Friendship often means tough choices

"Nothing is more important than friendship. Not fame. Not money. Not death."
-- BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY

Along with family, I've always considered friendship the most important thing in the world.

There's nothing harder to win -- and all too often easier to lose -- than good friends, especially friendships that last a long time.

That's why when two people in less than 10 days said to me, "I thought you were my friend," I knew I had to stop and reassess what I was doing.

For the last 16 years, I have been a member of a Rotisserie baseball league. For those who aren't familiar with the term, it's also known as "fantasy" baseball. A group of people -- usually guys -- get together and draft teams of major league players and then compete with each other for prize money based on how well their players perform.

For the last 14 years, I have been commissioner of the league, a league based on friendships and one that has been remarkably stable in terms of its membership.

The last couple of years, though, there has been more than the usual amount of bickering and arguing. People have been upset by this and have been looking for solutions, with terms like "cutting out the cancer" being thrown around.

In trying to keep the peace, I took the coward's way out more than once. People have been asked to leave the league, something I didn't want to see happen. I'm ashamed of myself and the way I behaved.

That leaves me with no choice but to stand on the principles I tried to ignore and leave the league.

I'll certainly miss it. It's been a big part of my life for 16 years.

But sometimes there really is only one choice.

If you want to be a person of principle, you have to stand on principle.

Even when it hurts.