I am and always have been a baseball fan. I grew up watching the Red Sox almost everyday with my grandfather and when the games were over, I’d go outside and try to imitate a great running slide Dwight Evans made or a diving stop Marty Barrett made from his third base position.

Now, all I want to do is puke.

Back in the day, baseball used to have minute problems like Babe Ruth being drunk all the time, or Ty Cobb sharpening his steal cleats so when he slid into a stolen base his cleat would cut up the baseman or catcher. Sure, it was a time when baseball struggled and fought to get rid of the color barrier so great players like Jackie Robinson or Negro League great Statchel Paige.

Sure, they had problems like the “Black Sox” scandal where eight Block Sox players were banned for life because they had allegedly took money to loose the World Series

(for those of you who saw “Field of Dreams”, Ray Liotta was not one of the eight players).

There have always been difficulties in baseball, but not like this, not like what we have today. What we have today is something that is way out of control and becoming more and more less likely to fix.

First of all, this is not a commentary about how Alex Rodriguez ruined baseball by signing a 25 million a year contract. Don’t point the fingers at him, point them at Bud Selig. What a man he is, huh?

I really think that if he ever owned the Marlins he’d trade everyone and anyone quicker than Huizenga did after the Marlins placed on the “1997 World Seres” caps on. He ruined the Marlins, but compared to what Selig is doing to the League, Huizenga’s buying a championship caliber team and dumping them before the following season-act makes him look like a nice man who tried his best to keep baseball in South Florida.

Hard to imagine, I know.

When I think of Major League Baseball right now I think of a big not in a rope where you can’t find either end because its all twisted and tangled around itself and after playing with it for a while you decide the best way to go about this is to start over.

Baseball needs to start over. Can they? Not unless they want to lose more than half their fans. When you have a tangled up rope like this, first thing you need to do is think rationally about how you can fix this problem.

Bud Selig does not think rationa at all. If he thought rational he would have contracted the Montreal Expos, this season.

The Expos are a team literally held together with duck tape, bondo and crazy glue who play in a stadium where you think twice about going in it as you remember that the roof has a tendancy to fall apart any given day and this could be your last time you ever see the light of day.

This isn’t a joke, its serious. Selig is an idiot. He is ruining baseball because he can’t stop something that he is the Commissioner of from bleeding and dying. The Expos have no city support from Montreal, the Stadium is from the 1976 Olympics and there attendance was literally lower than 10,000 seven times last year at home.

Selig had a owner’s meeting to discuss possibilities of contracting two teams because teams like the Marlins, Twins and for-mentioned Expos were dying.

I thought to myself when I first heard this: “that’s a shame but it will be good for baseball.”

It would be good for baseball if Selig had the courage to use his authority and do something about the teams hurting and contracted at least one of them. But, he didn’t and once again we’ll see the teams with the high payrolls winning all the games. Higher payrolls are a direct reflection of ticket sales, and team apparel sales.

So, what does that mean? Well, it means that once again the Yankees will have no competition because they have an outrageous payroll and they can afford the likes of Jason Giambi and David Wells.

Switching gears a little bit, I am glad to see the Marlins weren’t contracted. Think about it, why would you cut or move a team after they had just signed an All-Star catcher by the name of Charles Johnson to a less than suitable contract because he wanted to come back to Florida? Cliff Floyd still wants to stay here and he is.

I am tempted at talking about the loser John Henry, but I’ll hold it back. He’s still a loser though.

Players want to play here. Even Gary Sheffield said he wanted to come back, but instead he took his big bat and much bigger ego to Atlanta. Atlanta: yet another high pay roll team.

Selig needs to do something, excuse me needed to do something. Small teams with minimal payrolls have no chance to compete with big payroll teams and its ruining the game.

So, going back to those days I discussed before about Jackie Robinson fighting so hard to get here and baseball breaking the color barrier in sports doesn’t really amount to anything now does it? It may amount to something now, but what about next year?

Bud Selig you are a coward, and thank you sir for dampening “America’s Pastime” for -quite possibly- good.

That is, unless us as fans have nothing to say about it first, which I highly doubt.