I've Had Enough!

That’s it, I’ve had it! When the news came out over the weekend that Brian McNamee allegedly injecting Roger Clemens’ wife with HGH, I officially reached my breaking point. Clemens could sprout a twelfth ear in the middle of his forehead in front of Congress tomorrow and I couldn’t care less. McNamee could say that he injected each of Clemens’ kids and the family dog and it would fall on deaf ears.

Pitchers and catchers a beginning to report to spring training camps in Florida in Arizona this week and all anybody can talk about is a meaningless hearing in front of a bunch of stuffed suits in Congress. What about the Boston Red Sox potential to begin a dynasty? What about the greatest pitcher on the planet coming to New York? How about a Detroit Tigers lineup that will strike the fear of God into any pitcher? Does anybody even want to start guessing who is the favorite in the wild National League West? There are some phenomenal rookies like Jay Bruce and Evan Longoria who will be making their debuts this season and nobody seems to care.

Though well-intentioned, the Mitchell Report has been Bud Selig’s biggest mistake since the debacle of ending the All-Star Game in extra innings with the score still tied. After Jose Canseco’s book and the embarrassing first Congressional hearing when Mark McGwire didn’t want to talk about the past, Rafael Palmeiro wagged his finger and Sammy Sosa suddenly forgot how to speak English, Selig could have just admitted that baseball had a steroid problem that needed to be addressed sooner but from here we are going to move forward with a strict testing policy and harsh punishments. Fans would have eventually forgotten, and even though Bumbling Bud fumbled his chance, we almost did forget with the exception of Barry Bonds. If Bonds was a likeable person, we probably would have gotten past him as well.

But the Mitchell Report continued to drag things out and once it was released, it put everything front and center again. What’s worse is that it didn’t even tell us anything we didn’t already know. We did get another Congressional hearing that was a joke as we watched Congressmen and who clearly didn’t know a thing about baseball mispronounce names and ask inane questions from their high horses and ultimately accomplish nothing. At this point it doesn’t even matter what the report said as it has turned into the Roger Clemens Show.

Which of course brings us to another Congressional hearing (can someone PLEASE tell me this is not what our tax dollars are going to?). While I might have bought into the point of the first hearing being to get perspective on the steroids issue for the purpose of protecting our nation’s impressionable youth, tomorrow’s hearing is nothing more than a chance for the men and women in Congress to get some face time with the Rocket. With Andy Pettite, Chuck Knoblauch and Kirk Radomski being dropped from the lineup, it is clear this is nothing more than a mediation of a he said-he said battle worthy of any elementary school playground, and at the end of the day, what will it accomplish?

Hopefully this will all be over soon, though I think that is wishful thinking. Baseball needs to begin looking to the future, and there is plenty there to be excited about. The Steroids Era is a fact and one that baseball will have to live with. Just as fans got over the strike, they’ll get over the players using performance enhancing drugs, but the longer baseball tries to explain what happened and issue blame, the issue is going to remain in the spotlight. Given the level of testing that has long been prevalent in the minor leagues and the relatively newly implemented policies in the Majors, fans should be able to feel confident that the players are clean. Now if baseball can promote the future stars instead of focusing on the past, we can all be much happier.