Selig muffs it again

For all the "crisis" and "scandal" and "cheapened image" and "tarnished past-time" babble that's clouded baseball during the steroid era, is anyone else stupified by this?

What happened to cleaning up baseball? What happened to the hard-line stance? What happened to having a little backbone? Oh wait -- I said "backbone" and forgot I was talking about Selig. This whole thing screams to me like Giambi was granted clemency for sitting down and chatting with George Mitchell and spilling all the juicy details on the rest of the league (sorry, I don't really believe that all this "good citizen" press from Giambi's camp affected Selig's decision). So what are we to make of that? Is everyone a special, unique snowflake who'll be shown mercy if they just 'fess up? Are we to believe that in earnest? Fans are already jaded enough as it is and now you come out saying that there'll be no repurcussions? How many more questions can I string in a row? My stance is this: if you're not going to punish Jason Giambi, then don't bother trying to hang Barry Bonds or Gary Sheffield or Sammy Sosa or Miguel Tejada or Roger Clemens or anyone else implicated in the steroids hubbub. The point of this investigation, I always assumed (and I'm sure I'm not alone) was to clean up baseball, not give it a mild talking-to. If the commissioner is really this concerned about another brush-up with the players' union, he may as well quit this witch hunt, right now.

I really wonder if Giambi struck some secret deal with the commissioner on the side. An island home in the Carribean away from his teammates' harsh eyes, some sort of MLB witness protection program. There must be! If the Mitchell Investigation doesn't reveal some information as a result of this sit-down, people are going to start wondering (more so) why they should even care about steroids in baseball.

Don't worry about it, Barry Bonds, you just keep doing what you're doing and don't worry about a thing. Apparently, nothing's going to happen to you.