A-ha! Could've told you so.
Barry Bonds has been indicted by the authorities, apparently due to lying and obstructing justice in this baseball steroids scandal. Also, it's becoming apparent that his personal trainer (Greg Johnson, I believe), recently released from prison in the hopes he would testify against Bonds, is going back to the slammer because he still refuses to testify against his "friend".
Do you need any more proof of guilt? They're trying to hide what's ending up being obvious fact, transparently!
As Bonds was chasing the home run record this summer, the issue annoyed me so much that, yes, I finally decided to do my own video on YouTube about it. Being the kind person that I am, I decided to cut Bonds some slack and tell both sides of the story: the way he would look at it, and the way the public in general is looking at it.
Well, no one can accuse me of not at least trying to be fair. But being fair in this case was only courteous lip service. When you have this so-called superstar who brings negative public relations upon himself, and suddenly finds himself a free agent who absolutely nobody wants (and nobody would cheer), there's a problem.
Johnson, meanwhile, is facing a third term in prison for not opening his mouth when he should. This man does not know the meaning of the word "cooperation" and deserves the time in prison. He's causing as much of a distraction and is impeding justice as badly as Bonds is.
The question remains, as far as the home run record is concerned: keep it as truth, place an asterisk by it, or eliminate it entirely? Don't scoff when I say it should be eliminated entirely.
Done scoffing?
I base it solely on the following:
1. If you can ban Pete Rose for simple gambling and never have him in the Hall Of Fame, why NOT punish Bonds for something more serious? Gambling is a weakness, but remember, it's not illegal. What he did is as legal as one of us buying a lottery ticket.
2. Remember the Chris Webber / Ed Martin / University of Michigan story? Remember the end result? U of M had all their basketball stats from that period literally wiped clean. Now, literally no mention of all the success the Fab Five had during that juncture. Was there a backlash against the university? Nothing major that I can recall, or at least that made headlines in the news. Heck, Martin died a couple of years ago, and the local sports pages reported it as just a blip on the radar.
Baseball is enjoying record success, as reported by Bud Selig. This is happening in spite of the Bonds sideshow. It may not taint the game itself, but it will taint Selig's tenure (not that it hasn't been already), and fans' fascination with stats and records.
Bonds, to this point, is just one huge "K" for the game.
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(The above would normally have been posted on my baseball blog... but I'm saving that for real news-worthy events, if you catch the drift.)
