bad players. We need some heroes in Baseball and America. Long live Baseball and may God bless the USA!!!