Steroid story's sad, so fans ignore it

The funny thing -- no, really a sad thing -- is that as more players who are exposed as having used steroids, human growth hormore or other banned substances, the overall impact of that use on baseball diminishes.

The reaction to Manny Ramirez's 50-game suspension, the first by a name player, hasn't been so much "I can't believe Manny would do that!" or "He's lying with his lame excuse" as "He'll be back in July. That should be early enough for him to help the Dodgers win their division again."

He'll come back, and baseball will go on as usual. In the meantime, some lower-level players might be suspended for using banned substances. Those suspensions won't even be a blip on fans' radar screens.

Major League Baseball seems to be timing its revelations and suspensions for times that will have the least hurtful public-relations impact.

In this case, the day after Manny is suspended, Alex Rodriguez returns to the Yankees. Manny takes some of the heat off of A-Rod and his inevitable denials of the charges in Selena Roberts' book. Rodriguez's return provides a convenient diversion from any backwash or second-day follow-up on what might really have happened with Ramirez.

Yesterday, I spent time with a high school math class talking about baseball statistics. The students didn't know much about baseball, but as soon as I mentioned Barry Bonds' 73 home runs, a student said, "Steroids." That's not the kind of word association that's good for baseball, unless it wants to become another WWE.

I'm still waiting for the time when an athlete actually admits that he used banned substances and got caught. No more lame "personal health reasons" or "I didn't know what was in it" or "I did it once."

Ramirez's excuse that a doctor gave him something he thought was safe is as annoying as A-Rod's convenient confession to using steroids while he was in Texas but cutting himself off from them as soon as he became a Yankee. BS, I say! BS! From both players, from Andy Pettitte, from Paul Byrd, from Brian Roberts.

But I'm just one voice. In each city where a suspected player is coming back from a suspension or an injury, fans' only thought seemingly will be "Can he help us win the pannent?"

That's human nature, I suppose, but it's also sad. And a sad commentary on a country in trouble because the only thing that seems to matter is the bottom line.