Loved every word of John Eisenberg's skeptical look at the so-called "successful'' season Major League Baseball is having, despite the continued mound of evidence and speculation about steroids.

Almost every word. Except these: "How about making sure Barry Bonds doesn't have a place to play in 2007 so he won't make a run at Hank Aaron's all-time home run record? (Will each individual club owner hold firm on just saying no to Bonds? Let's hope so.)"

Sorry. I say, let's hope not. Let's hope that in such desperate times for the game's reputation and the reputation of one of its most honorable players ever, that we don't get that desperate.

And please, this is not a knock at a Sun columnist colleague, because it's an idea that has sprouted far and wide the past few weeks. Among those touting it is the Philly Daily News's John Smallwood, a fellow Terp alum and Black Explosion (the black student newspaper) alum. No, say it ain't so.

Now, granted, I'm the one who wrote in Sunday's Points After that if Bonds gets any closer to Hank, I'd go out to the ballpark and throw syringes at him myself. Suffice it to say that I'll be sick to my stomach if his bloated self passes the legit home-run king, after the way Aaron has been overlooked and disrespected from the moment he approached the record and in the 32 years since he passed it.

But the idea that cheating is the only way to rein in a cheater, that really bothers me. Baseball has sold itself out already by letting the situation come to this in the first place. So the solution is to compound the sellout by selling out your principles even further by colluding and conspiring to blackball Bonds before he reaches Aaron?

At some point, somebody involved in this pathetic display has to show some integrity. Baseball has no moral leg to stand on when it comes to trying to punish a player who took advantage of the lawlessness the game itself allowed to grow unchecked. It apparently hasn't dawned on anybody in the baseball hierarchy that maybe it's going to have to take its medicine on this one, just swallow the truth that they created the environment in which all their records - hitting, pitching, individual awards, World Series - are going to be tainted, that their own greed and hubris put control of their most sacred numbers in the hands of people like Bonds, McGwire and Palmeiro, not to mention Canseco, Giambi and Caminiti. Tough break, but it's all your fault, and you'll have to deal with it for eternity, just like in those old Twilight Zone episodes.

It can go down the path of underhanded, backdoor collusion only if it no longer cares about its own credibility, or if it figures that its remaining "fans'' will fall for anything if it's bought this fake version of the game so far.

What really hurts is that we media, who are supposed to stand for what's right, are buying into the scam. Well, not everybody: Gregg Doyel of CBSSportsline.com doesn't. Very nice, Gregg.

If baseball and the 30 owners follow through on this suggested fix, then I can just say it here: I'm through with this stupid sport.  If that's the national pastime, then I feel sorry for the nation.