There’s not much television doesn’t show the sports fan this time of year. Spend one weekend on the couch and you can feel the tension of baseball pennant races, savor the majesty of college football and enjoy the brilliance of the NFL.

Of all the images, though, here are a few from recent days that are better left unseen:

¢ Barry Bonds moving uncomfortably closer to the Babe. Four home runs in his first seven games back, including one Wednesday night, after missing most of the year left Bonds just seven homers shy of tying Babe Ruth’s career total of 714. From there, it’s only 42 more to break Henry Aaron’s all-time record of 755.

Now here’s the interesting part. Bonds, who had his best years with muscles rippling out of his head, says he’s going to come back nearly 30 pounds lighter next year. Bonds insists he’s merely trying to lighten the load on his fragile knee, but skeptics might think that’s a cover story for the inevitable slim-down in a time of stricter steroid testing.

¢ The inside of the Superdome. The stench is unbelievable, and there’s rotting garbage everywhere. That’s still no reason for New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson to give Saints fans yet another thing to worry about in their lives – the fact their team likely will move elsewhere.

¢ Pete Rose explaining once again that he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame despite the fact he gambled on games. Rose didn’t help himself by making his case last week in the interview from Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world.

¢ Golfers wrapping themselves this week in the flag for the Presidents Cup. The Ryder Cup is one thing, offering players who generally don’t say anything more than “You’re away” to each other a chance to bond together for country and flag. But this event, featuring Americans against “foreign” players like Florida resident Vijay Singh seems as contrived as golf’s silly-season events.

Don’t tell that to David Toms, though, who checked out of a hospital, where he should be undergoing heart surgery, to play for the U.S. team. Maybe they’ll reward him by playing to a finish instead of quitting and declaring it a draw as they did two years ago in South Africa.

¢ The San Diego Padres – or any team in the National League Worst – spraying champagne on each other to celebrate the division title. Unfortunately, this will happen sometime in the next week or so, giving trivia freaks a new answer to the question: What was the worst team ever to make the baseball playoffs?

¢ Billionaire owners leaping around in luxury boxes like a computer geek who just wasted the last evil zombie in Doom 3. Daniel Snyder looked as goofy celebrating two last-minute gifts from the Cowboy defense as his Washington Redskins looked pathetic for the first 56 minutes of the game Monday night.

¢ Someone dunking at the WNBA Finals. Don’t worry, it’s not going to happen and, besides, if a tree fell in the forest … .

¢ Rafael Palmeiro or Sammy Sosa returning to the Baltimore Orioles this year or any other. Both are out “rehabbing” injuries, but who can blame the Orioles for not wanting them back? One lied to Congress and baseball fans everywhere, while the other seemed to begin mysteriously shrinking just about the same time baseball got serious about testing for steroids. Here’s the only stat you need: Sosa averaged 48 home runs a year the last 10 years; this year he has 14.