Baseball Player Bonds Indicted

[Steve]

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7452044

 

Barry Bonds was indicted Thursday for perjury and obstruction of justice, charged with lying when he told a federal grand jury that he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs.

 

Okay, I'm no fan of Bonds. He's a fantastic baseball player but never liked his attitude. What I want to know is why Congress got involved in the first place and why there had to be an indictment. Let baseball sort out their own mess. Waste of tax payer time and money for the government to get involved. Just a bunch of politicians looking to get on tv and up their recogintion quotient. and if the argument that steriod use is illegal, so are a lot of things but Congress doesn't get involved in.

 

Its not a big enough issue for the government to get involved.

[dean]

Its like Nixon and Watergate; the crime was not that big a deal but what did him in was lying (or have other lie for him)and the coverup. Besides possible jail time, Bonds can kiss Cooperstown goodbye!

[zzzz]

One reason Congress got involved could be that lots of people wrote to their Congressmen and complained that baseball wasn't doing enough to combat drugs.

[OCgringo]

a couple weeks ago an Olympic sprinter women addmited the same thing and was in court over steroids,

 

Its the probe of Balco, where all the top people got there "non steroid" steroids,

These were made to get past the drug tests ,

 

I afree that this should not be a federal crime , but lying pisses the FBI off !

 

OC

[rchapstick]

What a total waste of tax-payer $$$!

 

Yes, Bonds is a complete A-hole (I've met him several times. He used to work out at my gym and he is a complete dickhead, even when you go out of your way to avoid him).

 

Yes, he probably/surely used steroids +/or HGH.

 

But seriously, how many MILLIONS of dollars have been spent to indict this guy for perjury! The federal prosecutor needs to grow up and get a life!

[Flashermac]

The prosecutor is looking for fame ...

 

 

[Steve]

I'd be very interested to find out just how many letters, e mails and correspondences the Congress got. My guess is they get more correspondences about things they do nothing about anyway.

And even if they did, so what? Its not something that Congress with all the problems we have should get into.

 

 

[Tiger Moth]

I loved baseball as a kid. But, totally lost interest knowing that some players were "cheating". Baseball has a fairly long history for an American sport and statistics are an important part of fun theoretical discussions comparing players from different eras. The use of steroids by some has made all records, statistics, fun comparisons meaningless. And even comparing one current player to another current player is meaningless as one may be "cheating" and the other not cheating.

 

As far as simply looking at the present, I really don't care one way or another if players use steroids or other performance enhancers. What I do care about is a level playing field.

So, either get rid of the use of performance enhancers (admittedly, this seems very problematic) or make it an integral part of the game - for example, have trainers and other medical professionals be responsible for juicing all players on a team. I know I am not saying this very well. But, it is not fun to have the "is player A better than B" type of discussion under present circumstances. When I was kid, my favorite was Mickey Mantle (my favorite player) vs Willie Mays. Endless discussions among friends and in the newspapers. Very enjoyable. Now, with Barry Bonds and use of performance enhancers, how do you compare him to anyone? Looking at the first 10 or so years of his career (before BALCO), he was an excellent player and hitter.

But, he was not a big home run hitter. So, for me, his home run records are meaningless.

 

P. S. Although, I was a MM, NY Yankee fan, I ended up feeling that Willie Mays was the better player and the best I ever saw.

[Steve]

lol...great debate. Mantle would have better numbers if it weren't for his alcoholism. I was a Mays fan and thought he was the better all around player. Mantle a better home run hitter, which sounds strange given the fact that Mays ended up hitting more but Mantle's career was cut shorter.

 

Anyway, baseball has been rocked by scandal at times going all the way back to the early 20th century.

 

The thing about the Bonds thing as well is that the league made lots of money with the home run races when Sosa, McGwire and Bonds were doing their thing. Its a bit hypocritical to make him the poster boy of the steroids issue when a host of players were using. Lots of players went from 20 homeruns to 30 or 40 who were not future hall of famers. Lots of pitchers increased their fast ball by 5 mph or more.

 

Baseball can't legalize it. For a host of reasons. For one, the government won't let them. Second, it will encourage kids to use it, maybe even start using creatine in little league. Certainly HS and college kids will use it if legalized as well as the farm system players. And a lot of them go into the farm system right out of high school. Finally, it goes against the international trend of taking it out of all other sports. Baseball won't be respected if they do.