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I was six years old at the time and an avid Atlanta Braves fan. Our family always focused on living the 10 Commandments, but Granny had an 11th commandment:

"Thou shalt not root against the Braves."

You never rooted against Granny's Braves, especially in her presence. If you did, you suffered the consequences.

I can remember one day sitting on my grandfather's knee watching a game and he asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I finally am writing about something I have believed since 2004: Pete Rose should not be allowed to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Rose was one of the greatest baseball players to play the game. He was a pretty darn good manager, too. He had a 412-373 record for a .525 winning percentage.

He managed from 1984 to 1989, with his team finishing fifth for his first and last year and second for five years in a row.

Second.

Now listen to me—that is key to my argument.

The 1967 Kansas City Athletics finished the season with a record of 62-99, dead last in the American League. For most of their 13 years in Missouri, the Athletics had been little more than an additional farm team for the New York Yankees, trading their rising young stars to New York for aging veterans.

That's how Roger Maris became a Yankee; he was traded for Hank Baur, Don Larsen, and Marv Throneberry.

If you weren't already numb to it, I'm sure you are by now.  Baseball is sick of steroids and we all just want to move on.  But every time we think maybe it's safe to flip on SportsCenter or go to a game, there's a bombshell.

Another baseball stud used PIDs. This time it was Manny, and I don't know about you, but I didn't have any reaction. I had heard it all before...

1.  Breaking News! (Insert baseball star's name here) failed an MLB drug test.

After struggling against the Yankees against very effective pitching with CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte, the Jays are looking for a rebound against the struggling Chicago White Sox.

Chicago's White Sox have badly struggled recently, with injury woes and underperformance in their offense and starting pitching. In the Cleveland series, Gavin Floyd struggled, giving up eight runs in the outing. With his opposition being Roy Halladay on Sunday, Floyd will have to be better or the White Sox will be in trouble.

Alright everyone, get your payroll jokes and your “Where’s your World Series Championship trophy?” jokes out of your system before you start reading.

Yes, since the Milwaukee Brewers came to be in 1969, they have not won a World Series and have won just a single pennant in that span. And, of course, living north of Chicago, we all know the Cubs are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

About two years ago, my family moved into a new house.

I like the new house. It’s bigger, it’s nicer, and it’s in a better neighborhood. It’s an obvious upgrade in just about every physical way.

Friends of mine, who have been to both, would be hard-pressed to find even a single aspect of my new house that they liked better in the old one.

But after two years, there is an emotional attachment missing that I have been unable to develop.

Curious, I began thinking: What makes a house one’s home?

Lest you think that the Philadelphia sports scene is all sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows these days, let me point out a sobering truth. The Phillies have not played well at all this season.

In fact, I find it just short of amazing that they are even at .500 through 32 games, roughly 20 percent of the season. 

It was during the 1990 Major League Baseball season that I gained a reputation among friends for my ability to predict the future. And all for what, at least to me, was just plain and simple logic.

A few days before the season got under way, I made a series of predictions as to how the season would turn out, including the final standings, league leaders in various categories, and who would win the major awards.