Baseball commissioner Bud Selig is set to appear before Congress on Thursday when he will be asked to explain the infield fly rule, the Astros' alternate uniform policy and most importantly, what George W. Bush was thinking when he traded Sammy Sosa.

	You can't dispute Bud Selig's savings on haircuts.

Selig will also attempt to explain something even more difficult to understand -- just why baseball needs an anti-trust exemption when it is a $3.5 billion a year business and when no other major sport has one. In doing so, he promises to open baseball's financial books for the first time, saying there "will be no dispute" about the game's financial health.

Yeah, right. You can bet that after going through the owners accounting system, those books will sing like Christina Aguilera, while Bud blames his sport's financial woes on pitchers like Rick Aguilera.

Bud claims the major leagues and the 30 teams lost $519 million last year, which seems unbelievable at a time when revenue is increasing faster than salaries. But all becomes clear when you look at the major league financial ledgers, obtained by Page 2 spies and to be presented before Congress.

Here are the ballpark figures for the major league office.

Gross revenues
National broadcast rights	$440 million
Merchandising	$297 million
Naked photo of Ichiro	$2 million
Luxury tax	$54 million
Expos bake sale	$239
Twins aluminum drive	$1,230
Devil Rays plasma drive	$872
Internet rights/advertising	$1.2 million
Change between cushions of George Steinbrenner's couch	$2,878.23
Jewelry left behind by Rickey Henderson	$103,000
Albert Belle fines (due from 1999 fiscal year)	$50,000
Pirates street corner bell ringers	$2,378
Alex Rodriguez merchandise tent at Mets spring training complex	$14
Total	$794,360,611.23

Expenses
Office rent	$8 million
Office expenses	$4 million
Front office salaries/benefits	$28.8 million
Bud's annual haircut allowance	$60
Loan to Jerry Colangelo	$10 million
Travel	$6.25 million
Security for Bonds home run chase	$1.6 million
Security for Bush at World Series Game 3	$7 million
Security for Bud in Minnesota and Montreal	$17 million
Secret offshore factory for "juiced" baseballs	$39 million
Another loan to Jerry Colangelo	$20 million
Bud's annual suit allowance	$300
Freemason dues	$1.1 million
Major League Baseball International	$6.7 million
Accountant firm fees	$100,000
"Creative" accountant fees to the same firm that did Enron's books	$2.5 million
Grief counseling for Byung-Hyun Kim	$10,000
Lawyers, lawyers, lawyers	$29 million
Still another loan to Jerry Colangelo	$40 million
Revenue sharing	$54 million
Long distance prank calls to Donald Fehr	$907
MLB.com	$6 million
More lawyers	$13 million
DirecTV	$562,000
David Wells' bar tab	$13,985
Miscellaneous	($700 million)
Total	($995,587,252)

Jim Caple is a senior writer for Page 2.