What A Week In Baseball

This was, without a doubt, one of the worst weeks in major league baseball history. The repercussions of the events of the past seven to ten days will resound for a very long time.

Off-the-field news eclipsed even a World Series. As a fan, I find that nothing short of pathetic. Even though it was the hated Red Sox winning the World Series, I believe they and the Colorado Rockies deserved more than playing second fiddle to what went on outside Fenway and Coors.

Let's take a look:

• Joe Torre walked away from the Yankees. True, this was big news. What was bigger than the actual story (Yankees get a new manager), however, was the classless way the Yankees handled it. Their actions made them look cowardly and foolish. It cast doubt upon the future of the most successful franchise in sport.
• Paul Byrd took HGH. It wasn't the story itself that was the tragedy here (though it's always sad for me to hear about another baseball cheater). It was the timing of the leak of this story that was the news. Also in question was the possible source of the leak. George Mitchell, major league baseball's steroids investigator, is a director with the Red Sox -- the very team that would have benefited from such an announcement. Mitchell's office denied leaking the story. Then again, Barry Bonds and Paul Byrd denied taking performance-enhancing drugs. More on this story in the future.
• Barry Bonds got "fired". That's right, Barry Bonds had to get in the mix somewhere. And what was his news this time? He feels he got fired from the Giants. We always knew he believed he was bigger than the game. So why should we be surprised that he would have found reason to take some of the spotlight from the real champions. Which, of course, leads us to...
• Alex Rodriguez opted out of his Yankee contract. In one fell swoop, A-Rod has managed to make the new Yankee braintrust look, well, not as bad as they did a few days ago. Game 4 of the World Series and this egomaniac decided to make this announcement. The truth of the matter is the Yankees are actually a better team without him. Sure he can hit better than anyone, but the Yankees were winners when they had 25 players on a team, not 25 individuals playing for themselves. Losing A-Rod brings them closer to their old selves. This should also serve as a warning to the next team to offer A-Rod obscene amounts of money: he will change your clubhouse. Teams like the Red Sox, Angels and Tigers -- teams who already have that vital team chemistry -- will fall apart with Alex Rodriguez. He needs to go somewhere where he can be the center of it all, and where the focus is on something other than winning. Alex Rodriguez should be a Giant or a Cub.

The fact is, however, that the above storylines detracted from the most important moment in the season. It is disgraceful.

Baseball is a circus.