Shut Up And Move On

Last week, the much-anticipated Mitchell Report was released, detailing the rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball.

Of course, even the most casual baseball fan already knew that the use of steroids and human growth hormone was as prevalent in the game as snow in a Canadian winter.

The centre of attention from the announcement has been the inclusion of Roger Clemens, arguably the best pitcher since the war, in the report. Thankfully, many in the media are painting him with the same brush as Barry Bonds, proving, at the very least, that those doing the accusing are not hypocrites.

But what is most important is this: during the alleged drug use by Clemens, Bonds, Andy Pettitte, and a slew of other major leaguers, it was not against the rules of the game to do so. Some might say you don't need a law saying you can't kill someone to know you shouldn't do it, but we do have such a law. Baseball didn't formally ban steroids until 2003, and HGH until 2005.

People are talking about if Clemens' vast records, like Bonds', should be labelled with an asterisk, or wiped out altogether. But history is history; it cannot be changed. It must be written as was, warts and giant heads and all.

The solution as I see it is simple: shut up and move on. These substances are against the rules of the game now, and testing is in place. For the sake of history, future baseball fans should know that in the last 10 years, any records or remarkable achievements should be taken with a grain of salt, and that they may not have been achieved honestly.

But the fact remains that they were achieved, so elect Clemens and Bonds to the Hall Of Fame (on the first ballot, of course) and say, from this moment on, that baseball is clean.

At least until the new drug du jour hits the clubhouse.

Humber Et Cetera Story Links

To read published articles from the Humber Et Cetera, please visit these links:

Hawks swept in three sets against Division leaders - 12/10/07

Hawks prevail in extra-sets win - 12/03/07

Bruins shot down - 11/21/07

Tough loss turns focus - 11/13/07

HELP! A Dumb Canadian Needs Some Answers

I love American football (note the adjective "American" to eliminate Canadian and soccer from this argument).

I have been an avid follower of the NFL for almost 20 years now - before that, it was all about finger-painting and avoiding the dreaded square block in round hole trick - and have tried mightily to follow the NCAA football season.

I enjoy the game as much as anyone else, and am awed by the sheer number of teams and players involved. If medicine had this kind of funding, I wouldn't have a stuffed nose right now.

But now that the "regular season" is done, and the bowl match-ups are set, I am throughly confused.

Hawaii finished the season at 12-0, the only undefeated team in the country. Yet, because of their "weak" conference and competition, they do not qualify for the national championship game, or anything remotely close.

Instead, the one-loss Ohio State Buckeyes play the two-loss LSU Tigers, although head coach Les Miles would want to add "undefeated in regulation."

The logic (or lack thereof) in picking who plays in which bowl seems preposterous to me. Every league at every level has some sort of playoff system to determine the champion, and the best example of this is in the NCAA itself, with their 64-team basketball tournament.

It seems a simple fix to me: have the top 16 teams (guaranteeing all conference champs a spot regardless of record) play a single-elimination tournament. That would mean 8 games one week, 4 games the next, and so on until a champion is crowned. There aren't any games scheduled in the first three weeks in December anyway, so logistically it would work.

It would also create excitement throughout the month, instead of now, where all other bowl games are meaningless in the big picture.

And, oh yeah, it would create a true national champion based on winning, not on computer formulas and polls.

One of these days, the NCAA will wake up and change their format for determining a winner in college football.

This season proves that day needs to come now.