Another month, another baseball meltdown.

Baseball is known as “America’s Pastime”, romanticised and celebrated in movies and newspaper since the days of Babe Ruth. It’s a father’s duty to indoctrinate their children into his team’s fan base. Listen to any caller on WFAN radio station and they’ll start out with “I’m a die-hard XXX fan”.

There are 162 games in the regular season and each year millions of Americans attend. Some crazed individuals go so far as to buy season tickets!

The reality is this that baseball is a disgrace. Rife with liars, drug addicts, steroid abusers, wife beaters, adulterers, cheaters, gamblers and ego-maniacs.

As far back as 1919, when the Chicago White Sox conspired to throw the World Series. How about baseball’s favourite son Babe Ruth who was a womanizer and alcoholic and died mostly likely of venerial disease? You have the Pete Rose gambling drama. Or half the Pittsburg Pirates high on cocaine in the 80′s (along with every other team). You’ve got Steinbrenner sleighting Joe Torre in the closing of Yankee Stadium. And of course the current steroid scandal.

All these guys who for years were idolized by the moronic fans are now being found out as liars and cheats. Celebrated pitcher Roger Clemens fell last year, lying to Congress in the process.  Bonds, McGuire, Sosa, Conseco, and this week Alex Rodriguez admitting steroid usage after lying about it for years.

There isn’t a single player close to the home run record who is clean. McGuire, Sosa, Canseco, Bonds, all swollen up on steroids. Meanwhile these same players are earning 20-40 million dollars a year!!! What? What a disgrace.

The latest list has 103 remaining names from 2003 yet to be disclosed. No one knows of course who’s doing Human Growth Hormone as the league refuses to test for it.

It’s like a train-wreck and I can’t turn away.

What’s the point of watching this stuff, giving your hard earned cash for tickets to meaningless regular season games? Players are traded so frequently that their team allegiance is all but nil. Why is it that individual statistics are so important when isn’t it the overall team’s success that matters? Players don’t play for a team, they play for themselves. Even the ultimate penant is meaningless. What World Series? You didn’t play any other countries!

But the fans keep coming back. Year after year. They’ve made baseball into something bigger than life, ignoring the reality for the romantic image of a warrior hitting a ball with a stick.

So if you have 5 hours times 162 games to kill, if you like drugs, cheating and liars, if you buy into petty tit-for-tat egotistical stunts (Steinbrenner), if you love nostalgia and meaningless statistics, if you assume the worsed from people (in-field fly ball rule) then baseball is the “pastime” for you.

Roll on spring juicing, I mean training.