FanHouse Gene Orza

If casual fans can get over their anger that Alex Rodriguez somehow violated the sanctity of America's Pastime, they'll realize just how absurd it is that the Major League Baseball Players Association is not under more fire for having these 2003 test results released in the first place.

Or, check that. "These" was a bad word choice in that sentence because I should have said, "this." A-Rod was singled out. There are 103 others who tested positive, and none of them are having to deal with the outrage of those who are choosing to overreact to the situation.

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

Baseball will carry on. It always does. If it can survive the fixing of the World Series, it can certainly survive the "revelation" that the once and future home run king juiced. That may not be what people want to hear as they huff and puff and blow indignantly about the shame Alex Rodriguez has brought upon the game and himself. But it is the truth.

Even as Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Roger Clemens have been unmasked, Major League Baseball has set attendance record after attendance record. Everyone talks tough, but at the end of the day, most of them wind up back at the ballpark

Yesterday we passed along the news that 11 current free agents were going to appear in the Mitchell Report. Naturally we cautioned GMs to be on the lookout so they didn't make the same type of commitment the Angels made to Gary Matthews Jr., who only months later was fingered in an HGH report. Well, only a day later, the story no longer appears on The Boston Globe website, where it was first reported. Instead, a New York Daily News report denies what The Globe had said:

"I can't imagine how that story can be accurate," MLB vice president for labor relations Rob Manfred told the Daily News last night. "Only Senator Mitchell knows who's in the report. The union does not know who's named in that report - we have not notified any players of anything."

According to union counsel Gene Orza, agents might have misunderstood what was said at the agents meeting in New York on Wednesday. What the agents actually were told was that of all the players whom Mitchell has asked to interview through the Players Association, 11 currently are free agents.

"The maximum number of free agents who could wind up appearing is 11," said one union source. "Or there may be none."

Sounds to me like a misunderstanding and that The Globe got things wrong. How does this change things for teams looking to make a signing? It doesn't too much. You know going into things that there's a chance any player you sign used some sort of performance-enhancer. If you're cautious and wait until the Mitchell Report comes out, you could miss out on players. Seems like it would be in the interest of teams for this Report to come out sooner rather than later. Alas, the anticipation continues to grow.