Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig needs to discipline the players named in the Mitchell Report on steroid use that's set to be released today. It's not only the right thing to do for the game's future but it's the best way to safeguard the game's bottom line.

Some players named by former Sen. George Mitchell reportedly include some of the most popular players in the game including future Hall of Fame pitcher Roger Clemens, Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Nomar Garciaparra, Texas Rangers star Milton Bradley and Detroit Tigers catcher Pudge Rodriguez. All of these players need to explain what they did and when they did it, or face immediate suspensions or fines. Click here for a list of the players as reported by WNBC TV.

Baseball survived the Black Sox scandal, free agency and those godawful uniforms from the 1970s. It will survive steroids as well but it needs to rip off the scab immediately. For too long, the game took a speak no evil, hear no evil approach to the performance-enhancing drugs. Doing nothing, though, isn't an option for Selig any longer because too much money is at stake.

How much money would Barry Bonds be worth if he liked the media and the media liked him? That is the proverbial $64,000 question with the brawny outfielder just 10 home runs shy of Hank Aaron's career home run record of 755.

The 42-year-old Bonds has a one-year $16 million contract with the San Francisco Giants and if he has saved and invested well during his lucrative playing years, he should have no financial worries heading into his life after baseball. His career earnings dating back to his rookie season with Pittsburgh in 1986 are at least $172 million. But with potential legal bills mounting, Bonds is probably saving every penny he can. He still may be indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of perjury and he could be fined hefty amounts by the U.S. government in tax penalties.

With all this going on for the soon-to-be home run king, he's practically invisible on the endorsement front. Companies don't want to go anywhere near Bonds because of still unproven suspicions of steroid use. That and his general unfriendliness towards the media, and he really is alone on an island most days at the ballpark. But that didn't seem to bother him much this week as the Giants visited Shea Stadium and the New York Mets.

Bonds didn't even speak to the media before the first game of the series on Tuesday. The most intriguing aspect of the Bonds home run-record chase is how Aaron himself says he won't attend when the record is broken. And Commissioner Bud Selig has not confirmed whether he will attend either. Some way for baseball to treat its most hallowed record. The same Major League Baseball which clearly turned its collective heads the other way when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa (both bulked up beyond rational belief) were chasing Roger Maris' single season record of 61 in 1998. McGwire went on to hit 70 dingers that summer, a record Bonds surpassed with 73 in 2001.

Will Bonds ever reap the financial rewards of the record he's about to shatter? The answer, quite clearly, is no.