Bonds

Barry might be in some real trouble now...

I'll have more info/my own crazy opinions up later.

***UPDATE

When news broke last night of the indictment, I assumed that it was because Bonds' trainer, Greg Anderson, finally got tired of using soap on a rope and agreed to testify that Bonds knew what he was using.

That did NOT happen.

The Grand Jury has the same information that it's had for a year and half.

So why now? This coming out at the beginning of the free agency period virtually guarantees that Bonds will not have any offers and will force him to retire.

The Great Joe Sheehan is one of the very few people who is willing to point out this fact:

"So what’s interesting here isn’t that Barry Bonds was indicted. What’s interesting is that it took so long to get an indictment, to the point of extending the grand jury more than once, and that the indictment fails to mention the most serious of the legal questions, the accusations of tax evasion. If it took so long to convince a grand jury to indict Bonds of, basically, lying, what are we looking at in terms of a trial, and how strong will the case be?"

The lack of a tax evasion charge is very interesting. The reason that charge was not included seems to be because of trouble with prosecutorial witnesses -- the same witnesses who will be asked to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bonds knew he was taking steroids.

The prosecution is putting all its eggs in the basket of an ex-girlfriend, a pissed off business partner and a 6 year old drug test -- that even if proved valid is in no way is proof of knowing use.

The Feds usually don't mess around...but they have the same info that wasn't good enough for 4 years -- to the point where Anderson spent time in prison because the case couldn't be made without him -- and is suddenly enough to throw Bonds away for 30 years?

An unusual amount of time, energy and money has been spent on this investigation...do people hate Bonds that much? The answer is yes, and it saddens me.

He's a prick and a diva. If Bonds' were Jason Giambi or Jason Grimsely or Gary Sheffield or Sammy Sosa or any of the 98 guys that testes positive in 2003 would this be happening? If he was Shawne Merriman or Marion Jones?

Babe Ruth is still the greatest baseball player of all time...and Ruth was a womanizer and an alcoholic who "cared enough about the integrity of the game" to routinely show up hungover or still drunk to games, who didn't care enough about his body and relegated himself to a side-show for his last few years.

Bonds in some ways is the anti Ruth or Mickey Mantle -- two of my all time favorite players -- in that he made use of his body to get the most out of what he had. He didn't waste any of his gifts. I think the Eric Davises, Doc Goodenes, and Strawberryes of the game are the saddest stories...guys who had all the talent in the world and threw it all away.

In no other sport do people get this worked up about 'roids. Why baseball?