The Arizona news is plastered with Bush's trip to Arizona and has been giving minute-by-minute breakdowns of his trip since last week. You would think that the Secret Service would want to limit the advance notice to 'evil-doers' and 'enemies of freedom'. But, even so, there they are, breaking in to announce 'news' that Air Force One has landed.

Whatever.

Let's not concentrate on important issues, like why the President is in Arizona, let's muddle and fuzzy the picture so the emphasis shifts to issues like 'Right to Life (if you are a white female)' and steroids in baseball. Not performance enhancing drugs and testing procedures, but just blanket STEROIDS.

Let's call the 'steroids' hunt in baseball what it is; McCarthyism for the new century. One accuser can enable congress to call people to testify against their will, and when the refuse to answer lame, unimportant and grandiose questions so that supposed law makers can grandstand for TV cameras - they can be accused in the press as being guilty...simply because they did not issue blanket denials.

Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?

Do you know Communists, Communist sympathizers and if so, what are their names?

You're stalling, give us names.

And Congress went ridiculous as everyone pointed the finger at Mark McGwire and not at Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa. Bonds, because of his BALCO connections and Sosa because "he doesn't speak English very well". Funny, Sosa seemed to speak fine when he was running around and endorsing products for millions of dollars. He seemed to speak English quite well when he blasted Rick Riley of Sports Illustrated when Riley underhandedly tried to get Sosa to commit to a drug test last year.

Again, steroids and performance enhancing drugs were not against the rules of baseball until 2002 and nothing happened until 2004 if you were caught using anything. Further, baseball has a long been a game where amphetamines (greenies) were a staple in the clubhouse as much as pine tar rags are on the on deck circle. Do we need to rehash the cocaine usage of players in the 1970's and 1980's? And womanizing and alcohol abuse have long been rampant in all professional sports. But, booze is legal and treating woman like toilet paper is fine, especially when you leave behind reminders nine months later.

The difficulty in analyzing the underbelly of any sport is there is a lot of dirt. In every sport. Baseball is no different. They don't test for marijuana in the NBA - why is that? The NFL's drug policy allows the league to suspend a previous violator if they are caught drinking a beer. What kind of commercials do you see on every change of possession in the NFL?

Athletes use performance enhancing drugs and those associated as being steroids for different reasons. Some to repair tissue and some to cheat the muscle growth curve. Others, just to shorten the time between fatigue and recuperation.

In baseball, steroid use was never cheating, no matter what Curt Schilling says. Ask Schilling if he considers scuffing a baseball, or stealing signs 'cheating'. Ask Alex Rodriguez if it's cheating to peek at the catcher relaying the pitch selection to the pitcher during his at-bats.

Should steroids and performance enhancing drugs be against the rules in baseball?

Probably. Simply because unregulated use of any medical product is likely to lead to abuse.

But, should Congress be holding public hearings on a matter they have no power over - baseball's anti-trust was granted by the Supreme Court, not congress, absolutely not.

Let baseball shoulder its own burden. Have Bud Selig and Donald Fehr answer to the future of the game, not to power hungry Senators who call drinking a protein shake - "taking drugs".

Baseball, in some respects has always been a dirty game. Hell, look at who owns today's teams. Even the great stars have been 'dirty', Hank Aaron used greenies, Mickey Mantle was an alcoholic and some say those Vitamin shots weren't all they were cracked up to be. Baseball will be fine.

If you want to argue about leveling the field, who wants that? Where would the Yankees and Red Sox be without the Devil Rays? Where would the Giants be without the Rockies and Diamondbacks?

Just wait a few weeks, this will all blow over, just like Sammy's corked bat and the All Star game and the cancelled season, and Steve Howe, and George Steinbrenner hiring a private eye to spy on Dave Winfield.

Can we play ball, please?