ESPN's Buster Olney posits that baseball's less tolerant of selfish players and clubhouse cancers - that it's strengthening its "code of conduct."

I'm dubious this isn't just idle chatter from a few managers and GMs eager to move past the steroid embarrassment and justify high ticket prices and massive salaries in a terrible economy, i.e., just some P.R. they know Olney will credulously pass on to the public.

This kind of thing has been in the headlines lately (Citibank had to cancel its order for a private jet, AIG looked terrible using taxpayer money to send execs on a lavish trip and the CEOs of the big-three automakers were ripped for each taking his own company jet to Washington to beg for taxpayer money). If you subsist on the taxpayer dime, spending lavishly or acting like a spoiled brat is terrible public relations.

MLB is not dependent on taxpayer money, (though the antitrust exemption has some kind of monetary value), but it surely depends on the support of many who are hurting financially to tune in at home and occasionally buy overpriced hot dogs and parking along with expensive tickets at the stadium. So of course, baseball's going to talk this kind of game and make it seem like all its players are hard-working great guys doing whatever they can to bring you the best possible product. But the truth is many more than ARod took short cuts, and there's little doubt many more are jerks for one reason or another but just haven't been flagged by the media yet the way Elijah Dukes, Delmon Young and ARod have. At one point, Milton Bradley was supposedly a terrible guy and same with Manny Ramirez. After Bradley had a monster year in Texas, and Manny carried the Dodgers on his back, that's pretty much been forgotten.

And what about Roger Clemens - he was considered one of the great role models in all of baseball, a modern day icon. Now he's a lying jerk. So I find it very hard to believe that baseball is seriously cracking down across the board via its code of conduct. If you're a young punk like Young or Dukes and you overplay your hand, you will be called out for it - which has always been the case. Otherwise, I'd expect a lot of stories like this and business as usual during the season.