What Barry Deserves

By: D.K. Wilson

Barry Bonds is about to get it. While almost all of the BALCO-related headlines scream of Bud Selig’s threat to suspend Jason Giambi and of ex-Bonds attorney Troy Ellerman’s plea bargain being rejected, Bonds is on the verge of receiving his just desserts.There is no big article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Or the San Jose Mercury-News. Or the Oakland Tribune. There’s no mention of it in USA Today, or the New York Times. But Bonds’ time apparently has come - and if it does, it will hit the sporting world like a ton of bricks.

Michael Rains, Barry Bonds’ primary attorney, says he has evidence of wrong doing by the prosecutor’s office pertaining to Bonds. The evidence, Rains feels, is so important that he is calling for an end to the BALCO-related investigation of Bonds and an open admission of guilt by U.S. attorney Scott Schools. If these demands are not met, Rains says he will immediately go public with the information he holds:

“I would like him to come out and talk about why they have chosen not to indict Barry. I would like that much. Knowing the way they have operated, even this guy is terse. My guess would be even if we see that happening he’ll probably come out through his press relations guy with some two line letter saying, ‘Scott Schools announced today that he won’t be seeking more indictments in the BALCO case. Goodbye.’ And that may be all we hear from him. At which time, I think the public will hear from me.”

Rains is staunch in his stance against the U.S. government. And he has expanded his venom to strike at Major League Baseball as well:

“Will he [Bonds] talk? I don’t know. One of the things that frankly worries me more now than it ever did before was looking at the press release when they indicted this Kirk Radomski [former New York Mets employee who pleaded guilty to distributing steroids to major-league players]. I’m seeing the federal government talking about their indictment and saying, ‘Yeah, we really encourage Radomski to cooperate fully with Mr. Mitchell.’

“My thought was that Mitchell’s investigation was proceeding independent of the feds and vice versa. And when I see the lines blurred there it makes me wonder whether or not Mitchell is kind of an agent of the government or vice versa here. And to the extent that I have no respect for and nothing but contempt for the government, it may not take me very long to develop the same feeling about Mr. Mitchell.”

For Rains to make these kinds of statements, his evidence must be so strong that it cannot be ignored in spite of the best efforts of every major daily newspaper to omit this immensely important news item. Before Bonds faced the Boston Red Sox last weekend, Boston Globe writer Bob Hohler described Bonds thusly:

A pariah in the game he professes to love, an outcast in baseball towns across the continent, a would-be king without a country, Bonds forges ahead on a lonely odyssey, scorned even by Aaron himself as he closes in on a personal triumph his critics will decry as an act of fraud.

Hohler also went out of his way to support his perception of the San Francisco Giants slugger - in and around Fenway Park and even with an author of a Bonds biography who has openly rooted against Bonds for well over a decade:

“There’s just an empty feeling in your heart, even though nothing against him has been proven,” said former Red Sox pitcher John Burkett, who surrendered Bonds’ 300th home run and later played with him on the Giants. “You want to celebrate the record, but you wonder what might come out about him after it’s all said and done…”

“He is a disgrace to baseball,” [Red Sox fan, Jonathan] Woodring said of Bonds. “I think he knew what he was doing and knew it was wrong. I think he thought he couldn’t be caught…”

“Personally, I hope Barry dies,” Pete Diana, the former team photographer for the Pirates, is quoted as saying in Jeff Pearlman’s biography, Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero.

“I hate him that much,” Diana said, incensed that Bonds refused to sign memorabilia to auction for the children of two Pirates groundskeepers who died in a car crash.

Okay, okay Bob we get it. You hate Bonds and you found others who feel just like you.

Congratulations.

The United States government does not take kindly to threats of the type made by Rains. However, they so far have failed to prove that Bonds has perjured himself, failed to break his friend and former personal trainer Greg Anderson (who continues to illegally languish in jail for refusing to testify against Bonds), and failed to find that he illegally purchased steroids. Additionally, the Internal Revenue Service has failed to prove that Bonds’ taxes are anything other than completely in compliance with their standards.

This leaves the government, particularly the judicial branch, in the odd predicament of being particularly vulnerable to the charges levied by Rains. Unless they can pull a criminal rabbit out of their collective hat and unless Scott Schools betrays his usual terse ways with the press, much of the sporting nation, especially the sports media, may soon be faced with something it could never foresee: having to justify the potentially criminal actions of those who pursue Barry Bonds.

You can bet that - should this take place - the reaction from the press and those polled across the nation will be swift. Knee-jerk defenses and group denial will rule the day. And to a person these people, not one of whom knows Barry Bonds and almost as few of whom know no facts surrounding Bonds’ part in the BALCO case, will swear they know better than the charges Rains presents.

Selig will hide behind his on-going investigation into steroid use among MLB players. Henry Aaron will go fishing. Game of Shadows authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams will, for the first time since their two minutes of fame, be unavailable for comment. And when they do peek their heads out from under their sheets, it will only be to defend their “sources.” George Mitchell will, as usual, say nothing, but will continue to make sure he’s first in line to collect his check that week. Various politicians will stutter and stammer and enter into palaver.

It will be a sight to observe so many disparate entities scramble for the cover of their ignorance, bluster, and outright lies.

Sometimes a large storm begins with just a single cloud.

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D.K. Wilson is a freelance sports writer. He is better known on the internet as "DWil," and writes for Sports On My Mind.

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