MLB should take blame for Bonds fiasco, By: Bryan Zollman

March 21, 2006, Herald Sports Editor

If San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds showed up on my front step with a frozen pizza, a six pack of beer, and an autographed bat and asked me if I wanted to hang out, I’d grab the six pack and pizza out of his hands and slam the door in his face.

I am not a fan of Bonds and his oversized head. But more so I am not a fan of the way Major League Baseball (MLB) has handled the situation.

Bonds has been under fire for alleged steroid use for the past two years. He so much as admitted to using the stuff “unknowingly” when he was forced to testify to a grand jury two years ago.

Now, as he closes in on passing Babe Ruth for second on the all-time home run list, a book has been published by a pair of San Francisco Chronicle Woodward and Bernstein wanna -bees detailing Bonds’ use down to the dosage.

According to reports in the book, Bonds even took growth hormones that are used specifically for beef cattle. Maybe those “boos” he receives while playing on the road will now turn to “moos.”

The book states that Bonds was so frustrated with all the attention Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were receiving during their 1998 home run race in which both surpassed the single-season record that he, like a middle sibling who never gets the attention they think they deserve, decided to start juicing.

While baseball fans and MLB ignored obvious signs (McGwire’s forearms were bigger than most second basemens’ legs), Bonds and those who are around the game every day knew what was going on. Bonds knew what needed to be done to turn a $5 million a year contract into a $15 million a year deal.

But Bonds shouldn;t receive all the blame.

While MLB Commissioner Bud Selig didn’t actually inject a needle into Bonds’ behind, Major League Baseball should still take a lot of the heat for the circus this has caused.

According to reports of the book, Bonds allegedly started using performance enhancing drugs in 1998. At that time, and for several years after, there was no policy in MLB prohibiting such use. There was no testing program either, and Bonds certainly wasn’t the only one doing it. But because he is the best player in the game, he is the one under the microscope. And lets face it, when you treat the media like jerks, you get the jerk treatment in return.

Only recently has the media questioned whether or not Selig will launch an investigation into the allegations against Bonds.

If they do, it will be the equivalent of an accomplice in a crime ratting out the other guy. The league is just as responsible for this steroid saga as any individual player.

Why did they allow it to happen? Because fans love home runs, and the more butts in the seats, the more money in the pockets of the owners. And lets not forget that Selig is a former owner. And in case you didn;t realize, revenues increased almost two-fold during the “Steroid Era.”

So while Bonds is continually criticized and lambasted (as he should be), MLB officials, namely Bud Selig, will become part of the prosecution team when it should be a co-defendant.

Selig should take the stand and take the blame for allowing this to happen.

But the chances of that happening are about as good as Bonds showing up at my front door with a six pack of beer.