Hey, Bud, What’s the Point?

Let’s chase Barry Bonds around the country and torture him. Let’s boo him at every twist and turn and make this ugly situation even uglier.

That’s what Bud Selig is promulgating in his way-too-little, way-too-late press conference today.

Let’s face it, Bud. Caving into the ‘right’ on this issue is not the way to go. Especially since it will become a witch hunt that can do no one any good.  Everyone knows Bonds and others used perfomance enhancing substances. The ones that could have stopped them from using them did nothing at the time. In fact, no official MLB rules have been broken here. So why put us through this Speilberg revisionist history exercise by suggesting ex-post-facto rules be put in place to punish – or condemn – players for deeds the owners once found acceptable.

Just put in a ‘drop-dead’ date for everyone to get clean and enforce it stringently going foward.

First of all, steroids are getting way too much credit for the home run craze of the late ’90′s, early ’00′s.  They naturally played a hand in this, but they had plenty of help. Has anyone investigated the allegation that the baseballs were wound tighter for those years, enabling them to travel further? Has anyone taken into account the fact that every new ballpark is contructed to favor hitters and is conducive to the long ball? Has anyone analyzed the flatter mounds and the recent trend of ‘throwers’ over pitchers? And that only the good hitters benefited from the perfomance enhancers?

Of course not. No one ever wants to admit to being part of a conspiracy. In this event, the conspiracy was to create a more entertaining product by giving the overwhelming advantage to hitters.

And don’t forget the real reason why owners looked the other way. Money. Yes, that green stuff is addictive. Add that to the fact the owners did not want to usurp the labor peace by imposing more random drug tests. They feared Fehr.

So, Bud, you’re only opening up a carton of spoiled milk with this thing.  If you want to make good use of George Mitchell, send him to Darfur, ot Baghdad.  Don’t have him humiliate you, him, players, owners, coaches, 300 million Americans and countless others with this sudden urge that came over you to do the right thing. The time has passed. Impose new rules and move on.