News Flash: Major League Baseball’s investigation into steroid use begins with former Maine Senator George Mitchell heading the inquiry. The probe will only cover events after September of 2002 and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig says Mitchell has his permission to follow the investigation wherever it may lead.

Teddy’s Take: Now there’s a contradiction. “Follow the investigation wherever it may lead.‿ And what happens when the road inevitably leads to the period before 2002?

The time to look seriously into steroid abuse was in 1999 and 2001 when Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds were making a mockery of the most treasured records in all of sports. Now it’s too late. The damage to the game’s integrity has already been done, and the late 20th/early 21st centuries will forever be known as the “Steroid Era.‿

What are they going to do? Punish Bonds for what he did AFTER he broke the HR record? And if they do punish Bonds, what about the rest of the offenders, particularly the two guys also named in the BALCO scandal?

How exactly have Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi skated free and clear in all this? It’s hysterical to hear members of the New York media and Yankees fans pontificate about what an injustice Bonds has done to the game of baseball while cheering Sheffield and Giambi. Ancient history you say? Perhaps, but I’d still like to know how Giambi managed to bulk up and re-discover his batting stroke, all after hitting below the Mendoza line and being asked to go to the minors.

Just curious.