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One of the best parts about this crazy little gizmo we call the Internet is that it provides us with a means to tear down the walls that separate us, to instantly bridge the boundaries of language and culture and distance by voicing differing opinions and exchanging bold, new ideas.

And, of course, we can chuck insults like so many rotten tomatoes.

If the USA baseball team did not qualify for the Olympics then they do not deserve to be there, simple as that. If they were so great they would have beaten Mexico. Why don't you try to stop whining and stop being so bloody arrogant!
 -- Peter Gilks, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Arrogant? Me? An American? How dare you!

Truthfully, Peter, I didn't think I was whining or being especially bigheaded when I wrote that the Athens Olympics were missing something without the American baseball team. Heck, I wasn't even saying that the Americans are great. Clearly, without any major players from Major League Baseball in the qualifiers, the team that represented the good ol' US of A was a long way from great.

Look, I love the idea of the Olympics. I love the fact that small countries and big ones, poor ones and rich ones, West and East can play each other. And I think that's how it should be.

I also think that, in international baseball competition, many of the best teams are grouped in one or two of the regions, and that seems unfair. Can't we look at a better way to qualify? That's all I'm saying.

The current Olympic rules are fair because they represent evenly the entire world, which is what the Olympics are all about. If you wish to be there in the next games, you'll have to beat the other teams in America. Eat it.
 -- Albert, Vancouver

OK, Albert. Eat what?

I am a baseball player in The Netherlands, one of the countries you deem as not being Olympic-worthy. Maybe you forgot the 2000 Olympics when the Netherlands was the first country in the world ever to beat the Cubans! All Team USA had to do was win the game with Mexico to qualify. So maybe it's time to really send the biggest players instead of rookies or college guys. It's time that the USA takes the Olympics more seriously; otherwise they are getting more and more the same mess as the "dream team" basketballers who are becoming the laughingstock of the Olympics in Athens! The whole world is sending their best athletes in every sport! Let USA start doing the same!
 -- Rob Iesberts, Utrecht, Netherlands

Rob, my intention was not to criticize European teams, though they clearly aren't as strong as teams in some other regions. I would simply hope -- and I'm sure Tommy Lasorda and many other red-blooded Americans would like to hope this, too -- that those in charge could find a way that the best teams in the world aren't beating up on each other in qualifying. Maybe it's just a matter of expanding the Olympics field.

If people such as myself are disappointed that America is not in the Olympics, why don't we put off the baseball season for three weeks and send our best? If it is done in basketball and hockey, why not baseball?
 -- Michael, Los Angeles

Timing and money. Major League Baseball generates something around $4 billion in revenue, and the owners are not going to stop the money machine in the middle of the season -- and put their money makers at possible risk of injury -- for mere national pride. It's going to be hard enough to pull off a World Cup, which MLB wants to do in 2006. Stopping the season for the Olympics just won't happen.

Enough with the walls, the boundaries and the voicing different opinions junk already. Let's get on with the rest of the E-Bag.

Wait. Wait. One more on the Olympics.

How is it that Olympic gymnastics take place well before prime time and are shown in full by NBC, but the gold medal softball game (won by a phenomenal team of women on an incredible streak) barely gets highlights? Like most of us, I had to work while the game was on "live" and couldn't see it. Now, I'm wishing I had the chance to actually "see" that monster home run hit by Crystal Bustos and another great game pitched by Lisa Fernandez. NBC's coverage was an affront not only to this wonderful team and their coach, but to girls like my daughters who dream of even approaching the same level of play as these women.
 -- Stu Nicholson, Columbus, Ohio

It has to really hack you off, Stu, that the only place you can find to rip on NBC about its softball coverage is in a baseball mailbag. But I feel your pain. I'm glad to give you a place to vent about it. (By the way, at the risk of sounding like a shill, check out this week's SI. See that cover?)

Now back to the E-Bag. The baseball E-Bag.

John, don't take this the wrong way, but you're an idiot. It's Aug. 27 and the Yankees have a 5.5-game lead on Boston and are just wrapping up the part of their schedule that Joe Torre called the worst he had seen in his time with the team. The only teams the Yankees play from here out with winning records are Boston and the Twins. Whether it is by 16 games or half a game, when all is said and done the Yankees will still be the AL East champions.
 -- Chip, Mount Vernon, N.Y.

Chip, ol' buddy, how can I take that the wrong way? Truth is, I'm not arguing with you. The Yankees may very well roll the rest of the season. I expect it, really. But you have to admit, the AL East is a lot more interesting now than it was a few weeks ago.

As a Mariners fan, all I can cheer about is Ichiro. What is the record for consecutive seasons of at least 200 hits? All I could find was Wade Boggs' seven seasons (1983-1989).
 -- Andreas Junge, Kiel, Germany

As the official record keeper of Major League Baseball -- though the cheap punks haven't sent me that check yet -- I can tell you that Wee Willie Keeler had eight 200-hit seasons in a row (1894-1901). The AL record is indeed held by Boggs. And, just for good measure, I can tell you that the NL record since 1900 belongs to Philadelphia's Chuck Klein at five straight years (1929-33). Any more information than that and I'd have to charge you.

How can MLB get away with giving Julian Tavarez a 10-game suspension for having a dirty hat? No one really knows what was on the hat -- seems like some simple chemical analysis could have revealed if there was pine tar on it. Tavarez got a more severe penalty than Sammy Sosa got for using an obviously corked bat!
 -- Jim Moore, St. Louis

Come on, Jim. If it looks like pine tar and smells like it ... Yes, the 10 games seemed harsh. (Sosa, if you'll remember, got only eight.) Whatever, MLB decided Tavarez was doctoring the ball, so they rung him up. A cheater's a cheater, whether it's cork or spit or pine tar ... or doping.

Certain journalists already seem to be anointing Mark Mulder as this year's AL Cy Young winner. Although Mulder leads the league in wins, the Cy Young is supposed to reward pitching excellence, and in ERA, WHIP, Ks and walks -- in short, the elements of pitching that the guy on the mound can, by and large, control -- Mulder currently lags behind Curt Schilling, Johan Santana and, with the exception of ERA, Pedro Martinez. Why are wins still glorified to such an extent? I blame the monolithic culture of American capitalism!
 -- Chris Savory, Oxford, England

Well, Chris, I don't want to start an international incident, so let's agree to blame this on the French, OK? I do have a point of order: If wins were everything, Russ Ortiz, the only 20-game winner in the NL last year, would have won the Cy. (He didn't. Some guy named Eric Gagne did.) So, though we Yanks love winners, it's not like that's the only thing we love.

Why do people say the wild card is such a good idea? Of course adding more teams is going to make it interesting for more cities. If Bud Selig were to add another wild card (a "wild-wild" card), a few more cities would be interested. Would that be a good idea? Then MLB could be like the NHL where more teams make the playoffs than don't.
 -- Jeffrey Schulberg, New York

An oldie argument, Jeffrey, and a goodie. Personally, I like the wild card. I think it adds to the excitement of the regular season and postseason. And when it comes to the playoffs, wild-card teams have shown they're not just postseason fillers. MLB has talked about adding more teams to the postseason, but for my money, it should stop right here. Eight out of 30 is plenty.

Yes, Adrian Beltre is having a good year, but there's only one ballplayer no pitcher wants to face, and that's Barry Bonds. His on-base percentage (.608) and slugging percentage (.802) are right up there with the Babe's best. Yes, Beltre and Albert Pujols may be having good years, but Barry continues his unreal five-year span.
 -- Doug Ritter, Southlake, Texas

Agreed, Doug. The race for the National League MVP, right now, is between Beltre and Bonds. Their numbers are awesome. Both of their teams rely heavily on them. But, clearly, Bonds changes a game like no one else, and he doesn't even have to take a swing to do it. The big question for me: Will there be a Bonds backlash from voters, who may not like him or are simply tired of voting for him?

Why do the Orioles keep thinking they can win with a bunch of big bats and a mediocre (at best) pitching staff? I'm excited that Rafael Palmeiro's back, and Miguel Tejada and Javy Lopez are good additions, but there just isn't anyone we can count on for a strong performance on the mound. It's just like the '90s except this time we don't even have Mike Mussina for an ace.
 -- Ross Browne, Reseda, Calif.

Watch the offseason. The Orioles should get at least one, maybe two, of the premier pitchers on the market. Martinez? Matt Morris? Livan Hernandez? Carl Pavano? Kris Benson? We'll find out.

You don't hear Lew Ford mentioned as a possible AL Rookie of the Year, but don't you think he has a shot? He has done a great job, batting over .300 all year. Nice pop and good defense. He only had 73 at-bats in 2003 so I think he is eligible (isn't he?).
 -- Alan Petersen, Minneapolis

Well, no, Alan, he's not eligible. (I darn near made the same mistake earlier this season.) To be eligible for the award, a player can't have more than 45 days on a big-league roster (or 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched). Ford started the year with 123 days with the big club. Some of those 123 didn't count because he spent time on the disabled list, and the days he was up in September (when rosters expand to 40 players) didn't count, either. Still, even with those days subtracted, he missed the cutoff. Good player. Not a rookie.

John, I honestly believe that the Red Sox only hired Terry Francona so that Schilling would sign with them. I have watched them all year and he couldn't manage a Burger King in Cambridge. Now with Pedro a free agent, who is the frontrunner (Pedro's favorite) to manage the Red Sox next year?
 -- Scot, Newport Beach, Calif.

I think Francona is safe. Sorry to disappoint you, Scot.

A Burger King in Cambridge. Beautiful.

John, you didn't mention what I feel to be the worst thing Selig did. He got rid of the league presidents. Selig has slowly, carefully demolished the difference between the leagues. The All-Star Game, the World Series, none of them mean anything anymore because it isn't the upstart American League against the Senior Circuit, with distinct traditions and styles of play. It's the American Conference of MLB against the National Conference of MLB. Just you watch: The next step will be adding the DH to the National League so that we have a uniform set of rules.
 -- Aaron, New York

The lines between the AL and the NL aren't simply blurred. They are, as Aaron says, practically nonexistent. Some AL teams play like old NL teams used to (the Twins, for instance), while some NL teams play the traditional big bash game of AL teams (the Giants, say). Still, I don't see the DH going away or spreading to the NL. It's been around for 32 years, it employs players who wouldn't otherwise be employable and it provides one of the few remaining differences -- maybe the only real one -- between the leagues.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.