08:32 AM EDT on Thursday, July 22, 2004

Ignorance really is bliss.

At least in the world of sports.

If you're going to have fun with games as they're played in 2004, you have to ignore everything that goes on anywhere other than on the field.

Stick your head in the sand. Look the other way. Develop tunnel vision. Turn a deaf ear.

Be oblivious. Otherwise, you'll be miserable.

Because if you ever start to think seriously about what's going on outside the lines, you'll stop being a fan.

As I write this, I'm looking at yesterday's sports section, in which baseball and the Tour de France were the lead stories.

Each sport has been plagued by allegations that its stars have used performance-enhancing drugs.

Not that baseball fans -- or Major League Baseball, for that matter -- seem bothered by such apparently trivial matters as which superstar may have bulked up on what steroid.

Fans still flock to the park to watch Barry Bonds hit homers. Gary Sheffield continues to play a key role in the Yankees' drive to yet another A.L. East title. BALCO may be the owner of the Orioles, for all the average fan seems to care.

The players' union resists any meaningful form of testing, and the fans aren't voting with their feet to demand one, and so the games -- and the abuse? -- go on.

Lance Armstrong has been proclaimed a certified, dyed-in-the-red-white-and-blue American hero.

Do you suppose Sheryl Crow will write a song about him? And will Armstrong's ex-wife buy the CD?

Yet, when we're not reading about Armstrong devouring the field in the Alps, we're reading mountains of allegations -- all unproven, so far -- of his injecting, imbibing, or otherwise ingesting banned substances.

There are those who suggest that, instead of being sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, Armstrong ought to have a pharmaceutical firm as his primary backer.

Of course, if Lance is clean, then he should understandably, and justifiably, be irate.

But such allegations are widespread throughout the sport, and Armstrong is cycling's most visible star.

Then there are the upcoming Olympic Games.

It was one thing when the East Germans, Russians and other Eastern bloc countries were doping their athletes and Americans copped a holier-than-thou attitude.

Now, however, the focus is on transgressions by the United States, with some of America's top track-and-field athletes either banned from participating in Athens next month or, like Marion Jones, so stressed from defending themselves against the allegations that their recent performances have been woefully sub-par.

Nor does the news stop there.

Also yesterday was the announcement that the NCAA Management Council, in an effort to clean up recruiting -- a project tantamount to keeping New York City litter-free -- was recommending that colleges "no longer be able to fly recruits on private jets, house them in resort hotels, or feed them extravagant meals."

Way to clamp down, guys.

The fact that such excesses have become common practice is yet one more indictment of intercollegiate athletics, where the phrase "student-athlete" long ago became impossible to say with a straight face.

There also was the news that Sergei Samsonov would be staying with the Bruins for the upcoming season.

Assuming, that is, there is an upcoming NHL season.

Which doesn't seem likely, given the players' demands, the owners' insistence on a salary cap, and the fact that the league's television ratings are lower than George Bush's approval ratings in Baghdad.

Want more?

How about this heartwarming headline: "Vaughn, Nomar will slug it out in court."

Nothing like reading about a battle between a couple of multimillionaire ballplayers over whether a couple hundred kids were diverted from a hitting camp conducted by Mo to one run by Garciaparra.

The case ought to be thrown out quicker than an overweight, arthritic Mo trying to steal second.

Surprisingly -- make that shockingly -- there was no crime news in yesterday's sports section.

Not that sports fans would be shocked by any transgression committed by one of today's pampered, spoiled, self-indulgent, overpaid, immature -- how long should we go on here? -- athletes.

There was nothing on NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, who is standing trial on a rape charge. Nothing on hockey player Mike Danton, who has admitted that he sought to have his agent killed. Nothing on Jayson Williams, or Mike Tyson, or Miami Hurricanes football recruit Willie Williams, or what went on during recruiting visits at the University of Colorado.

That's the good news.

Otherwise, what's happening from outside the lines in the world of sports is mostly bad, just about every day.

Which is why, if you want to enjoy sporting bliss, you have to be blissfully ignorant.