The admission by baseball star Alex Rodriguez that he tookperformance-enhancing drugs is symptomatic of a culture in whichfrauds are only sorry they got caught, mere “mistakes” (a euphemismfor “criminal acts”) are committed, and all one must do to atonefor such sins is apologize. In this “anything goes” atmosphere,it's no wonder many people feel no compunctions about cheatingtheir insurer on a claim.

This is also the same culture where bankers who ran home mortgageoperations like Wall Street boiler rooms can sleep easily about nothaving to face any criminal prosecutions.

And it's the same culture in which President Obama–insisting hewants to focus on what's ahead, not what happened in thepast–sounds as if he's likely to shrug off any Constitutional orgeneral legal violations by his predecessor's administration.

How did we come to this point?

A-Rod is a glaring example of how easy it is these days to getaway with the most outrageous behavior. He essentially took moneyfrom his former employer, the Texas Rangers, under false pretenses.He said he was a legitimate baseball player, but instead was pumpedup with drugs to drive more balls out of the park.

Only after his fraud was exposed by a diligent journalist from“Sports Illustrated” did A-Rod “come clean,” so to speak, if youcan believe anything he says at this point.

But what are the consequences of his actions? Yes, hisreputation will be sullied, and his Hall of Fame chances areperhaps slimmer. He might be booed more often, although I fullyexpect a standing ovation from the Yankee faithful at the homeopener in the proverbial “show of support.” (Support for what, bythe way? For a cheater? Way to go, A-Fraud!)

In his interview with ESPN, Rodriguez said he hoped kids wouldlearn from his “mistakes.” What lessons exactly would they learn?That if you pump up with drugs, you can make tens of millions andwin a Most Valuable Player award???

Where are the consequences of his actions beyond loss ofreputation? The Australians have a favorite phrase–”No worries,mate!”–to assure you all is well. Is that what we have here withthis cheater, “no worries,” just because he “confessed” (afterbeing exposed) and apologized?

As a lifelong baseball fan, I don't want an apology from A-Rod.I want a suspension from Major League Baseball, to show theindustry is serious about cracking down on those who undermine theintegrity of the game. I want A-Rod to give back the MVP trophy he“won” while pumped up on drugs.

And I want him to donate the $75 million he “earned” in thethree years in which he admitted doing drugs (or at least the $36million or so he took home after taxes) to youth drug counselingand Little League development.

That, at least, would show Rodriguez is genuinely sorry aboutwhat happened. That he is ashamed to keep money he took underfraudulent circumstances. And that he's prepared to spend a goodchunk of his ill-gotten booty on efforts to truly help kids avoidthe “mistakes” he made.

I'm reading the 1958 novel, “The Year The Yankees Lost ThePennant,” on which the Broadway musical “Damn Yankees” is based,about Joe Hardy–a middle-aged man who sells his soul to become ayoung baseball star that hits home run after home run.

In the introduction to this latest edition, published in 2004,baseball stat guru Bill James hit the nail on the head when hewrote that “the story of Joe Hardy has a special resonance in theera of steroids. Joe Hardy was able to shatter through the glassceiling of normal human batting performance with the secretassistance of an unnatural supplement.”

You could argue that all those who took performance-enhancingdrugs made the same deal with the devil. Joe Hardy managed to haveit both ways–leading his hapless but beloved Washington Senators tothe pennant and defeating the hated Yankees, but managing to returnto his old life with little or no consequences. Now A-Roid ishoping to follow in Hardy's fictional footsteps.

Ironically, in the book's intro, written long before the latestcase of baseball drug abuse was revealed, Bill James–now a senioradvisor for the Red Sox, and therefore a Yankee-hatingexpert–laments that the Yanks are still destroying the hopes anddreams of non-Yankee fans everywhere, with the latest outrage beingtheir trade for the greatest player in baseball……AlexRodriguez!

Little did he know that five years after writing that intro,A-Roid would be in the same boat as poor Joe Hardy. The onlydifference is that Hardy won the damned pennant, while A-Rod hasbeen labled a choker for coming up short again and again in theclutch–especially in the playoffs.

Perhaps there is some justice in this world after all.