It's funny how life imitates art. There was someone in my screenwriting class who told me that it's not a big deal to get sent down to the minors when you're playing pro baseball. I get alot of questions like this since I'm a chick who's who's got the nerve to write a screenplay about a jock boy playing America's favorite pastime, baseball. Interesting how these questions mostly come from women and not from men.

Anyway, what's today's headline. John Rocker, that racist pig pitcher who now plays for the Texas Rangers, gets sent down to Triple A ball or the minor leagues after playing only two weeks of baseball.

Actually, the one nice guy in the class was telling me that I must know alot about baseball and I told him I don't but I know alot of people who are totally into it. Well, that and the fact that I'm a chick who dwells in Jim Rome's jungle alot.

Rome had an interview with baseball commissioner Bud Selig the other day. The guy is one smooth talker. He should try politics one day. Selig talked about the upcoming labor negotiations between the players' union and the owners. Rome kept asking him if there was going to be a strike and he kept dodging the question. Then Selig totally condemned that Forbes article about how much baseball owners really make.

His standard line, which he fed to congress, was the owners were losing money. Oh yeah. Then how come baseball teams can pay such exhorbitant salaries to their players? Case in point, look at the Texas Rangers. Their payroll is phenomenal, not that it does them any good since they've assembled a rag tag team of high priced problem players who aren't even giving the Rangers the number of wins you'd think they should have, given the amount of talent and money they have.

Then Selig went on to say that major league baseball wants to start testing the players for steroid usage. I think baseball is the only sport that doesn't test. Guess that incident between Mike Piazza and Roger Clemens in 2000 didn't fly with alot people. Whatever Clemens was on that night, be it his own intense personality or artificial substances, made him an out of control raging animal.

There was also that talk about how easy it was for the homerun record to fall after so many years and how they're too many players who are bigger than they used to be and hitting more bombs than before and older than before and still playing well. Part of it I think is better medical attention to the players themselves. The advances in sports medicine in the last 10 years have really allowed athletes to stay in condition all year long and if they do get injured, to come back quicker and pretty much in the same shape. Look at Garrison Hearts of the 49ers. The guy is amazing to have come back like that after what would have been a career ending injury.

Then there's the competitiveness and the salaries. I think the athletes are taking care of themselves better because there' s more competition and they're staying in shape all year round and not messing around with their million dollar product, their bodies. There are always exceptions though, like Jeff Kent, but the majority of athletes take care of themselves. They've got to. They've got those big salaries and I don't think teams are stupid enough to not put clauses in their players' contracts about keeping the body in shape.

There's also I think the Tiger Woods phenomenon. He's a golf guy who's totally in weight training and conditioning and look how great he is. I'm sure other athletes are noticing the differences that training and conditioning can make to an athlete and his game.

Then again, there's the players themselves. And alot of them will come out in an interview and hit about steroid usage. Now whether it's just sour grapes or really the truth, no one knows. But as long as they are players willing to hint, there's always going to the suspicion of doped up players. Major league baseball has to test to quell the rumors, but don't look for that to get approval for a long time. The owners are happy because homeruns bring the crowds to the parks and the players are happy because it gives them a bargaining chip in their salary negotiations.

Selig also talked about adding more parity to the league. I'm sure that' s going to go over well with the players and the owners. Can you imagine salary caps in major league baseball? What would teams like the Yankees, the Braves, the Dodgers and the Texas Rangers do. No way is this going to fly. Steinbrenner will fight it tooth and nail and from all the reports, the guy's got alot of clout.

I think major league baseball should have salary caps. It seems to work for the NFL. It took awhile but it seems to be working. What a salary cap will also is make baseball teams rely on their farm systems more for their players. And that can't be too bad. A team like the A's has a great farm system and they're always in the playoffs. In the NFL, they have to recruit well from the college ranks and other sources. The NFL has to get young players because they're cheap and then spend a few years developing them. It only took the 49ers a couple of years to get a young team in shape.

I saw a football game on ESPN the other night and it was football in Europe. What a kick! They had a stat up saying that just last year I think, the NFL contributed over 200 players to the European league. The announcer said that the NFL is looking that European league as a way to test and train their new players, kind of like a farm system since the NFL really doesn't have one in the US.

So I guess until I finish writing and then rewriting my screenplay, it's going to be all baseball all the time. I guess that's not a bad thing. It will be like writing to mood music only this time it's baseball news and baseball games.