It's not your Daddy's game anymore

Under the watch of "Commissioner" Bud Selig, the greatest game in the history of sports is slowly -- but surely -- being ruined.

And the latest downfall will prove to put baseball near its demise.

Yesterday, it was A-Rod admitting he did steroids, just a few years after telling Katie Couric he didn't. Tomorrow, Miguel Tejada will plead guilty in federal court that he lied when he said he didn't do steroids and human growth hormones.

Who falls next is anybody's guess. The interesting thing is that there really is no one left who could admit to doing drugs that could possibly shock anyone. That includes All-American boys Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey.

This is just a long line of occurrences and happenings which has helped to changed baseball for the worse. Much worse.

It all stems to the hiring of Bud Selig.

Could you see this stuff happening under Bart Giamatti or Fay Vincent? Unequivocally no. It would have been nipped in the bud long before it reached this point.

My guess is both of our former commissioners would have something along the lines of: "Do steroids and you're gone." Or, "Lie to authorities about doing drugs, and you're gone."

And the players would have believed them.

Steroids still would have happened, but not near to the degree of today. There would have been no need for the feds to step in and try to clean a game that they have no business being in.

Such is life in Selig's world. Yes, the same Selig who had no idea what to do about a tie in the All-Star Game and then decided that this annual exhibition winner would gain homefield advantage in the World Series. The same Selig who thought Interleague play would save the game. The same brilliant commissioner who set up a drug policy that just so happened to only catch guys who were heard of by only the most devout fans of their respective clubs.

Baseball will have a huge hole to dig from when Selig leaves, and my guess is this will be the final nail in his coffin. His lasting legacy, although he obviously believes he has been great for the game. Just listen to him long enough, and he'll tell you so.

When he's gone, one can only hope that the owners will realize they can't govern themselves. They couldn't in 1919 when Charles Comiskey talked his fellow owners into hiring Kennesaw Mountain Landis to overhaul the game and get rid of the cheaters. For more than a half-century afterwards, baseball flourished. The baseball strikes of the 1980s, and especially 1993, almost killed the game, before it rebounded and was revived by the home-run chase of 1998.

And we know who the two competitors were in that one.

Will baseball survive when all is said and done? Most likely, they'll find a way out. But only if they realize the severity of the problem and are committed to doing something about it.

Personally, as much as I look forward to the beginning of a new season, I also have found it necessary to shave my interest somewhat. I certainly don't want my son thinking these guys are role models.

Someone, though, should stand up and find people we can believe in again to be the spokesmen for our nation's pasttime. Before, that is, we speak about the game in the past tense.