It’s sad that baseball has gotten so it can barely generate interest after the most exciting season in the history of the game. We’re only nine months removed from that nation-paralyzing battle between sluggers Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire to capture the most coveted record in sports, and yet I still hear a collective yawn when I want to switch to WGN so Steve Stone can tell me why a pitcher can’t use a hook slide in the rain when there’s a southpaw behind the plate.

The same people who would cancel their mothers’ funerals to watch a Cubs-Cardinals match-up are again ignoring America’s pastime.

On the surface, baseball is boring to watch, ranking up there with bowling. The only way it can be exciting is if viewers appreciate the subtleties of the game or if the balls are so juiced players start mixing them with gin.

There once was a time when everyone had to like baseball. If a person didn’t, he was labeled a communist. Dads liked baseball, sons liked baseball and the ladies swooned at the feet of drunken womanizers such as DiMaggio and Mantle. Nobody cared about basketball or football.

Lots of nostalgic types look back and compare those days to the current state and lambaste my generation for not having the attention span or the intelligence to respect and appreciate baseball.

Maybe that claim is true, but all I know is the game could be doing worse. Case in point: The 1919 World Series.

Known as the Black Sox scandal, this legendary championship between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds was supposedly influenced by several Chicago players who allegedly took money from some big-time gamblers in exchange for throwing the series.

Baseball’s popularity took a huge nosedive, and in an effort to combat the public relations disaster, the powers that be brought in hard-nosed Judge Landis to “clean up” the game.

Commissioner Landis handed out lifetime banishments to all players connected to the scandal. One of the players he tossed was superstar “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. The fact that Jackson was acquitted in a criminal trial and also batted .375 during the series didn’t seem to matter much to Landis.

And ever since Jackson was banned from the game, scores of baseball fans have called for him to be reinstated so he could take his place next to the rest of baseball’s greats in Cooperstown.

The brouhaha has gotten the faithful so hot and bothered it has inspired movies such as the Iowa-filmed classic “Field of Dreams.”

Now it seems legislators are trying to get into the mix as well. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin has called upon current commissioner Bud Selig to once again review the case of Joe Jackson.

Selig has said he will take a look at the file of Jackson and has promised to be objective and fair. This is the first time any commissioner in 80 years has taken notice.

But to tell you the truth, Sen. Harkin getting in on the act is flat out stupid. Sure, Shoeless Joe probably deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Batting .375 in the World Series is obviously not the act of a man taking money to fix games.

However, 80 years ago is 80 years ago. Are there no other causes Harkin can champion that would be more relevant to his constituents?

Just because one movie about the incident happened to be filmed in his state, Harkin thinks he can pull at the public heartstrings by attempting to prove how much he cares about some dude that got screwed over nearly a century ago?

I can handle Democrats when they’re pretending to care about things that actually matter. If they want to cry out against injustice, try ripping into those bastards that jacked up prices on hammers and sandbags when floods ran rampant through eastern Iowa. Bleeding their hearts about anything that really affects the people they’re representing would be at least bearable, although annoying.

But they shouldn’t try to fling their political weight around in an institution such as baseball that they have absolutely no control over.

Maybe Selig will reinstate Jackson. Chances are he probably won’t because if one permanently banned baseball hero were to be reinstated, a line outside Selig’s door would suddenly be full of players who want to repent their horrendous sins, including one really pissed-off Pete Rose.

In the meantime, leave baseball alone. It’s obviously got its own problems to work through without politicians trying to use it as a vehicle for compassion.

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David Roepke is a junior in journalism and mass communications from Aurora. He is head news editor of the Daily. Please God, let this be the year for the Cubbies.