Remember the scene in "The Babe Ruth Story" when William Bendix, playing Babe Ruth, promised to hit a home run for a little kid gravely ill in a hospital? In the movie, and apparently in real life, Ruth not only hit a homerun that day he hit three. Johnny Sylvester not only lived but was around to visit Ruth when Ruth was dying of cancer. Well, that was then and this is now.

Last week NiShea Gilbert played a voice mail she alleges is from her husband, Tampa Bay Devil Rays outfielder Elijah Dukes. Here's part of the transcript, from the St. Petersburg Times:

"Hey, dawg. It's on, dawg. You dead, dawg. I ain't even bulls-------. Your kids too, dawg. It don't even matter to me who is in the car with you. N-----, all I know is, n-----, when I see your m-----f------ a-- riding, dawg, it's on. As a matter of fact, I'm coming to your m-----f------ house."

Later, according to Gilbert, Dukes sent her a text mail message with an image of a pistol in it. Reached for comment, the outfielder excused himself by saying he had a video game to finish.

Now comes the Ruth story, updated for the new millennium. Benched for two home games, Dukes travelled to Chicago and returned to the starting lineup last night. In the 7th inning he slammed a three run home run to give his team a 4-3 lead. The WhiteSox rallied to win 5-4 and spoil the "story book" happy ending.

They don't make them like the Babe anymore, but they are turning out Elijah Duke's left and right these days. As statistical probability would dictate, some of them play professional sports. The lucky ones play major league baseball home of the most compassionate, or clueless, employers in the world.

Here is what the Devil Rays had to say after finding out that Dukes wife had a restraining order out against him, that he had come to a public school she taught at to confront her in front of her students, and allegedly left the voice mail and text message described earlier.

"He has made a lot of strides, but obviously this is something that certainly requires our attention."

Perhaps a fair statement at the time, but where are we now? The Rays have had time to confirm that there is a restraining order against Dukes, that he did go to the school and confront his wife, and has not denied being the voice on the tape?

Here's what manager Joe Maddon said yesterday:

"I chose tonight (to get Dukes back on the field) because I felt it was time to move things along, He's a member of this team. I thought about it a lot, talked to (executive vice president Andrew Friedman) about it a lot. I just want to get back to playing baseball and put this thing behind us."

The Dukes situation is alot of things. Behind us is not one of them.

Grant that Tampa Bay management is in a tricky area regarding Dukes' contract. His wife has not filed charges against him, so voiding his contract is not an option. Suspending him when there are no charges against him isn't practical. If Tampa Bay were to release Dukes the Player's Association (which has to represent his interests by law) would file charges related to unlawful termination.

Still, there are options. One of which is to consider Dukes' behavior an illness of sorts and put him on the DL and into counseling. Would the union grieve that? Yes. Would they win? Coin flip. Sending Dukes down to the minors is another good choice, but the Rays AA and AAA affiliates are publically on record that he cannot return due to previous incidents with those teams. But there is no rule that says Dukes can't be sent to A ball. Finally, Tampa Bay could just get over their fear of Fehr (Player's Association President Donald Fehr), cut Dukes, and let the courts sort it out.

Maybe the best option Tampa Bay has is to trade Dukes for anything they can get, even if it's a couple of broken bats and a roll of adding machine tape. If nothing else, it puts him out of the Tampa Bay area for the rest of the summer and away from his ex-wife.

Doing nothing, which apparently is the Devil Rays plan, is not a viable option. Dukes has already been arrested five times since 2003. The mother of one of his five children reported harrassment similar to what Gilbert has complained of. Dukes has accepted no responsibility for his actions in the most recent case.

At the least, Dukes presence on the field is going to cause problems with fans concerned about domestic violence and damages the team's image in Florida. And if the text message of the pistol came from Dukes he isn't someone a reasonable person wants to share a locker room with. If you are arguing in favor of Dukes staying on the team you are arguing the likelihood of him staying away from his ex-wife and out of trouble. If you want to make that bet you should head for the track and lay money on the long shots instead.

When Jason Giambi tells the truth about steroids in baseball all and sundry in baseball's establishment rise up in righteous anger. But when Phillies pitcher Brett Myers knocked his wife around on a public street in Boston last year the team and the commissioner were silent. Now Selig is once again mute, and probably will remain so until some player seriously injures or murders his wife.

There is a good chance baseball can make a mistake in Dukes' case and get sued. There is a good chance they can do nothing and watch the consequences of their inaction play out on Court TV sometime in the future. It's baseball's call.