Now that everyone has had a chance to read and digest the Mitchell Report, let's talk for a minute about two things: Reality and common sense.

The reality is the report changes nothing.  The report basically says here are the cheaters, here's how they cheated, here's how you can prevent them from cheating in the future.  Don't you think all of this could have been done quietly, without the names, between Bud Selig and Don Fehr without all this grandiose posturing?

It is obvious to me that the owners, and Selig as an extension of them, have a paranoid fear that unless they do something to clean up their sport, Congress will whack their anti-trust exemption.  In addition, owners, a lot of whom are out of the loop on the day to day operations of their ball clubs, want to know who's been naughty and who's been nice so they can avoid the naughty players in the future, thus ridding themselves of adverse publicity.  So, using common sense, we have determined that the Mitchell Report was baseball's way of covering it's backside with Congress and rooting out and embarrassing those who may or may not have used steroids. And, it was most likely totally unnecessary.  I hate to be the lone voice in the wilderness, but it had nothing to do with the fans.  We knew players are cheating and we don't care or we would have stopped buying tickets and watching games, which we haven't. 

I would be much happier knowing my favorite team has players who are helping their performance like the athletes of the 90's and 00's then knowing my favorite team has a bunch of guys trying to snort the baselines trying to get high (you know what I'm talking about Leon Durham and Keith Hernandez.  You too, Dave Parker.)  Admit it, getting high is detrimental to performance while steroids improve performance.  Both are wrong, but which would you rather have: Coke Heads or Needle Heads?  Give me the steroid guys, please.

Now to the reaction to the report:

• If Bud Selig keeps putting his foot in his mouth, he may just swallow it.  Doing his best impression of President George W. Bush (I am the Decider), Selig said that baseball will answer this "call to action."  Um Bud, you are the Czar of a collectively bargained kingdom and those things must be done at the bargaining table with union reps, not a podium in front of reporters.  Selig's arrogance in this case was only trumped by his ignorance because hanging the union out to dry is a bad way to conduct business.  Especially the most successful union on planet earth.
• What Selig has done is put in motion a plan to force feed the union everything he wants to do so that he will look good in the eyes of congress and the fans.  Again, Bud,  this is not about the fans, this is about you and congress.  Quit being the used car salesman that you are and admit it.
• Bus Selig is totally outside the realm of reality when he suggests that he and he alone will decide suspensions.  Again, Bud.  Collective bargaining.  You could have said "I will work with the union to decide appropriate punishments for those I feel were the most most egregious abusers."  No, Bud, you didn't do that.  You took a dump all over due process and evidence and little things like that which all of us enjoy in this country.  I was surprised you didn't declare "mission accomplished."
  
• Don Fehr was brilliant yesterday.  He had four hours to read the report and didn't, my guess is on purpose (sorry Don, I know speculation is one of your pet peeves.)  In not reading it, he couldn't comment on it which bought him more time to study it and figure out how to sell his members Mitchell's plan.  Or, what points in the plan he won't sell and will fight.  And his small act of contrition made ESPN so damp they played it every ten minutes.  Nicely played, sir. 
  
• It is obvious to me that the owners (and somewhere, deep in the shadows, a certain owner from Chicago who owns an American League team is lurking) feel that the inmates are running the asylum and that they have to make it clear, through their puppet Selig, that they are in control.  Boys, Jerry, that ship done sailed thirty years ago.  Imposing your will on this union will just bring you heartache like it did in 1994.  Don't go there with these guys, they will shred you like Rosie O'Donnell with a box of chocolates.

In watching the coverage yesterday, I had a few other take aways.  If you watched all of the talking heads, you could clearly see their agendas.  Peter Gammons and his hysterical "those guys are sewer rats" line had me laughing for fifteen minutes.  Of course they are, most finger pointers are, especially with Uncle Sam's AK-47 pointed at their heads.  What did you expect these guys to do, not talk?  That's the way it's done now.  Find someone in the know and roll them.  And these trainers were the perfect guys.

I wish I was better at remembering names.  Maybe I'm so old I should start taking notes.  The two guys that made the most sense to me were the ESPN legal consultant (Dave I think) who said that all of the power was with the union and the investigative reporter (Tim, I think) who basically said that this whole report was much ado about nothing.  John Kruk also had a great point about now that the names are public, how can you punish activity from three or four years ago?

Finally, one other thought.  Of the names on this list, the majority of them were either fringe players who had career threatening injuries or aging stars wanting to stay in the game.  If you look at the names on this list, you'll note that the majority of them have had some kind of arm or shoulder issue and were using the roids not to enhance performance, but to continue to hang on and play in the bigs. They hid the prescriptions they obtained for HGH (legal or illegal) because they were convinced that if the team found out they had a chronic injury, they would lose their job and their career.  Outside of the obvious four or five big names, most of these guys will never have a whiff at the hall of fame, most of them never had record breaking years and several have retired.  It seems like in many cases, steroids were the last act of desperate men trying to continue their livelihood.  And while it isn't right and certainly isn't legal, it does make sense.

So Bud, here's my advise.  Turn down the rhetoric, sit down with Don Fehr and work something out.  Then you'll be the hero you think you are.