Sorry, Rick. It's time for you and I to go our separate ways. Because I'm not going through this crap again.

Graduating high school is always a daunting thing - life is usually never the same after that. And I did so in 1998. The summer of Sammy and Mark. It was a great summer. St. Louis, and the rest of the country, was caught up in the "Great Home Run Race." Then, a few years later, McGwire decided he wasn't going to talk about the past. In a strange way, that affected mine.

All the memories of friends and acquaintances and total strangers talking about how Mac was going to break Maris' record while we were all fixated to a television - they were suddenly flawed. The last summer of youth or innocence or whatever sappy adjective people use to describe the three months between being a high schooler and being a college student - damaged.

And that's Mark McGwire's fault. Because he didn't want to talk about the past.

Well, I'm a little older, a little wiser, and far more jaded now. With the news that Rick Ankiel has been tied to HGH, I must wish him farewell.

Suddenly, all his accomplishments are in question. And they should be.

Even though he wasn't a position player when he received HGH, and will probably say he was only using it because he was trying to recover from two arm surgeries and it was prescribed by a "doctor," I've still gotta say goodbye, Rick.

There have been too many times that I've had to be disappointed that an athlete I admired has been linked to using something pharmaceutical to enhance themselves. I'm tired of that. This is the last time it happens.

I'm not saying he's a bad person or he's fundamentally flawed or anything like that. I'm not saying I wouldn't have done the same thing if I was in his shoes. There's no anger or resentment or any of those feelings I had when McGwire testified. Because I just care less now about athletes.

I'm not going to boo Ankiel. I'm not going to scream "Cheater!" or any other put-down. Nor will I applaud.

I won't do anything.

And with that, I have to say goodbye, Rick.