Barry Bonds: February 2009 Archives

I've written about this before so I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I hope the readers of this site aren't fooled by the federal government's attempt to influence public opinion of potential jurors in Barry Bond's upcoming perjury trial. The information that they are leaking pertains to Barry's use of steroids, specifically letting people know that they have a match between BB's blood & DNA and the needles that were used to inject Bonds with HGH and other anabolic steroids.

But for those of you paying attention, Bonds never said he didn't use steroids. BB said that he never KNOWINGLY used them. Personally, I doubt that, but the man is innocent until proven guilty per the Constitution and the government has to prove that BB knowingly used steroids. And they can't.

It's very similar to when cops kill unarmed people and then say they feared for their lives so the killing was justifiable. The law says that prosecutors have to prove that the cops didn't fear for their lives. That's impossible to prove, so essentially cops have a license to commit murder. Barry can claim that he didn't knowingly take steroids and if his former personal trainer continues to keep his mouth shut there's really no way to prove that he did. Period. It's a smart legal strategy.

So the government's plan now is to put out so much negative information against Bonds that potential jurors will be influenced, will feel hatred and envy towards Bonds, and will already believe he's guilty before the trial even starts. In so doing, it's going to be much harder for Barry to get a fair trial, if not impossible. It shows how biased the court system is against BB in that the judge approved the information to be unsealed so the media could release this prior to trial. I won't say this is unprecedented, but it's highly unusual.

Count me among those who hopes Barry beats the rap. Not because I think he's innocent of steroid use or even innocent of perjury, but because of how the media tried the hardest to make him the face of steroids. Now I'm not saying they all got together and came up with the idea. But it's obvious over the years that so many of the tv guys, writers, and radio hosts gave it to Bonds with both barrels while holding their fire on everyone. It took a bad appearance in front of Congress for Mark McGwire to get any real heat, and Roger Clemens had to make a fool of himself in a 60 minutes interview for any real suspicion to come up. Bonds got it as soon as he went after the 70 home run record after ballooning up like the Michelin Man. Yes, it's obvious he was on the juice, but it was obvious with McGwire and Sosa as well. And Clemens late career resurgence screamed steroid (or HGH) use but nobody cared much.

Barry got tagged as the face of steroids not so much because of any actual use of them but because he was reportedly a jerk. To the media, to his teammates, and even some fans. OK, there's more than enough evidence over the years to come to that conclusion. And I'm sure that the fact he was about to break some serious records made the baseball media elite want to hurl. I also think that even if Bonds had been totally clean the media still would have hated on him. That's what you get when you get snippy with them. If Brett Favre treated the media like Bonds did we'd have read a zillion columns and articles about whether or not Favre should have been suspended being for being a pill popping drunk instead of the syrupy stuff we've been handed all these years.

In a continuing effort to crack down on misdeeds and mishaps of the financial sector and automotive industry, the government is sparing no expense in the time and money it is dedicating to sending Barry Bonds up the creek without a paddle. After all, it's the menaces of baseball such as Bonds and Roger Clemens that are the real threat to this country, not the economy, healthcare, financial institutions and fortune 500 corporations or education.

Most of you will remember Bonds scandal broke in 2001, when suspicions of performance drug enhancement use ran amuck shortly after Bonds hit a record 73 home runs in one season, shattering the record previously held by Mark McGwire. During a raid of Bonds' ex-trainer, Greg Anderson's home as part of the BALCO investigation, federal authorities "coerced" Anderson into giving an interview resulting in the name dropping of some of his most distinguished clients including Estalella, Santiago and two other former Giants' players, Armando Rios and Marvin Bernard, the same clients' who will act as witnesses for the prosecution when Bonds' faces perjury charges at his upcoming trial set on March 2nd in San Francisco.

Also joining the lynch mob are Tigers outfielder and Bonds former workout partner, Gary Sheffield in addition to retired Oakland A's outfielder Jason Giambi and his brother Jeremy Giambi who all allege that they were obtained drugs from Anderson after being introduced to him through Bonds.