Bud Selig and Donald Fehr are still stalling, and Congress is still posturing.
Who would think John Ruiz would be the one actually doing something about steroids?
The WBA heavyweight champion isn't speaking on Capitol Hill, or lobbying baseball to reach a new agreement. Those things take way too long.
Ruiz is going about it his own way, the all-American way.
He's heading to court.
It's an unusual claim, even as lawsuits go. Ruiz wants his last opponent, James Toney, to pay him $10 million because Toney tested positive for the steroid Nandrolone after beating him for the WBA title April 30 at Madison Square Garden.
Even though he got his title back after Toney's failed test, Ruiz believes his marketability and stature as a fighter were damaged by losing.
Anyone who has suffered through the pain of watching a Ruiz fight might cringe at that assertion, but think of the legal precedents this could set - every pitcher who ever dished up a home run ball to Jason Giambi or Rafael Palmeiro could soon be shopping for an attorney. Any sprinter ever denied a gold medal by Kelli White could sue.
Who needs Congress when you have the courts? And who needs suspensions when you can hit an athlete where it really hurts - in the pocketbook?
"John is very serious about this," his attorney, Aaron Marks said. "It's not merely to gain what he thinks is rightfully his but to make a statement that this kind of conduct is unacceptable."
That statement couldn't come at a better time.
On the same day Ruiz filed his lawsuit in federal court in New York, Congress began sending signals that it might finally be fed up with the attempts by America's top sports leagues to police themselves.
Fehr, baseball's union chief, told senators last month he hoped a new steroids agreement could be reached by the end of the World Series. Maybe he was hoping for a really long series, but in case he hasn't noticed, the Chicago White Sox are already world champs.
Sens. Jim Bunning and John McCain did notice. And they seem to be running out of patience with the kind of hardball tactics Fehr has used with so much success against baseball itself.
It's one thing to stand up to Selig, and another to thumb your nose at Congress.
"Well, the World Series has come and gone, and they still have not come to an agreement, so we're going to move ahead in Congress," Bunning said. "It's my opinion that Major League Baseball and the players union will not come to an agreement that's satisfactory."
On Tuesday, the senators said they would reintroduce legislation that will make every player think twice before injecting themselves with performance-enhancing drugs. The legislation makes the current baseball steroids program look like a 98-pound weakling by comparison. And the beauty of it is that it's so simple.
Get caught taking steroids and you get a two-year suspension. Get caught again and you're banned for life.
Easy to understand, easy to apply.
It won't just cover baseball, either. It's already the model used in the Olympics and the legislation would also apply to the NFL, NBA and NHL.
Assuming Congress is finally serious, one simple bill would go a long way toward wiping out the steroids problem in sports.
Baseball, though, needs it the worst. While Selig fiddled, Fehr stalled and Congress fumed, the sport spent the entire season beset by the steroid issue. From Mark McGwire to Rafael Palmeiro to the BALCO sentencings, steroids loomed over the sport.
This week's offering: Matt Lawton, a former All-Star outfielder, who became the 12th player penalized by baseball for steroids Wednesday. At least Lawton admitted it.
"I made a terrible and foolish mistake that I will regret for the rest of my life," Lawton said, a refreshing change from the usual "mystery supplements" excuse.
Don't think Americans haven't been paying attention. Sure, they kept coming to ballparks in big numbers, but there were unmistakable signs that the public's disgust with steroid scandals hurt the sport.
If you doubt that, just look at the World Series television ratings. There was once a day when the country almost came to a halt during the World Series. This year fewer than one in five households tuned in, the lowest rating ever.
Only about one in three Americans now identify themselves as baseball fans, and the fans who are left say steroids is second only to player salaries as the game's biggest problem.
Unlike Ruiz, they can't sue anybody to make it better. And it should be abundantly clear by now that they can't rely on Selig and Fehr getting together to do the right thing.
That leaves it up to the members of Congress, who so far have done little other than to milk the whole issue for photo opportunities and sound bites for the folks back home.
That won't do anymore. It's time for them to come out swinging.
Like John Ruiz.