Manny struck out, who's next?

The last twelve months have been a circus. Hence, my contributions to the blogosphere have been, shall we say, lacking. So to my four regular readers, I apologize. Now that I've gotten that off my plate, let's get back to talking sports.

Manny, Manny, Manny... why hast thou disappointed me? I thought that if there was one natural, one "clean," player in the game, it would be Senor Ramirez. Maybe I had my blue-tinted sunglasses (er, blinders) on. Maybe I just truly believed he didn't give a you-know-what. Whatever the case, the news of his foul play came as a bit of a shock at my house.

MLB's axe has come down hard on some of the big boys now. The once-towering redwoods that were the legacies of Manny, A-Rod, Bonds, McGwire, and Clemens (to name a few) have been compromised. Bud Selig & Co. came a swingin' and chopped them down to pitiful stumps. Okay, okay... enough with the Paul Bunyan-type metaphors. You get my point.

Now that the list of marque names on baseball's (and the hall of fame's) black list is growing, one has to wonder who will be next. For the most part, the sacred Mitchell documents have been kept under wraps. The remaining names on "the list" are still a secret, which comes as no surprise to me. Releasing those names would be bad for business. Imagine the repercussions if one of Selig's golden boys (e.g. Jeter, Pujols, Rivera) became a known con. MLB's already non-existent marketing would be toast. MLB's already tarnished reputation would take another hit.

Quite frankly, I don't care who's on the list. Baseball purists may argue that full disclosure is the only way for baseball to overcome these issues. There may be some truth to that, but I'm still not convinced that it would solve the problems. To me, the damage has already been done. Anyone with half a brain knows that everyone, or close to everyone, was using some type of performance-enhancing substance during the "Steroid Era." With that in mind, what good would come from letting the proverbial cat out of the bag at this point? What good would come from knowing that the top 10 home run hitters in 2002 were all juiced?

If anyone would benefit from this type of disclosure, it would be Bonds, McGwire, Manny, and the rest of the bunch. The more names that get dropped, the better for their legacies and chances at getting into the Hall of Fame. The HOF committee can blackball a handful of known offenders, but would it really turn away an entire era of players? Highly doubtful.

Any thoughts? What's baseball's next play?