Until my moronic self can figure out how to set up the links on the side in blogorific fashion, I'll stick with my retro look here with the occasional link. Dammit.

Alex Ciepley is a name you'll probably recognize from the comments here and at some of the other All-Baseball sites. He's joined the blogosphere with his "Ball Talk" which is worth checking out. He'll get attention because he's gay, but you should read him because he looks like he'll have something good to say. As I said in my post about Alex Belth, writing isn't easy ... and I should actually link to this, but I'm lazy and I know you already read Alex ... and Alex B. himself had CLASSIC posts about writing styles over at Bronx Banter. (Shocker, I'm not a practicer.)

Anyway, there's a new Alex in town and I hope he keeps up the quality. I also hope that he can be front and center on what I think may be one of the more important stories in 2004. There are gay players in baseball and there have been hints from one or two that it may be time to come out. I've spoken with the agent of one about the topic. I hope it happens, but I think it's almost Jackie Robinson all over again. While I don't doubt that there's a player out there that can play the role of Jackie, I'm not sure there's a Pee Wee Reese that will walk over and put his arm around him. I hope there is.

As Seinfeld says, "not that there's anything wrong with it." There's not. Moreover, there's a lot of kids that need to learn that lesson. We all know how important Jackie Robinson was not only to baseball, but America. America needs the help again, one of you.