Writer Keith

Dear Atlanta Braves,

I was extremely excited this past Thursday to see that single game tickets for the home season were going on sale. I was looking forward to buying tickets for one of the games that my beloved Boston Red Sox were in town. See, I'd buy all three games but my daughter will most likely be two weeks old by the time the Sox hit town.

Don't worry about that booing, you have 5 more games to warm this crowd up.

So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that the only way to get Red Sox-Braves tickets was to buy a multi-game pack. I understand you can't sell out your ballpark for regular season games during the week, but holding customers that cheer for certain teams (Red Sox and Yankees) over the barrel is just flat out wrong.

This may be the first time since 1918 that Yankee fans and Red Sox fans see eye-to-eye. Well with the exception of agreeing that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez should never have been together.

As you may or may not know, the economy is in the toilet. I don't think it is that much of a stretch to say attendance at ballparks across the country is going to be down this year. Many families cannot afford to go to one Major League Baseball game, let alone six. So why would you put provisions on fans that are willing customers?

Along with that, think about how you may be hurting our local economy. Many people may have been looking to fly into our fair city to catch the series. What are they going to do with three sets of other tickets? I have flown to Baltimore in September to catch the Sox play the Orioles. With a team 20 games out of the lead, the fine people of Baltimore were happy to get money for their hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, and bars seeing as Camden Yards would have been pretty much a graveyard for any other team.

I have been an Atlanta resident for nearly ten years. The only times I have seen Turner Field full is for three teams. Boston, the Yankees, and the Cubs. See, our fine town is filled with people from other places. I enjoy going to "the Ted" despite the fact that there is pretty much nothing to do around the stadium and that the ushers can be sometimes pushy. I was so much looking forward to see my Red Sox during Saturday afternoon’s matinee, but was given the facepalm by your ticketing policy.

Maybe it's me, but I'd rather have a sell-out for ten games then have a bunch of disinterested fans.

What about you? were you burned by the Braves' multi-game ticket plan? Any other baseball ticket policies that you find disappointing?

Writer Keith and Sports Anchor Rafer Weigel

With 200 reporters flanking Alex Rodriguez on Tuesday afternoon at his press conference, there was one question that needed to be asked:

"Mr. Rodriguez? What do you take us for?"

Alex Rodriguez, seen here in 2001.

A-Rod–in a moment of unintended irony–said he was there to "take his medicine" by calling a press conference since his admission of taking a banned substance. His hope was by doing this he could put it behind him. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect – he left us with more questions than answers.

A-Rod did admit that he and his cousin (who was never identified) injected each other with something called "Boli" or Primobolan, which he claims he bought over-the-counter from the Dominican Republic. Rodriguez called it "amateur hour" claiming the two didn't really know what they were doing or what it was supposed to do.

His reasoning for doing it? He was "young and stupid." Rodriguez pretty much stuck to that script using that excuse five times in his presser when asked repeatedly, "Why did you do it".

"I was young and stupid." He said this despite the fact that he was 18 when he came into the league and 25 when he allegedly starting taking the performance enhancers.

A-Rod also went on about not going to college as if that had something to do with it as well. He also talked about bench pressing 300 pounds in high school to get a letterman jacket. The point: I've always been strong.

He also mentioned that he felt pressure in Texas after signing his then record $252 million contract. If he felt pressure then, how is he not feeling pressure now after signing a bigger contract in the media capital of the world? There is no bigger amount of pressure than playing for George Steinbrenner. That's when he stopped?

At first it was jarring to see such a mega star twist in the wind like that. Big star athletes are not used to that. In fact, most superstars are used to getting what they want and doing what they want without repercussions. A-Rod's admission and media mea culpa was a first to witness.

But after letting it sink in, you realized, A-Rod didn't really answer a lot of the questions posed to him. When asked if it was cheating, he said, "that's not for me to determine."

When asked about his numbers being stricken? Same response.

Did you do it to gain an advantage?

"I was young and stupid."

A fastball down the middle and he swung and missed.

Even Yankee GM Brian Cashman seconded that emotion saying "the one thing he could have said, I guess, is that he did this to make himself better on the baseball field. Maybe everybody just assumes that, but I don't think that Alex is very good at communicating to be honest. This is not something he's good at."

Ya think?

Perhaps watching A-Rod's fall from grace will have a positive effect on other kids and athletes and keep them from ever doing something like this as well.

For A-Rod, he just wants to get back to playing baseball. But this could still have a big effect on the Yankees season.

The media is not done with this story. If more and more comes out and his story breaks down, will the players who stood behind him at his presser, still back him up? According to Joe Torre's book, they didn't care for him before this story broke. Why are we to believe that what Rodriguez said yesterday was the whole truth? He gave a lot of double speak when answering tough questions.

Across the board, whether you're a fan of A-Rod's or not, the whole thing is a sad story. Many thought before this that A-Rod would be the guy to break Barry Bonds’ record for home runs and do it cleanly. Now, no one knows. See, baseball is a game of stats and nostalgia. Baseball fans compare players based on numbers. But given Rodriguez vagueness in recent interviews, the numbers to this story still don't add up.

Wait and see.

Let us know what you think; share your comments below.