You know, growing up in the 1990's, I always had the impression that my generation's views and contributions meant little to the world. We weren't going to get our guy elected, for example. We weren't going to force evil industries to stop production. And yet, as it turns out, we were a little wrong about that.

They would struggle hard to tell you otherwise, and they act in a flippant, in-your-face way, but it turns out that the People In Charge are terrified of us. That's why steroids are such a big deal right now. Everybody in baseball has known about steroids for a very, very long time. I guarantee you that steroids were being abused in professional sports as early as the 1970's - and probably earlier than that - and people in the clubhouse knew of them. All the players knew about them, the management knew about them - and probably encouraged them - and the ownership knew about them. The only people left without a clue were the fans.

If Bud Selig and his corny cronies are to be believed, then steroids have only been an issue for ten years, maybe fifteen tops, and only a handful of the thousands of players to wear a uniform in that time span actually used them. Bud and his ... buddies want to play down steroids because the average baseball fan is pissed about it. So, they lie about the impact, they have spent a lot of time denying the seriousness of the abuse, and most importantly, they've paid a lot of lip service to the subject. They've said a lot of things that they think we want to hear.

This isn't unusual. It's the same thing with betting on sports. We have been taught that the Black Sox were unique. They did something no other team did, and only a handful of players participated in. I have to believe that that's not true. Likewise, if anybody who knows sports was to tell you today that athletes aren't involved in gambling, then that person is a bold faced liar. From my understanding of it, players are a lot like fans ... rich, millionaire fans. They like to get together with their teammates and they enjoy watching games on TV. They drink, they party, and they make bets on every single play - even if they're watching the same sport that they play themselves. But if you asked an official of the league, you would be assured that gambling is not a problem in sports. And if word ever got out that athletes gamble like fiends, people would be "offended," and "shocked," and they'd take "appropriate action." However, they certainly already know.

What I'm saying in a roundabout way is that, as the title implies, there's a lot of hypocrisy in sports, and these guys are terrified by public opinion. If the general public felt the way I do about steroids, Bud Selig would be taking a very different approach.

Instead, he's just a hypocrite. They all are.