Time to let it go, Barry, and just go, By: John Harris
April 17, 2006, Blade Sports Columnist
Just say go, Barry Bonds.
Bonds should leave now, before he does more damage to his already sullied reputation.
Bonds doesn't need baseball. He already has enough money and enough memories to last three lifetimes.
Baseball doesn't need Bonds.
Late to the party, two-faced commissioner Bud Selig is now attempting to erase Bonds' accomplishments.
He can't win.
The facts are against Bonds.
He allegedly used steroids to enhance his baseball greatness.
Steroids are illegal.
He allegedly lied to a grand jury about his steroid use.
Perjury is illegal.
The fates are against Bonds.
Selig, who looked the other way for years when Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa became chemically enhanced home run monsters late in their careers, has bowed to public pressure and ordered an investigation into Bonds' alleged illegal activities.
Father Time is against Bonds.
He's 41 in a young man's game. He's limping on a bad knee and has bone chips in his left elbow. He missed the first 142 games of last season recovering from knee surgeries.
Bonds is struggling. Entering 2006 with 708 career homers, Bonds is chasing Babe Ruth (714) for No. 2 on the all-time list.
But so far he's played like a dog chasing his tail.
In his first eight games with the San Francisco Giants, Bonds was hitting .190 with no homers and one RBI.
The last time Bonds went that many games without a home run was 1998.
That was around the time when Bonds, according to the book Game of Shadows, allegedly started using steroids because he was jealous of the attention McGwire received for hitting a record 70 homers in 1998.
Bonds broke McGwire's mark three years later.
Just say go, Barry.
Look at what happened to Rafael Palmeiro. After denying steroid use before Congress,Raffy, who reached the 3,000-hit milestone last season, failed a drug test and retired in disgrace.
Look at what happened to Sosa, another star linked to steroid use. His game fell off a cliff in recent years, his power surge gone.
After receiving only one offer this season, a nonguaranteed deal from the Nationals, Sosa also retired.
Look at what happened to McGwire. Following his embarrassing speech before Congress, Big Mac has gone into virtual seclusion.
The fact that Selig is only going after Bonds is telling.
Bonds is Public Enemy No. 1.
Sure, the unpopular Bonds is a victim of a media witch hunt. But it's one of his own making.
The media wants Bonds' head on a stake. Some media types have lost their objectivity because they don't like how Bonds treats members of their profession even though most of them have never met him, or for the way he described passing Ruth in the home-run chase in racial terms.
Unfortunately, those self-righteous members of the media aren't demanding that other high-profile and well-liked players linked to steroids have their numbers wiped from the record books.
In some ways, Bonds' self-fulfilling prophecy came true. The son of major-leaguer Bobby Bonds who always believed he was persecuted by the media, Barry carried a chip on his shoulder from the get-go.
You reap what you sow.
Just say go, Barry.
