Simply put, I am tired of the overkill. I usually enjoy the hot stove league, and the myriad of off-season rumors, deals and arrests that are reported each and every day. It gets me pumped for the start of spring training. But something different happened this year. The baseball offseason of 2004-05 was, for lack of better words, stuck in a black hole. We were subjected to the daily story about the Red Sox, and the daily Barry Bonds piece, and the daily steroids headline, and the daily Yankees subterfuge. That last boring sentence was itself a microcosm of the off-season. If I fell into a coma in October, and awoke the first day of spring training, would I know anything new? The Red Sox, collectively, were poster boys. Bonds remained hurt. A bunch of big sluggers that we thought were juicing-well, we still think were juicing. And the Yankees spent a lot of money. Well whoopie whoop. Tell me something new. Now we?re almost to June, and the storylines are developing. The aforementioned major subplots continue to dominate the headlines, but there is so much else happening in Major League Baseball that has to either make you feel good about the game, or at worst allow you to wonder in amazement how it?s happening. Let?s take a look at what the media should be talking about. The Good. Every year, new cities/regions are pulled back in to the forefront with surprise teams and players. I am in Baltimore, so I can vouch for the buzz that?s back in town. It must be absolute mayhem in San Diego. The Bad. The Astros can?t hit (.248 team batting average). Neither can the Indians (.242) or the Pirates (.248). The pitching staff?s of the Devil Rays (5.68 team ERA), the Rockies (5.74) and the Reds (5.63) just plain stink. But with the exception of the Astros demise and maybe the Indians, we should?ve seen this coming. The Ugly. The Mendoza Line. Who is under it, you ask? Currently, six players, and not because they only had three at bats before pulling a groin: Cristian Guzman (.197, 147AB), Jack Wilson (.196, 148), Victor Martinez (.195, 133), Mike Lowell (.194, 134), Carlos Pena (.193, 114), and finally, (gulp) Aaron Boone (.156, 135). We?ll check back on these guys in a few months. The FINAL year at Busch Stadium. How can this not get more attention? The first of the cookie cutter stadiums, and as far as I?m concerned, the last, will go down in smoke with the new Busch Stadium going up next door. The gloomy Dark Era of Stadiums is finally coming to a close. What great memories the people of St. Louis must have from good old Busch. The Vince Coleman ?Tarp Incident? is in the top three, right? The METS have a winning record. Granted, they are hovering around .500, but isn?t this the perennial overpaid, underachieving, ?other team? in New York? Don?t they routinely get slammed for stinking? I think they deserve some credit. And with four teams one game apart in the win column, anything is possible. The Giants enjoy the early bird special. Julio Franco should be on this team by default. During spring training, I heard that this could quite possibly be the oldest team in history, with potentially every position player over 30. But the San Francisco geriatric all stars are playing .500 baseball without Bonds, and sometimes look as if they have a spring in their step (see Omar Vizquel). At least this takes some of the local attention off of Barry?s ongoing struggle with ?.the world. Shaq. I know, he plays hoops, but gosh darn it is he entertaining. I vote we take the reporters off of Bonds detail and have them all follow the Shaq Daddy for the rest of the year. And make it a reality show: Shaq Lives. Pat Burrell. This is a shout out to my peeps in Philly, since I have been badmouthing this guy for years. But it?s been so easy. The expectations for this guy were so high, and I enjoyed making fun of the next best thing that obviously wasn?t. So my hat is off (for now) to Burrell (a career .257 hitter), who is batting .318 with nine HR?s and 37 RBI?s. If Jim Thome happens to return from witness protection, that Abreu/Burrell/Thome connection could finally put together the excitement that Ed Wade and company have been waiting for. And that, my friends, is supposed to be a breath of fresh air. No mention of the same old stories, but rather eight topics that just might keep your interest longer than the Steroid Hearings or Johnny Damon?s crib. There is much more baseball out there than the first fifteen minutes of Sportscenter, so enjoy it.