he says this without a hint of irony

espn.com's phil rogers wants to help us, fellow baseball fans. he's worried we might be tired of hearing about barry barry barry all the time, so he wants to give us some new stories to follow now that home run 756 has finally been hit. sounds good to me! take it away, phil. give me some fresh material.

Plenty to look forward to with Bonds in rear-view mirror

We return you now to your regularly scheduled programming. After a 30-day stretch in which a .279 hitter on a last-place team has dominated the headlines in baseball -- that is, from the time that Barry Bonds spent an hour in front of reporters on the eve of the All-Star Game until Tuesday night, after a home run that set out the jubilant celebration that extended from AT&T Park almost all the way to Alcatraz -- the focus shifts back to simpler pursuits.

Presented for your discussion are the top five current issues most worthy of argument:

such as?

1. The New York Yankees ... washed-up relics or upwardly mobile soldiers of fortune on a mission to make the Boston Red Sox pay for 2004?

BAAAARRRRRRFFFFFFFF.

the new york who? the where red sox? i swear, with all the expansion going on in baseball these days, i just don't ever hear about some of these teams! someone should start a major sports news network to help fans keep up with some of these underexposed and underappreciated squads.