baseball vs. football

Once it became inevitable that the Eagles would be trading quarterback Donovan McNabb, the issue then became one of timing.

And, coincidentally or not, the timing meshed with -- and overshadowed -- the bunting-filled launch of baseball season. To the dismay of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig.

Asked about the McNabb deal, Selig sounded off, per Mark Viera of the Washington Post. "Goodness gracious, I'm a football fan -- this is Opening Day," Selig said. "If you really want to know I'm going to give you a brutally honest answer. I got up at 5:30 this morning and did my daily workout. And I was watching an unnamed channel and that's all they were talking about. I turned it off, that was my reaction. My goodness gracious."

Apart from the fact that Selig violated the code of baseball elitists purists and openly acknowledged the sport they regard as pro wrestling on grass, Selig broke out a grossly outdated phrase -- twice.

Then again, "goodness gracious" probably is appropriate, since it rose to popularity in the 1960s, the last decade in which