I know it’s just a meaningless pseudo-game that has lost almost every semblance of relevance or even excitement. I realize that free agency and interleague play has made the argument over which league is better basically moot. I understand that with a strike looming and the steroids flowing like fresh mountain hormones, baseball has more pressing issues on its plate.

But a tie? How can the All-Star Game end in a tie? The recently frozen head of Ted Williams must be spinning in its jar.

Both sides decided on Tuesday night after the 11th inning that since all pitchers on both sides had been used, and the current pitchers had both gone two innings (oh, the horror!), there was no choice but to call it a draw.

Commisioner/former owner/Nazi Bud Selig, the managers on both sides and nearly every player involved – except for Sammy Sosa, who was halfway to Chicago by then – agreed with the decision. They argued that they couldn’t risk sending tired pitchers back to their regular teams or sending position players to the mound. The fans in the stands argued, “Boooooooo!”

This is not exactly breaking news, but it’s clear that what the players, managers and commisioner/former owner/Nazi agreed on was greed. Don’t blame them, though, they’re just playing along with the plot du jour of America’s national drama.

Greed has been around, no doubt, since the beginning of whatever. But when compared to the other seven deadly sins (thanks, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman), it seems that greed is leading the pack in America these days – except in the Roman Catholic Church, where the pride of bishops and lust of priests are neck and neck.

There are easy targets, like baseball. There are local targets, like the ISU Foundation. There are former local targets, like Purdue President Martin Jischke. There are targets already written about in this space, like Rolling Stone. All these folks and organizations have in recent months and years shown that when it comes to priorities, there can be only one: the almighty dollar.

Then there’s big business, the mother of all greed. The line of fallen companies who manipulated records to hide losses and inflate stock prices is growing longer each week. There have been days in the last month when the front pages of the business sections of large metro newspapers have featured nothing but stories of corporate wrongdoing.

President George W. Bush, a politician no businessman has ever had any reason to hate, deemed the wave of corporate malfeasance politically damning enough that he gave a speech about the problem in New York Tuesday, several hours before the All-Star Game was called a draw because multi-million dollar pitchers can’t throw three innings.

Bush called for an extra $100 million for the Securities and Exchange Commission. He supported tougher criminal penalties for executives convicted of criminal fraud. He said CEOs should be personally responsible for their firms’ financial statements.

Of course, $100 million is only half of what Congress has proposed adding to the SEC budget. And most experts agree that stronger civil penalties are the only way to curb corporate excess because executives can rarely be convicted of criminal offenses even when their conduct is ethically stank. As for the third suggestion, um, am I missing something? Isn’t it common sense that if the books are cooked, it’s the boss’ loss?

I’m no financial expert, though, so don’t take my word for it. According to an article in Wednesday’s New York Times, “chief executives were lavish in their praise” of Bush’s proposals.

Robert S. Miller, chief executive of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation: “The president struck a nice bipartisan balance. He talked about doubling prison terms and going after the bad apples rather than imposing new burdens on the majority of American businesses.” Yup, we sure wouldn’t want any new burdens.

The booming applause from corporate executives is the most obvious sign that Bush is doing more talking than walking. The whole problem in the first place is that federal regulations are a joke; accounting firms know they can, will and are being paid to get away with anything; and the companies are expected to police themselves. By the time regulators realize what’s up, it’s too late.

It’s just greed. Businesses are supposed to make money. That’s the whole point. But these companies aren’t in trouble because they made too much money. They’re in trouble because they weren’t making any money, and instead of facing the music and admitting their mistakes, the executives in charge hid the losses and made off with as much cash as they could swindle. And now, most of them will face very little punishment.

Bush and the business types don’t seem to even understand the problem. Their main worry is investor confidence. They’re so, so concerned that the American people will stop buying little chunks of these corporations because they don’t trust them.

That’s important, but so is throwing assholes who build houses worth hundreds of millions of dollars while the stock of their former company sells for less than a dollar in prison. Not white-collar prison, I’m talking about limp-for-the-first-two-years prison.

Then again, maybe that’s just the wrath talking.

Dave Roepke is a senior in journalism and mass communications from Aurora.