Early last week, Bud Selig embraced the public forum of the World Baseball Classic (Unofficial Slogan: Only one player disqualified for drug use!) to outline Phase II of a two-year anti-steroid campaign in conjunction with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

There was no word, at least as of then, as to the establishment of anything resembling a Partnership for a Drug-Free National League West.

Two weeks had elapsed since an exhaustively documented book by two San Francisco Chronicle investigative reporters, excerpted in Sports Illustrated, again essentially pinpointed Barry Bonds at ground zero of the game's lingering steroids quagmire, but Bud still wasn't ready to discuss publicly so much as the possibility of sanctions against the former future Hall of Famer.

Instead, he was glad-handing PDFA chief Steve Pasierb, who mentioned helpfully that his agency's research has found no link between steroids in Major League Baseball (or any pro sports league) and the use of performance-enhancing drugs by high schoolers.

Thanks for that.

Baseball is going to put up a few posters in some New Jersey high schools anyway, lest anyone suggest the industry isn't doing everything it can to discourage the kind of ludicrous drug use that ultimately disgraces the kind of performance erected by Bonds the past six years. It was only through the intervention of the U.S. Congress that Selig's head was pulled from the sand on this issue, and only through pressure from the same source that the commissioner finally acted yesterday to trigger some kind of investigation, if not the type the matter demands.

"I'm excited about our upcoming pilot campaign with high school coaches to incorporate the anti-steroid messages in locker rooms and school buildings throughout New Jersey," Selig told MLB.com. "These efforts demonstrate our strong belief that when young athletes are presented the facts, they make safe and responsible decisions."

Well, sure. Just like they do with alcohol, seat belts, birth control and by thinking real hard before maiming themselves attempting to duplicate any of the stunts formerly seen on "Jackass."

Not to be critical.

But Bud should worry more about the older athletes, like the ones in his game who, when "presented the facts," merely deny, deny, deny.

Jason Giambi, who joins Bonds as cover boy on the book at the vortex of all this, "Game of Shadows," at least admitted to juicing once, albeit cryptically, after testifying to a grand jury last year. But asked last week in Tampa, Fla., about connections with convicted steroid deliverer/money launderer Victor Conte, both Giambi and Yankee teammate Gary Sheffield denied, denied, denied.

Sheffield, a former Bonds workout partner, emerged in the book as alleged user of human growth hormone, but Bonds' evident baggage looked far more cumbersome. Bonds, the book recounts, urged through his lawyer that the attorneys defending Conte keep Bonds' name out of it.

"And," defense attorney Troy Ellerman told the authors, "we had several discussions about how Mike Rains [Bonds' attorney] knew what the score was -- and that is that he knew Barry was using."

(We interrupt this column for a special litigation update, which is our running tally of how many major-leaguers implicated in Jose Canseco's viciously criticized steroids book last spring or in "Game of Shadows" this spring have filed libel suits: 0. That's right, still zero. And it's not because none of them can afford a lawyer.)

The "Shadows" book came out a week ago. Previously, the Chicago Tribune reported the commissioner was considering a suspension, telling one Major League Baseball executive, "It's even worse than I thought." Reportedly, Selig had met previously with Bonds on the steroids issue and urged him to come clean and that any punishment would be "much worse" if he denied using the drugs and was found later to be lying about it.

We're about to embark on the first full season in which a positive test for steroid use brings a 50-game suspension, followed by suspensions of 100-games and life for second and third offenses. It says here someone will get nailed before Labor Day. There are plenty of people selfish enough to use the drugs and plenty stupid enough to get caught at it.

As though it isn't clear already, it will be perfectly evident by the end of George Mitchell's investigation that the selfish enough and stupid enough have long included Barry Bonds. Baseball's public has a right to know whether Barry Bonds is on deck or on Deca Durabolin.