The Cardinals' spring has opened with a thud with the news of Scott Spiezio's release. The Cards had little choice really. Spiezio was on a short leash following last summer's hiatus for substance abuse help. The truth is Spiezio might not have made the team anyway. His performance last season paled in comparison to his output in 2006. Whether that was due to substance abuse or not, it's a bottom line league.

I'll say this, the behavior alleged in the arrest warrant is in no way close to what we in the media experienced. Spiezio was one of the most cordial, respectful and well spoken guys we've seen in these parts. I certainly wish him well.

As far as the Barry Bonds mini-controversy, I don't get what Tony Larussa was thinking. Why in the world would you want to bring on the jumbo-sized headache that is Barry Bonds? For starters, he's not a team guy. Did you ever see the Giants' clubhouse? Bonds had his own corner with no teammates on either side of him. The Giants had two sets of rules...one for Barry and one for everyone else. No way is that the kind of guy that "old school Tony" should embrace.

Plus, Bonds' has never accepted responsibility for his own plight. He instead prefers to blame others, especially the media. He's not a stand up guy.

Furthermore, Bonds is the epicenter of the steroids controversy in baseball. He's under federal indictment, accused of lying to a federal grand jury. I don't care if Bonds ever does jail time, but why bring him on board while he faces criminal investigation. Kudos to Cards' management for saying no. I agree with what former Cardinal Larry Walker said recently: you can't do anything about the past(especially about the period of time before baseball banned steorids and HGH). All you can do is clean up the game in the future. But having said that, you'd have to believe in O.J.'s innocence AND the tooth fairy to not believe that Mark Mcgwire and Barry Bonds didn't at least dabble in performance enhancing drugs.

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