Is this insane or what, the United States Congress wasting our time and tax dollars on steroids in baseball?  You know it wasn't too long ago, ten years to be exact that Congress actually investigated worthwhile things of importance, you know like whether a sitting President was screwing around with an intern.  But seriously folks, baseball gets destroyed on this while in the AFC Championship game this Sunday Rodney Harrison and Shawne Merriman, both suspended for steroids previously, will be playing without so much as a peep.

I really don't want to veer off into politics on this blog, but seriously there are much more important issues facing this country and Congress is worried about steroids in baseball, could they possibly be anymore out of touch?  There is a load of other important issues facing this country and yet there is this fixation and fascination on this why?  Seriously, when you go back to your constituents and congressional districts and they ask what legislation you've introduced and passed concerning the price of oh I don't know, EVERYTHING, like goods, food, gas, oil and energy prices, the economy possibly heading towards recession, healthcare, immigration, people losing their jobs and you'll tell them what exactly?  Did you see me, I really grilled that Rocket Roger Clemens, boy oh boy!  Guuuh.

I am not implicating him, but do you think that now would be as good a time as any to put President George W. Bush under oath to see if he could help in getting to the bottom of this as he stated in his State of the Union Address a few years back?  I mean he was owner Texas Rangers when Jose Canseco and Rafael Palmeiro played there, you think the man might be able to offer some insight into what was going on during this era?  Plus Democrats could actually claim they finally got him to testify under oath, as they have been so cowardly been unable to thus far, but that's for another blog at another time.

Honestly though this is the biggest joke and the most astonishing amount of grandstanding ever, really what are they going to get out of this?  They clearly aren't sending these guys to jail just on the basis of steroids, I mean Raffy Palmeiro blatantly lied right in their faces and nothing happened to him.  As far as Barry Bonds and Marion Jones go, they're being investigated by the feds for things far greater than this whole steroid thing.

If nothing is going to come of this then why should we as baseball fans be dragged through it?  Nobody is going to be kicked out of the game, nobody's records are going to be erased.  Most of these sports writers, columnists, talking heads and vultures who are eating this stuff up at the end of the day have said they'll still vote for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens when they come up for the Hall of Fame, so sanctimony is abound am I right? 

Bud Selig and Donald Fehr, both of whom I haven't been able to stand since the baseball strike of 1994 are just as if not more responsible for this mess than any of the players.  Clearly baseball fans who are coming out in the millions and making MLB billions are somewhat annoyed but for the most part couldn't care less.  So ESPN can get Roger Cossack off my #### TV and show some damn highlights already!

Maybe this baseball era goes down like the music era of the 60's which also had a drug culture to it, lots of great music, lots of great baseball.  There's a lot of worse things going on in other sports than steroids, like say the NFL's great example to kids, Michael Vick, Pacman Jones and oh I don't know the entire Cincinnati Bengals roster!  I'm not condoning steroid use and I'd like to know that what I'm watching is legit, but in the end it really is all he-said-he-said and we are all left to judge for ourselves if we trust what we are seeing is true greatness or inflated garbage.

The so-called "Mitchell Report" is about to explode, just like Barry Bonds' head presumably will when he rolls out of bed one day and lets out a big sneeze.  But how will you feel, how will you rationalize everything when it comes out that your favorite player or your favorite team was aided by steroids?  Or on the flipside your team was beaten in an important game and #### over by a steroid user?  In any event some will care, some will be shocked, some will disappointed, some will rationalize and make excuses and others will say oh wow and oh well and simply move on and keep watching  the sport.

My take, the media cares about this story way more than the fans do and the attendance figures over the last four years which keep rising prove it as such.  Fans were much more upset with baseball after the 1994-95 strike than they have been with this steroid epidemic.  That having been said, fans are still very protective when it comes to the integrity of records ala, Hank Aaron and Roger Maris.

I believe that this stems from the fact that like a poorly officiated game in which your team gets #### over, you're still resigned to the fact that you can't get it back.  Sure you can put your own black mark on it and the league can apologize and admit it messed up, but what happened, happened and unless there's an immediate correction then why care about it if the league doesn't care to do anything, because really you the fan can't do anything, except not show up and really when has that ever happened except for post-strike circa 1994-95?

Some fans when their favorite player comes up or an important star on their team is listed will simply say they don't care.  Now part of that stems from an attitude that says well yeah it's wrong but everybody is tainted at this point or has been at some point and it's far too ambigious to know for sure how much of an effect or advantage this has given to certain teams and players.  Additionally those same fans must realize that not caring all-together means you're cool with Barry Bonds as the all-time HR king or say for instance of speculation's sake, Roger Clemens as the best pitcher of this generation.

On one side you'll have Yankees fans screaming at Red Sox fans about what was injected by trainers into Curt Schilling's leg that allowed to let him pitch in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS and just how did David Ortiz go from platoon player in Minnesota to overnight Fenway sensation?  Then you'll certainly have Red Sox fans countering back at Yankees fans about Jason Giambi's two HR's in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS and Roger Clemens who shut them down in Game 3 of the ALCS in 2003 as well.  How might another nation besides this one and the one in Boston, Mass. react in Japan if and when Hideki Matsui's name crops up.  You'll have Mets and Giants fans wondering if back in 1998 if they and not Sammy Sosa's Cubs should've made the playoffs as the NL Wild Card, or those agruments become quickly irrelevant when suddenly it surfaces that Barry Bonds and Mike Piazza were also implicated.

If nothing else fans finally know what's going on, even if they don't know all of what's going on.  They know it and it stinks, like a poorly umpired game where their team gets hosed and they're left with nothing but empty apologies like we're sorry you didn't like our calls and the fans gripe but proceed to move on.  Gee it's no wonder baseball doesn't want to implement instant replay, they might get caught with their pants down.  Too late for that! 

The whole thing was phony.  Sadly, Barry Bonds hitting 756 wasn't even the worst of it.  From ESPN, to ballplayers past and present, to fans, every single one of them completely wussed out.  They all played nice, while Barry played them for fools.

I for one cannot believe with all of the concerted effort to try and rid the sport of this disaster that this event came off as cleanly as when we were all naive enough to believe what Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were doing back in 1998 was legit.  The nerve of those who called upon the game to be sanitized to come out and support Bonds was almost as disgraceful as those who stood by and heaped praise as if it were 1998.

From now on I don't want to hear ESPN or anyone else who participated in this charade bashing or crucifying MLB for steroid problems or policies in the future, they have forefeited that right.  Nor do I want to hear from Hank Aaron or Frank Robinson on this issue, after F. Robby came out complaining about losing his 4th spot on the all-time homer list to tainted sluggers and showed up for Bonds and Hammerin' Hank for months said he wanted nothing to do with this, donates his face time on the scoreboard video thus giving credibility to Bonds and praise to the achievement.

Then players of the present or recent past have nothing negative to say.  Not even just nothing to say but nothing negative and everything positive.  It is absurd, it is ridiculous it is quite comical and utterly sad.  

As the headline on the front of the NY Post read today about Barry Bonds, "Big ####" indeed.