Kevin Kaduk from Yahoo! Big League Stew joins the show to talk about the baseball season thus far. Which means he joins us to talk about Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and a few other stories that were thrown onto the back burner.

We discuss the difficulty in covering an entire sport when two stories dominate the headlines so much. As the editor of the baseball for the Yahoo Sports team, how was Kaduk able to balance covering those situations while still maintaining focus on the rest of the league? Last week, they couldn’t just ignore the Manny situation as it would come off as arrogant. Yet if everyone else was covering that situation, wouldn’t it be prudent to give baseball fans something else to read? We discuss the saturation process of a story like steroids and how to come up with different ways to cover the sport, while still maintaing a focus on the top stories that envelope the game.

I ask ‘Duk about my assertion that everyone is on something. Every baseball player is on some sort of performance enhancing supplement and we’re just conditioned to call one a cheater and another clean because of an arbitrary line MLB has created. Which is why players can promote Myoplex and Five Hour Energy, yet a different player who bought a can of over-the-counter supplements at a GNC can be suspended the same number of games as a player who was taking women’s fertility drugs (and presumably a lot more).

Is it fair to assume everyone is guilty until proven innocent? And the fact that all the players are on drugs, does it even matter? We’re in a time when the greatest pitcher, right-handed bat, overall player and home-run hitter of our time have all been mired in drug scandals or suspensions. Why isn’t everyone else on drugs if the best players are? ‘Duk brings up his post last week of the top 10 drug suspensions of the last few years (that was stolen by a Spanish language website in hilarious fashion) and how the names are Manny, Palmiero and everyone else. We only care about the big names, so if you’re a small name, the risk-reward seems in your favor.

Do fans care anymore? Few had a problem in the NFL when Shawne Merriman nearly won the Defensive MVP award in the same year he was suspended for four games for taking steroids, but imagine if Manny Ramirez -- who is hitting .348 at the time of his suspension -- were to come back and challenge for the MVP in the NL. The outrage would never cease. Why does it matter so much more in baseball if guys are cheating? The numbers? The numbers are already gone.

We bring up Jonathan Papelbon and his recent comments on Manny. I ask ‘Duk if it’s just me, or does Papelbon really seem like a dick. I’m sure Red Sox fans think he’s great and funny and the nicest guy in the world. But he comes off as such a dick. And for that matter, so does another young guy like Ryan Braun. I pose the question to ‘Duk...who is the biggest dick in baseball?

He defends Braun and we realize that maybe having interviewed some of these guys he’s too close to the situation. Because to the fans, the players aren’t real. They are robots. It’s hard to consider them real people when we’re watching them on TV or from the stands (it’s partly why it’s so easy to boo).  Duk brings up that everyone can be considered a dick, including bloggers. Including me? But ‘Duk is not a fan of Jim Edmonds. Not really sure who is...other than Cardinals fans.

Speaking of Cards fans, JSF had a post of a Cardinals fan wearing basically the most racist t-shirt I’ve ever seen worn in public at a baseball game. As a Cubs fan, we talk about ‘Duk’s reaction to the shirt and Cards fans in general. Rather than rip on them (dang) he takes a shot at his own Cubbies fans and their ‘mock cheer’ of Kosuke Fukudome with rice hats and “Hory Kow” shirts. Turns out, everyone in the midwest are a bunch of racists! Ha.

We talk about another fan base who isn’t racist, per se, they just hate everyone. The Mets fans. The Phillies played the Mets last week and there were plenty of good seats available. For a huge rivalry game? I know there was rain, but have the prices gotten to the point where any impediment precludes fans from going to the games? We remember the time when the expensive seats cost $8.75. Those same seats cost $60-70. For literally the same seat! We spent $8.75 on chicken fingers this week.

What can fans do to afford going to these games? And what will teams do to get more fans in the seats? There has been a growing disconnect between the Have’s and the Have-not’s in sports. But when there are fewer and fewer Have’s and those people wouldn’t be caught dead in $1200 seats, what are teams going to do? Do they just assume someone will pay? Do they lower prices so a few Have-not’s can afford to sit in the Have sections? As ‘Duk says, you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube. But there will be more deals for the smarter fans out there, via Twitter or school groups or community events. The prices won’t be lowered, but there will be other ways to get cheap tickets.

We talk about the Hawkeye system used in tennis and compare it to the technology in baseball. The conversation came up on Monday in discussion of getting rid of the officials in sports. Does ‘Duk ever see a situation where a player or manager can challenge a pitch like they do in tennis? Why have we gotten to the point where we trust a graphic box created by a guy in a truck and not a trained umpire standing right behind the plate? Has technology exposed the officiating on the field to the point where sports needs to come up with a different way to referee events?

Last, ‘Duk is a huge Chicago fan, and went to the Blackhawks game last night as they clinched a spot in the Western Conference Finals. So who is the biggest rival to Chicago? In Philly, we seem to focus much of our sports attention on New York. So who do Chicagoans hate? Or does everyone in the midwest hate them?

Thanks to ‘Duk for coming on with us today. And you for listening.