The State of Journalism vs. Barry Bonds

The legal proceedings surrounding Barry Bonds, his alleged use of steroids and the participation by BALCO in our nation’s realm of sports has sent a few men to prison. Unfortunately, not a single one of them is Bonds.

One of the men behind bars is Greg Anderson, Bonds’ trainer who, according to several sources, supplied the slugger with illegal steroids. Anderson went to jail after refusing to testify whether or not Bonds committed perjury in a previous federal grand jury. Anyone with any bit of sense can understand what occurred here. Had Anderson been able to state under oath that Bonds had not committed perjury, Anderson would have had no reason to not testify. The very fact that he refused to further paints Bonds as guilty in the eyes of the public.

The two recent victims of the Bonds storm are Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada. Why are these two men going to prison? Did they work for the BALCO labs that created the steroids? Did they give the drugs to Bonds and his other cohorts? Did they refuse to implicate the cheaters in our legal system?

No.

They wrote a book exposing Bonds, Anderson, BALCO and a laundry list of other American athletes in terms of steroid use. Game of Shadows was released earlier this year and was based partly on the transcripts of the grand jury that investigated BALCO. These transcripts were leaked and the authors have refused to reveal to the courts the source of the leak. A judge has found the two to be in contempt and sentenced them to a maximum of 18 months in prison.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s happened here. The first joke of a hearing gave any baseball player that testified immunity from being charged with steroid use. Mark McGwire refused to talk about his possible steroid past, Sammy Sosa somehow conveniently forgot how to speak English, and Rafael Palmeiro waved his finger at those insinuating that he had ever touched steroids. A year later now, both Sosa and Palmeiro are out of the game with Palmeiro actually failing a steroid test.

None of these men went to jail. But two journalists, after researching and digging for the truth, are. Something is definitely wrong here. Disgustingly wrong.

I lay the blame for what has happened with several parties.

Baseball, instead of turning a blind eye to the steroid use devouring the game from inside and riding the wave of popularity that came with it, should have rooted out the cheaters and expelled them from the game. Not a suspension, not a slap on the wrist. Expulsion. Bud Selig, the commissioner, should have ordered every player tested. There is no infringement of rights here – why should athletes be excluded from the drug testing that goes on in any other job out there?

Sports, the commissioners of the leagues, the fans, the clean athletes being tainted by their cheating brothers – they all should’ve demanded action.

But unfortunately, that never happened. Steroids were allowed to have their way with the players, with the game. They chewed up and spat out careers, warped the record books, and forced the fans to look suspiciously on every accomplishment and every athlete.

Fans shouldn’t have to be the judge and jury on the steroid issue. There are real judges and juries to do that. Sadly though, they aren’t doing their jobs either. And that’s why two journalists who were just doing their jobs are now going to prison while Bonds and other cheaters continue to collect handsome paychecks.

I understand that the current system doesn’t allow for journalists to be afforded the right to withhold information from federal courts. But when the government isn’t doing its job, people Williams and Fainaru-Wada step in. That’s the beauty of a free press – it keeps everyone in check. In countries that have state-controlled newspapers, people will never receive truth or news that may offend those in power. There are those at every level who wish to censor the press since they don’t like what’s being said.

It’s a shame to see two honest, hard working men like Williams and Fainaru-Wada go to prison because of someone’s ego and arrogance.

- Originally published in the Cardinal Courier (Volume 6-Issue 2; October 4, 2006)

This juice is squeezed

As many baseball fans know, for the longest time, Babe Ruth was the home run king. With a grand total of 714 of the suckers in his career, the Babe was the epitome of power hitting.

And then Hank Aaron came along. Finishing his career with 755 homers, Aaron surpassed Ruth in the record books. And he earned every single home run he's credited with. A deserving champion.

Unfortunately, a sad event is looming for Major League Baseball. Barry Bonds, the slugger most often associated with steroids, is only a few home runs away from breaking Ruth's record. Don't get me wrong - I have no problem with Ruth's record falling. At this point, it's not even anything to celebrate as Aaron already broke it.

What my problem is though, is that Bonds has cheated his way to this place. Yes, I know that he's never tested positive but in every baseball fan's heart, the knowledge is there. Just like McGwire, just like Sosa, just like Palmeiro – all cheaters.

A book titled Game of Shadows was recently published. This book chronicles the highly sophisticated – and highly illegal – steroid regiment that Bonds was on beginning with the 1998 season when he supposed chose to start juicing as a result of jealousy over the attention McGwire and Sosa were receiving. On top of that, MLB just launched an investigation into the dark steroid past of the sport. A little late? Yeah. Necessary. Yeah.

It’s easier to deal with the random players that test positive for steroids now in the game. The guys like Alex Sanchez don’t really mean anything. They don’t sell tickets, the entire record book isn’t written around them. But the Palmeiroes and the Bondses, these guys are in the upper echelon of the sport. Bonds is aiming for the most sacred mark in all of sports and he’s ahem, allegedly, cheated his way there. Even if an investigation shows that Bonds took every possible illegal substance every chance he got, you’ll hear the argument that baseball didn’t have rules against it prior to 2002. The question though is, did baseball really need anti-steroid rules when they were illegal in the real world? I’m sure baseball doesn’t have a rule about killing another player but those of us in the real world play by that rule – shouldn’t that translate onto the field?

There's no easy way to deal with the past decade plus of inflated records. Maybe it should just be the Asterisk Era with every record up for examination. The single season home run record should be returned to Roger Maris, who won it back in '61. He had to live with an asterisk for years as people felt that the difference in games played compared to Ruth (154 to 162) gave him an edge.

But Maris never cheated.

Maybe the best thing that we can all do when the day comes when Bonds passes Ruth - and even possibly passes Aaron - is to just ignore it. Pretend that it never even happened. Never mention his name to our children. Stop writing about him. As much as Bonds has shunned the fans during his career, what if we shunned him? Could he just fade away as if just a bad dream?

Here’s hoping Bonds fades away.

- Originally published in the Cardinal Courier (Volume 5-Issue 11; April 5, 2006)