Second base used to be important.

Now, anyone with a glove, no position and a whim seems to think he can play there.

Just because it's second doesn't mean it's No. 2.

Teams are shipping their vagabond players to the position as if they were celebrities going to rehab.

Thirty days, 12 steps and you are ready to play second base. Congrats. Here's your "I can now play second base" pin.

The whole state of Missouri has become sick with the move-your-outfielder-to-second disease.

St. Louis moved Skip Schumaker and Kansas City shifted Mark Teahen, who already had third base, outfield and first base on his resume, to second.

And it's spreading to the major population centers of this great nation.

Now the New York Mets are experimenting with Fernando Tatis at the position.

Who's next? Dmitri Young? Cliff Floyd? Alfonso Soriano wait, that's already been tried.

Somewhere, Bill Mazeroski is shaking his head while snagging flies out of the air with chopsticks.

I played second base and let me tell you, it ain't easy.

You have to make those 30-foot throws to first base. Ask Chuck Knoblauch how tough that can be.

Pick the brain of Steve Sax about those difficult throws and see what he has to say.

Oh, and you are expected to turn double plays, too. Geez. One out at a time isn't enough for you people.

Think it's easy? You try touching second base (well, getting pretty close) and receiving a rocket throw from those showoff shortstops while trying to avoid a runner coming after you like Oprah for a Big Mac.

Yet Schumaker, Teahen and Tatis think they can do it after one spring training.

Yeah. Good luck.

They are setting the position back 100 years.

Rogers Hornsby played second base. Jackie Robinson played there. So did Pete Rose and Rod Carew for a time. Some of the greatest players of all time called 2B home.

The American League MVP last season, Dustin Pedroia, was a second baseman. Chase Utley would have won the National League MVP if not for his second-half slump.

Of course, moving players to second base isn't necessarily a new thing.

Craig Biggio moved there from behind the plate.

Pedroia was a shortstop in the Boston minor league system before switching.

Atlanta's Kelly Johnson actually made a successful switch from the outfield to second base. But he had an entire year to learn the position. Pedroia and Biggio had a complete offseason.

Schumaker, Teahen and Tatis showed up in February and were told, "stop at second on your way to the outfield, and, um, just stay there."

Of course, if the experiments work, more teams hard up for a second baseman, and some punch in their lineup, will trot their all-hit, no-field projects out there.

I can see it now: Manny being Manny at 2B. Baseball and the position would never be the same.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.