Barry Bonds - Busted

A new book called Game of Shadows by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams lays out the case that Barry Bonds was a steroids cheat from 1998 on. You can read an excerpt from the book at SI.com.

Barry Bonds bothers me on many levels.

It really bothers me when people tag him as the greatest hitter in baseball history. That title belongs to Ted Williams and Ted Williams alone. Williams gave up the prime years of his life to fight in two wars but still managed a career .344 batting average and 521 career home runs. I fear that the only thing Barry Bonds gave up was any semblance of honor and just maybe the latter years of his life (judging by the early deaths prevalent among steroid abusing wrestlers).

Bonds also bothers me as a person. He just seems like the consummate jerk. Being a jerk is not against the law though. That is unless your ego makes you believe that you can do as you please and act like a jerk to whoever you like and lie and dissemble to even a grand jury. Oh wait a minute - that is against the law. And if this book is accurate - isn't that what Barry Bonds did? Didn't he lie to a grand jury? Didn't he obstruct justice?

Isn't that the same thing that Martha Stewart (a white woman) did? And isn't that what Scooter Libby (a white man) is being charged with? I added the sex and race of Martha and Scooter because you know at some point someone (*cough* Barry Bonds *cough*) will play the race card and say, "they're just going after Barry because he's black." Tell that to Martha and Scooter.

Baseball won't do anything to Barry Bonds but Barry Bonds won't play baseball anymore. He'll pretend to make an attempt to play just so he gets the money from the final year of his contract. Maybe he'll make token appearances but Barry is done with baseball.

I hope that baseball writers finally strap on a pair of balls and make Barry answer questions (I'd be happy with a string of "no comments" from Barry as long as people are pestering him with questions).

My guess is that Barry may play 5-15 games this year but will also soon spend 5 months in jail for obstruction of justice (he received immunity but that doesn't extend to perjury or obstruction).