Silly Barry Bonds Trial

Barry Bonds at the Federal Building in San Francisco

You could care less about baseball, steroids or Barry Bonds, but the sight of the government charging a famous individual with perjury is a farce. At the very least, it is desperate. It doesn’t take a Harvard law degree to know that perjury is difficult to prove – even for the government, who, of course, never lies.

I get it – Barry Bonds is not popular. His “I have a recliner in the clubhouse because I can” routine, abrasive personality and failing to show up for team pictures has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he’s a jerk.

That’s fair.

But on this blogsite Barry Bonds is innocent until proven guilty. Barry has never tested positive and publicly denied taking drugs. Barry Bonds isn’t a sympathetic figure—but he at least deserves equal treatment under the law.

Prerace Jitters has covered the MLB steroid issue that has been brewing below the surface for more than two decades. Baseball owners sat back and cashed their fat checks knowing the steroids issue needed to be addressed. The home run record chases and nightly ESPN highlight brought attention back to the sport as it suffered under post-1994 lock-out fan apathy.

Shame on the owners. They failed miserably. They are charged with protecting the game on the way to depositing their cash in the bank. At least track and field took away Marion Jones’ Olympic medals and has a long track record of punishing anyone else that tests positive.

The Barry Bonds perjury case is thin. The government’s two witnesses are an ex-girlfriend—who we must note knowingly dated a married man – and a disgruntled business partner who feuded with Bonds over memorabilia sales figures.

You’re kidding? Five years of investigating and tens of millions of dollars down the drain, and that is as good as it gets?

My only questions is: Where are Rafael Palmeiro and Jason Giambi? Everyone from the Steroid Era should go down—not just the high-profile "Bad Guys."

The problem, of course, is prosecutorial bias. The original BALCO investigators have themselves admitted that the case was spurred by their hatred of Bonds. The Feds – and a lot of the baseball public – don’t like Bonds, so Bonds was the one to take the fall.

The silly Barry Bonds trial must end soon. All bets are off the table when the legal system becomes a forum for personal grudges. Who's next?

By Jay Hicks, a.k.a. Track Evangelist

Major League Disappointment

Roger Clemens

Major League Baseball got away with one. The Mitchell Report on the widespread drug use in MLB by former Senator George Mitchell was more hype than the Spice Girls reunion. It was an even bigger letdown.

The biggest surprise is the small number of names, and big names in particular. The report was not intended to be exhaustive. And it is not. Mitchell lacked subpoena power, and ultimately, only had access to players who cooperated.

Outside of Roger Clemens and Andrew Pettitte, who cares about the other names? The others were guys who have already retired or have already been the target of speculation and rumor.

It seems most of the report is based primarily on the testimony of former New York Mets' clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee, the former New York Yankees strength and conditioning coach. All Mitchell did was collect some old articles, television stories and admitted use by retired players and put it in one report.

If the feds didn't bust Radomski and force him to cooperate with this "investigation," the whole report would be recycled information.

In Mitchell's defense, it seems like he got very little cooperation throughout the investigation. Shocker, huh? One thing came across very clear to those in denial, MLB is as much to blame as anyone in this. Major League Baseball did nothing to curb the steroid issue that was already a problem for football and track. I thought Mitchell would hammer Commissioner, Bud Selig, and MLBPA head, Donald Fehr, more than he did, but he got his point across, I guess.

Obviously, the guy with the big L on his forehead is Clemens. He was the one no-brainer Hall of Famer on the list that you didn't know about for sure. For Bonds-haters that wanted to keep Barry Bonds out of Cooperstown, you better feel the same way about Clemens.

Bonds has to have a big Kool-aid smile on his face. It is kind of vindication for him in a Barry Bonds sort of way. He was by far not the only one taking performance-enhancing drugs, nor was he the only record-breaker that was taking them either. He now has some company as the poster boy for this era.

Bottom line, baseball and Bud Selig got the outcome sought from the beginning – to show Congress that baseball is tough on steroid crime. But, baseball did not take as big a hit as everyone thought it would.

There were some names in there, but outside of Clemens, there were no real bombshells. Baseball will go on, and this will all be forgotten once the season starts again.

By Jay Hicks, a.k.a. Track Evangelist