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Monday, February 19, 2007
Bonds can’t escape asterisk
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Some things can’t be stopped: The circus will officially open today when Barry Bonds has his first workout of the spring in the most scrutinized of his 22 seasons.
Some things are inevitable: Barring an exploding appendage, Bonds will hit at least 22 home runs this season and claim sports’ most cherished record, reducing Henry Aaron, the personification of honesty and dignity, to second-best.
So let’s move on.
Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, played verbal footsie two weeks ago when he said he wasn’t sure if he would be present when Bonds hits his 756th home run. But this would be a difficult situation for any commissioner, let alone one that makes Charlie Brown look like a Type-A personality.
Some things are obvious: Selig’s not going to take an official position on Bonds. Why? Because while he knows what we all know, he doesn’t have proof. Bonds might be the greatest baseball player in history, but his statistics — like his arms, his chest, his legs and his cranium — were artificially enhanced for at least four to five seasons.
So what to do?
Nothing. Move on. Because the rhetoric is a wasted exercise. Because we’ll always know the truth. Because regardless of how many home runs Barry Bonds hits, history will judge him as most outside of San Francisco judge him now.
Bonds has been the poster boy for the drug era. That’s probably unfair. He isn’t/wasn’t the lone juicer. He’s probably not even the biggest, just the most notorious. We’re never really going to know about him or almost anybody. George Mitchell can’t even get anybody to say what Jose Canseco already has and what two San Francisco Chronicle reporters already revealed.
But years from now, we’ll read records and see highlights and watch Hall of Fame inductions from some players in the steroid era and we’ll view it all with a mental asterisk.
People, we do it all the time.
Notre Dame, South Carolina and Minnesota all went on probation after Lou Holtz coached there, but the NCAA never found his fingerprints. So he’s innocent? OK. Bill Clinton says he didn’t have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. Right. O.J. Simpson: The glove didn’t fit.
We see. We think. We know.
Mark McGwire turns mute at Congressional drug hearings. It’s not what an innocent and retired athlete does. Rafael Palmeiro says he’s drug free, then he tests positive and goes underground. Oops. Jason Giambi apologizes but he never specifies what for. We get it. Brady Anderson hits 16 home runs in 1995, then 50 in 1996. Don’t tell me - protein shakes.
It has been a strange setup for what should be a glorious moment on baseball’s timeline. Word leaked that Bonds tested positive for amphetamines and he immediately responded by throwing a teammate, Mark Sweeney, under the bus. On the Bonds scale, this barely rates. Greg Anderson, his trainer and alleged pal, is in prison because he won’t say anything that might get Bonds in trouble. While Anderson gets bread and water, Bonds gets an $18.5 million contract.
Bonds’ contract contains a clause (possibly unenforceable) voiding the deal if he is indicted for lying to a grand jury in the BALCO case. And Giants owner Peter Magowan was so sheepish about re-signing him that he sent a letter to season ticket holders stating: “Please know I have not taken lightly this particularly controversial and difficult decision.”
In the old days, you just prepared for a celebration by hanging bunting.
Bonds could face perjury charges. There’s also a possibility he will be charged with income tax evasion, violating banking laws and money laundering. You thought using “the cream” was bad. By comparison, that looks like jaywalking.
But any chance of Bonds getting nailed at all is slim. Any chance of proof showing up before he hits home run No. 756 is sleeping with Sasquatch.
The record will fall. Accept it or reject it, but it’s going to happen. When it does, they will cheer in San Francisco and boo or turn away everywhere else.
But Bonds needs to understand this: One momentous swing won’t change how history views the moment. Because we know. We’ll always know.
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