When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

11.15.2007
Indictment

Barry Bonds has been indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. But he didn't leak Valerie Plame's name to the press. That was Dick Armitage.

It's both huge news and a huge yawn, and not just because I got three hours of sleep last night and am far more concerned about a nasty diaper rash on the hinter parts of Miss Monkeypants. Come to think of it, I'm sure many folks out there could find plenty of parallels between Barry Bonds and diaper rash.

What to expect: First and foremost, the end of Bonds's career. Who will sign him now? Second, if Barry is dragged into court, he might drag a lot more people with him. In other words, will he name names? I'm not sure. Would he, like his buddy Greg Anderson, prefer to remain silent to protect those around him? My position: the more names that surface as users of this or that substance, the better. We all need to know who is or was doing it, not for punishment's sake but to have a more honest discussion about the prevalence of designer drugs in sports and to end the demonization of a select few.

(By the way,  one bit of recent news I skipped was the revelation that Matt Williams was an HGH user. This column, which basically said, "Oh no, not you, Matty, you were one of the good guys!", was one of the clearest indications of a subtle racism at work in media and public's attitude toward athletes and drugs.)

Question of the day: Assuming there's a trial, will you follow it? Are you interested?
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[November 15, 2007 6:30 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Jefferson said

Hi Lefty,

Sure, I'd follow the trial. I've been hip-deep in articles about this mess for years. I might as well follow it to the end.

I don't think Barry is the type to name names, Canseco-style. But I expect it'll still be a huge circus.

Having read the indictment, it would appear that Greg Anderson finally buckled and talked. If so, Bonds is going to jail.

[November 15, 2007 6:32 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Lars said

I'd definitely follow the trial. If only to find out what took them 4 years to make a decision.

The interesting part of the story was the statement about having a positive test for Barry. When was that test? Why didn't MLB suspend him when they found out about the positive result?

[November 15, 2007 6:59 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Jefferson said

The test could have been from the "survey" year, when all tests were supposed to be anonymous and destroyed (neither of which happened). Or they could have been private tests arranged by BALCO to check their masking agents.

[November 15, 2007 7:07 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Jonathan Bass said

You don't think Barry is the type to name names? Mark Sweeney might disagree.

[November 15, 2007 7:45 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

It does not sound like from the news that Greg Anderson turned on Bonds, it simply seems like the Feds don't need him anymore so they released him. They probably held him just in case he cracks while the Feds got their indictment into ship-shape for filing.

I'm following it, we've been following it years now, be a shame to jump ship now.

[November 15, 2007 7:49 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

And good point about Matty and racism, I thought that too, but never got around to reading the article. Why not a "damn you Matty for being one of them", the grand outrage most of them had for Bonds over the past few years? Instead, it's "Oh no, not you!"

I thought that was pretty funny that he said it was to help him recover faster, but I think he got the prescription from a dentist. Was his teeth hurting that badly?

[November 17, 2007 2:07 AM]  |  link  |  reply
FRank said

It's comforting for me to realize that what little spare change is left over from our adventures in Afganistan and Iraq we can spend on prosecuting one single baseball player, chosen out of the plehota of baseball players who have.. gasp... used some type of performance enhancing drug. Boy, I can't wait until our federal government goes after the cheats in Nascar. Or Bellichek. I must say, tho, that this wise government does show fantistic restraint and comity by avoiding any investigation into NFL players.

[November 26, 2007 8:36 PM]  |  link  |  reply
kevin@allonthefield said

I think there will be a trial, and I think for a lot of people it will be an object of morbid fascination. Not to the degree of the OJ trial, I'm sure, but a big deal nonetheless. Personally, I'm interested to learn the outcome but not overly intrigued by every little detail to the case.