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Sidelines
Kalani Simpson
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Bonds story is tragic, but what’s next?
SO yesterday my Sports Illustrated came in the mail letting me know once and for all that Barry Bonds took steroids, lots of them.
What?!
Personally, I think this is a shame. Not that we now know, tragically, once and for all, that Bonds took steroids. We already knew he took steroids. Everybody knew. Anyone who insisted he didn't believe this was simply hanging onto his own delusions, which in itself is probably not such a bad way to go through life.
No, it's a shame that so many people had to go through so much work, put so much effort into getting this one guy. Yes, Bonds did it. Yes, he's guilty. Yes, he deserves whatever he has coming to him. Yes, he has distinguished himself as a very not-so-nice person.
But why does it all come crashing down on him? Why does he get the two investigative reporters taking, what -- a year off from their jobs? -- in order to track down documentation of his every injection? A major operation? The Feds?
Yes, Bonds did it and he's a bad guy and I don't like him. I'm glad he got caught.
But why is he the only one "proven" guilty?
Everybody did it. And we all should have known. It was obvious to anyone with eyes. It went on for YEARS. In fact, one of the things the book dug up was that Bonds was the last one in the pool. It was only after seeing Mark McGwire on steroids that Bonds said, in essence: "You want to see someone set records on steroids? I will show YOU how to set records on steroids."
And if you're one of those people who won't quite believe McGwire did steroids unless you were confronted by a mountain of documented evidence like the kind in a book like this, well, that's the point. Where's his book? Why wasn't his sleazy steroids dealer recorded by a guy wearing a wire?
Yes, everybody knows, now. But in history he'll have wiggle room. It was never "proven."
(His own expression said it all, at those Senate hearings. But still yet.)
Why Bonds?
Jason Giambi was just as busted, in the same BALCO sting no less, and he's already (beware, bad pun ahead) back in "the clear."
Yes, Bonds is still playing, and he's the latest, greatest home run king. And he hooked up with an outfit that was about to get raided by the Feds. And he's really a big jerk. But ...
What do I want? I don't really know. Is there a solution to all this? Probably not. Should we get out the asterisk? I don't think anyone wants to go there, no matter the evidence.
I just wonder if this will be an indictment of an era -- or if we've found our scapegoat, and everyone else can just continue to not talk about the past.