finally

Bonds soon to join Hall of Shame
By Michael Robinson

“Say it ain’t so Barry says it ain’t so!”. I don’t know if there will be a little kid standing at the steps of the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco uttering those words to Barry Bonds, when Bonds has his day in court. But the heartbreak and confusion of young Bond’s fans may be just as great as that young White Sox fan some 88 years ago. I know it’s just an indictment and Bonds has not been convicted of the charges he faces of lying under oath, about his knowledge of using performance enhancing drugs. But we all knew something was amiss when a player hits almost thirty more home runs (73) in a single season then he ever had, as Bonds did in 2002.
But if a kid doesn’t say it I will, “Say it ain't so Barry say it ain’t so; or maybe that was the problem, maybe he should have said so and come clean, taken his fine and suspension. Then come back to baseball free of any suspicion and rumors. I guess there in lies the problem, when you start with a little lie it grows into a bigger lie and then you can’t control it, or as my mother use to say “there is no such thing as a little lie”. I have nothing against Barry Bonds, from the day he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates I have followed his career with amazement. Even this indictment doesn’t diminish what I think of him as a player, I still believe him to be one of the top ten players of all time and certainly the greatest of the past 20 years . Alas, though we know deep down inside that Bonds and many others have lied in recent years about their use of performance enhancing drugs. But I am not here to talk about the others because frankly, I didn’t marvel at their play as I did with Bonds his unbelievable batters eye, his quick hands, and early in his career his great defense and speed on the bases. I don’t even believe steroids or any other performance enhancers made him a better player (if that were true everybody would just juice and be great), but the deception and half truths have made him a pariah, such as Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson before him, so instead of being the first ballot unanimous choice, Hall of Famer he should be, he may unfortunately join these former greats in baseball’s Hall of Shame.