"I laid my bed, I'm gonna have to sit on it."

If I were in my very early twenties and deemed THE BEST by my family, friends, colleagues, enemies, doctors, lawyers, management, accountants, audiences, the world-wide-web, MLB, ESPN, USA, stalkers and fans...I would probably do just about anything I could to make sure I maintained that status.

Especially if I was contractually obliged to do so.

If English were not my family's first language and money was not my family's first accomplishment, I think once I had discovered I could do something no one else could do in a country that would make me a hero for doing so...I would PROBABLY PUT A NEEDLE IN MY ARM EVERY FEW MONTHS IF EVERYONE ELSE WAS DOING IT.

The sanctity of baseball statistics aren't that precious people. They aren't even scientific. We've excluded 60 years of negro players. We pay huge salaries to young players who come from poor backgrounds and expect they do what they do just for the love of the game. And let's not forget each ball park is different from the next. A home run is technically over the fence...what if the fence is 10 feet away? Baseball is a very human sport. That IS the beauty of it.

Let's just say from here on out, NO DRUGS ALLOWED and get over it. We - the 'we' that makes up the rest of the world - have NO idea what it is like to be famous...to make a living having your life on display and for the most part, belonging to everyone BUT yourself. Yes it is a job. Yes, they signed up for it. But even if you worked in a laundry-mat you'd probably do what you had to in order to keep food on the table if your position were threatened. This is America. We are founded on competition. Sure we have rules but even our President...especially our President...'interprets' those rules on a daily basis.

Morality is an opinion. We made it up folks. One man's trash is another's treasure.

Of course I don't think drugs should be a part of sports. But it is. We ramp up the competition with higher payrolls, more accountability and more responsibility than one person could possibly handle. Thing is...they don't. We forget that. Mr. Rod ain't out there on his own. He hired Madonna's publicist just before she started coming to his games. The higher the stakes, the harder the crash from the pedestal. Dave Chappelle turned down all that cash remember? We roll out of bed and pour a cup of caffeine to face our day. If we could pour something a little "better" maybe we would.

Even Iago feels righteous about tripping up Othello's Achilles' heel. Secretly we all love Iago, don't we? He doesn't even die in the end.

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. I've recently switched to tea. Clearly the pressure is off.