Sooner the better for Bonds' exitHeadline: The sooner Bonds goes away, the better, By: Jim Mashek
April 16, 2006
Friday night's games had come and gone and we were still awaiting Barry Bonds' first home run of the 2006 baseball season.
We've seen pleas for pity, and we've seen reports of a federal grand jury investigation of Bonds. There have been crocodile tears and ESPN's lame reality show, "Bonds on Bonds," but none of it may matter depending on what the commissioner's office can uncover in its probe of steroids use in Major League Baseball.
Maybe Bonds could do everyone a favor and just disappear.
He hinted at doing just that Friday night, after the Giants' 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bonds told mlb.com his left elbow has swollen to twice its normal size because of bone chips, and if surgery is required, he's ready to walk away.
"I'm going to keep playing until it blows up," Bonds said. "If I have to have a procedure, then I'm done. Finished. That would be it."
Interesting choice of words.
Bonds' body has blown up right in front of us. He's uncorked some massive blows at San Francisco's AT&T Park, actually hitting 73 home runs in a single season. But his role in the BALCO scandal has casts doubts about everything he's done, at least everything he's done in the last five or six seasons.
Major League Baseball is equally at fault in this sorry spectacle, waiting way too long to implement a steroids policy. If the game had a legitimate commissioner, something it hasn't had for nearly two decades now, perhaps a more proactive approach could have changed things.
But what's done is done.
And Bonds' pursuit of Henry Aaron's career home run record has disintegrated into an ugly farce.
Bonds can barely run because of an injured right knee. He plays in the National League, which doesn't have the designated hitter, and he played in only a handful of games last season. Now he has to await his fate in the eyes of a federal grand jury, which will determine if Bonds committed perjury during the 2003 BALCO investigation.
Major League Baseball is looking for an easy way out, and it may have come with this development.
Bonds always put himself before the game, always put himself before his teammates. Other players implicated in the BALCO case, including the New York Yankees' Jason Giambi, decided federal court might be the right place to tell the truth. Bonds continued his charade, confident he was above the law.
He doesn't look so confident at the plate these days.
Barry Bonds exploited his own son once in hopes of eliciting sympathy. The tactic failed.
Bonds' surgeon, Dr. Arthur Ting, has been served a subpoena by the feds. His former mistress, Kimberly Bell, has been spilling her guts for months, and she served as a primary source for "Game of Shadows," a book detailing Bonds' alleged steroids use by two investigative reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Bud Selig, the man who passes himself off as baseball's commissioner, holds just as much responsibility as Bonds as this unsightly dilemma spirals out of control. Maybe more.
Rafael Palmeiro is gone, his legacy forever diminished by his Capitol Hill testimony and subsequent positive test for steroids. Mark McGwire's reputation is ruined, and rightfully so. There's no doubt pitchers experimented with steroids, too, but Bonds has become the face of baseball's steroids era.
Henry Aaron, one way or another, will remain baseball's home run king.
Barry Bonds was once one of the game's greatest players, but he's little more than its greatest stain at the moment.
The sooner he goes away, the better for everybody. Himself included.
