Enough with the Baseball Controversy: Let's Just Play Ball

April 5 is the start of the 2009 baseball season...and I can hardly wait.

This offseason was filled with the usual suspects: Free agency, major and minor trades, the failing economy, the WBC, and the seemingly never-ending discussion and new discoveries regarding the use of performance-enhancing substances.

I am truly sick and tired of all this talk of asterisks, the steroid era, the Hall of Fame, and cheating.

From day one, the blame for all of this lies directly at the feet of Major League Baseball. Bud Selig, the high and mighty commissioner, has refused to reinstate Pete Rose back into baseball, which is a travesty to the history of the sport and to one of its top players of all time.

I know this discussion about steroid use has been discussed ad nauseum. The simple fact still remains that steroid use was not only allowed but encouraged during the last 20 years. They were available in clubhouses throughout the league, and MLB turned its back simply because the game was in the midst of free-falling after the players' strike resulted in cancelling the World Series.

Even World War II couldn't accomplish that.

The crowd came back because two of the crown princes of the time, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, were about to shatter a historic baseball record.

The hypocrisy in this sport is undeniable.

I have said in many comments here on the Bleacher Report that unless the federal government is prepared to prosecute every known steroid user because they broke the law, then enough is enough. Let's just play ball and have discussions about what baseball is really all about.

Will the Mets implode in September again? Will the Yankees finally realize the days of buying championships are over? Will the rest of the American League find out that the Rays are for real? Are the Red Sox off season projects going to get them back to the World Series?

Can the Phillies be the first team in the National League since the Big Red Machine to go back-to-back and win another World Series? Who will win the wacky AL Central? (Any of the five are capable). Have the L.A. Angels come back to the pack? Can Manny lead the Dodgers to the promised land? Is the curse in Chicago finally coming to an end?

This is what the fans want to know. We deserve this. We pay to go to games. We buy the cable packages, the merchandise, the memorabilia, the baseball cards, and it is the will of the fans who will get the next generation to care about this game in order to see it thrive.

Forget the controversy. Let's just play ball.