BONDS INDICTED...AND IT ONLY TOOK FOUR YEARS

So after all these years the Feds feel they have a case? Or maybe now they have a Department of (selective) Justice leader more in the style of the former Grand Wizard, er Attorney General Ashcroft, the Mark McGwire apologist, who initiated the whole BALCO investigation because he was jealous that his local hero was surpassed in the record books by Big Bad Black Barry. My own personal theory using the same logic that others have used. You know the whole Barry was jealous of Sammy and Mark thing.

Where was Ashcroft when the FBI was investigating McGwire during Operation Equine. Maybe things would have been a lot different. Right!! For those who don't believe race plays a factor in this look up Operation Equine and see what you find. And see if you understand where selective prosecution plays a huge factor in all of this.

Operation Equine:
http://www.ergogenics.org/canseco2.html

http://www.ergogenics.org/fbi2.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=steroids&num=5

This is the same Department of Justice, the same Administration and virtually the same Congress that watched Rafael Palmeiro wag his finger in front of their faces and chastise them for accusing him of steroid use, then fails a test shortly thereafter, and they can't put a perjury case together against him? Apparently now they've figured it out.

The argument goes something along the lines of, "Well, just because he failed a test shortly a testifying doesn't mean we can prove he was doing steroids when he testified before Congress. Therefore, we can't prove he lied to us enough to charge him with perjury". Are you freaking kidding me?

And we're to hear that the Feds really take this lying under oath stuff seriously?
Every day, they make themselves into more and more of a running joke. And the problem is, they are in charge making decisions that effect the economy, national security and the future of this country.

Now, we have a newly minted Attorney General in Mike Mukasey, who apparently is the only person in the free world who does not seem to realize that water boarding is considered torture. He fits right in with a Bush Administration whose lasting legacy is going to be of an administration of hooligans that throughout it's eight years consistently and systematically treated the Constitution as if it was a piece of toilet paper. Illegal wire tapping of citizens, KGB style secret prisons, selective disregard for due process and on and on.

Even if Greg Anderson flipped after all these years of incarceration and the duress of feeling the full might of the Department of Justice and the IRS on his back threatening to ruin his life, how effective a witness can he be?

If he turns and testifies, I would assume Michael Rains would have a field day with his testimony. We have only a history of either vague, contradictory statements or no statements at all regarding his dealings with Bonds and Balco.

All you have to do is think back to Patti Hearst and how she went from sweet little rich girl to machine gun toting bank robber after being held for a short while by the Symbionese Liberation Army. It's called the Stockholm Syndrome. Of course, the defense didn't work out to well for Hearst because the jury felt she had chances to escape her captors or not actively participate in criminal activity, but the underlying theory applies even more to Anderson flipping to the government side, if indeed he did so. I would think most would understand he was coerced to testify. And I do not think Anderson had the same opportunity to escape the clutches of Uncle Sammie as Patti Hearst had to escape from the SLA.

Victor Conte has already questioned the chain of custody for any positive drug sample that may have been provided. Balco was not a certified drug testing facility, they farmed out the work. So the protocol followed for verifying any samples or records that the DOJ may have found in their dumpster dive at Balco would seem to be evidence that would also get shredded fairly easily.

And even if a positive sample is produced, I'm not sure if that pierces the "unknowingly" defense strategy Bonds and his team will pursue.

The good news is this is finally out of the court of public opinion. The court of public opinion is the court favored by those who turn a blind eye to instances like the Jena 6, the Ku Klux Klan and the selective violation of peoples civil rights all over this country. Remember it was the Court of Public Opinion that would have kept Rosa Parks on the back of the bus - the Court of Law changed that. The Court of Public Opinion was for segregation - the Court of Law gave us Brown vs. Board of Education. The Court of Public Opinion is the court of choice for lynch mobs and Klansmen. The Court of Public Opinion is for talk show hosts and backyard gossips and magpies - the Court of Law is where civilized people decide matters of law.

What we do have is more fodder for the lackeys in the media to come out of their holes, iron their finest sheets and robes and come out and Barry-bash one more time. All this after baseball has finished ringing the cash register, albeit while acting as if they were holding their noses through it all. Do you think they are going to give the money back? Are any of the teams that charged a Barry Bonds premium to their ticket prices going to refund money back to their patrons I think not. Will they donate the excess cash generated by the traveling Bonds show from last year? My estimate of the excess generated by the show would be anywhere from $100-150 million dollars across the league. And now they want to do something. Shameless.

One of the local wags was screeching about how it has been documented that Bonds lied 19 times to the Grand Jury (I assume the source is the medias bible on the subject, Game of Shadows). So the book documents 19 lies - but the prosecutors, who actually have to prove (document) the lies conclusively only bring five charges. Did they miss something in the other 14 instances that the learned eyes, ears and minds of the journalistic community were more capable of finding? Or is this a case study for the percentage of garbage you hear in the media that is actually closer to fiction than truth.

Lets' do the math shall we? Five for nineteen equals 26.3% or a .263 batting average, to put it in baseball terms. Now, while that may get you a cushy mega-dollars free agent contract if your agent is Scott Boras, it's not a particularly good average if your discussing the ethics of good journalism. Especially if the example cited is one that was held up as Nobel Prize winning journalism.

Now finally, the rules of the game will change somewhat. No longer will the government hold the Bonds camps hands behind their back, strung up like a human pinada for the media to take swings at with impunity. Now the other side gets to swing back. Now the selective leaks of information, and this is the only steroid case, of the many out there (Operation Equine, Grimsley, Radomski et. al.) that sprung selective leaks of information, are over. The case finally is in the shining light of the public domain. Hallelujah!!!

It's time to put up or shut up now, for everyone. For the Feds, for Michael Rains and lastly for the media. Although, given the ethics of the mainstream media, I doubt very much they will be willing to accept whatever decision the courts bring down.

Like the Bush Administration's handling of the Constitution, if the media doesn't like the decision, they'll just make up one that suits their agenda. In that regard, they are two parties who are made for each other and deserve the lasting contempt of fair minded Americans.

It's all right here in black and white

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2863623


DAVID ORTIZ COMMENTS:


Ortiz believes Bonds needs to be cheered. Loudly.

“He deserves respect,” Ortiz said Sunday in Minneapolis. “People are not going to give it to him because of all the bad things running around, this and that, but people need to realize. I’ve heard a lot of different things about Barry Bonds, but people should just admit it - this guy’s a bad (expletive).”

Whether or not Bonds will be on the verge of breaking Hank Aaron’s career mark of 755 home runs - he’s at 744 with 34 games to play before he arrives here on June 15 - Ortiz expects Fenway Park fans will be making a mistake by focusing on the performance-enhancing drug allegations against Bonds rather than his home run totals.



Ortiz has an almost willful naivete about both Bonds and steroids. He still does not believe in his heart or his head that Bonds took steroids. And even if it were proven to him, Ortiz still would not link it to what Bonds does with a baseball bat.

“To hit the frickin’ ball, the guy makes it look easy, but it ain’t. I don’t know how you can have that swing, consistently. I don’t know how steroids can do that,” Ortiz said. “There are supposed to be guys using steroids in the game, and there’s nobody close to Barry Bonds. What’s that mean? He was using the best (expletive)? Know what I’m saying?”

Ortiz is not sure how he would feel if someone ever were to prove to him that Bonds took steroids. It sounds as if it would not matter.

“I don’t look at it like that. I look at it hitting-wise, because I don’t know what steroids can do to you as a baseball player. You’ve still got to swing the bat, man,” Ortiz said. “If I ever use steroids, and then I know what the difference can be and I’m using them, I’ll tell you, ‘Yeah, whatever,’ but I don’t know what the feelings are when you use the steroids. But I can tell you how it feels to pull yourself together to swing the bat.”

No matter where Bonds breaks Aaron’s mark, Ortiz wants commissioner Bud Selig to be there.

“He’s just making things worse,” Ortiz said of Selig’s inconclusive remarks about attending. “He’s the commissioner, there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t be saying that. What are people going to think about the game? They’ll be like, ‘This game is a joke.’ He should come, even if he doesn’t want to.”

Despite revelations in “Game of Shadows,” the book by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams that offers a damning chain of evidence linking BALCO and a number of baseball players, including Bonds, Ortiz said he is unaware of any evidence that Bonds used steroids.

“Have they proved he used steroids?” Ortiz asked. “But it was a cream or something he was using. He wasn’t injecting anything, right?”

Ortiz said he just cannot be sure so he doesn’t want to think about it.

“People come to me, talking about Barry Bonds using steroids and I’m like, ‘He’s the only one, or are people focused on him because of what he’s doing?’ So I don’t go there, I don’t even think about it,” Ortiz said. “I think about how he can be that perfect at the plate because I don’t think that steroids mentally get you perfect.”

Ortiz believes people who have a problem with Bonds either never played the game or are pitchers.

“If you go to the hitters, and ask them, ‘A), What do you think about 744 home runs?’ and b), ‘You know how hard it is to hit a baseball. What do you think about that?’ The bottom line is, I don’t care what people say.”


CURT SCHILLING'S COMMENTS:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18557376/


Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling suggested that it's a travesty to the national pastime that Barry Bonds is about to break Henry Aaron's home run record, the Boston Globe reported Tuesday.

On the WEEI’s "Dennis and Callahan" radio show, Schilling was asked if fans should "hold their noses" while watching Bonds’s pursuit of the all-time record. Bonds is 11 from tying the all-time record of 755.

“Oh yeah. I would think so. I mean, he admitted that he used steroids,” said Schilling, according to the Globe. “I mean, there’s no gray area. He admitted to cheating on his wife, cheating on his taxes, and cheating on the game, so I think the reaction around the league, the game, being what it is, in the case of what people think. Hank Aaron not being there. The commissioner [Bud Selig] trying to figure out where to be. It’s sad.

“And I don’t care that he’s black, or green, or purple, or yellow, or whatever. It’s unfortunate . . . there’s good people and bad people. It’s unfortunate that it’s happening the way it’s happening.”

Despite Schilling's remarks, Bonds has never admitted to knowingly using steroids. On Dec. 4, 2003, Bonds was one of several athletes forced to testify as part of the BALCO case, which centered around the San Francisco-area lab, its founder Victor Conte, and Greg Anderson — Bonds’ personal trainer and longtime friend.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So it's apparent again to anyone with a brain that not only is there a divide in America regarding this issue, there is a divide in the Red Sox clubhouse.

I'm sure IRS Agent Novitsky would love to have an admission from Bonds that he cheated on his taxes. It would make his tax evasion case easier to prove. It seems Mr. Schiling doesn't mind if the facts get in the way of his fancy story, but I missed the part where Bonds admitted cheating on his taxes. Hey Schil, get a clue, you fucking dope, Bonds hasn't admitted cheating on his taxes and the government, as yet, has not prosecuted a tax evasion case againt him. Read the papers once in while.

Also, I wonder if the fat blowhard (among others) intends to give his teammate Ortiz the same lack of benefit of the doubt about his admission of a possible "unknowing" use of steroids. I'm sure ther will be some perceptible difference between the two stories (Ortiz and Bonds).

AS I'VE SAID MANY TIMES. YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP, BUT APPARENTLY THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT SCHILLING DOES IN HIS OWN MIND. JUST MAKE UP "FACTS" OUT OF THIN AIR. MAKES YOU WONDER IF HE HAS EVEN READ "GAME OF SHADOWS". AND THIS IS THE GUY THAT CONGRESS WANTS TO HELP LEAD THE FIGHT AGAINST STEROID ABUSE. A GUY THAT JUST MAKES SHIT UP. COME ON, THIS IS TOO EASY.

Very interesting unsolicited comments from Ortiz about the "protein shakes". Makes you wonder what may or may not have been going on in or around those "Baseball Academies" that major league teams have scattered around the Dominican Republic. Makes you wonder if there may or may be be an eerie parallel between the aforementioned "protein shakes" and the "vitamins" of the German Democratic Republic that were given to the German women's swim team and other athletes without their knowledge. Makes you wonder sometimes, if that's why a disproportionate number of players and prospects are making it to The Show from that small island over recent years. God help everyone involved if that turns out to be the case.

Additional Note: The next day analysis by the talking heads focused primarily, almost exclusively, on Schilling's comments (which reinforces the negative evidence against Bonds) rather than Ortiz's comments (which tends to provide exculpatory evidence that Bonds story might be possible or reasonable).

BALCO II: The Orlando Case?

Loomis: 'All we want to sell is hormone replacement'
By Tom Farrey
ESPN The Magazine
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=farrey_tom&id=2783117

The raids in Orlando and elsewhere effectively mark the formal start of the government's full-scale assault on compounding pharmacies, which differ from traditional pharmacies by creating custom creams and other products tailored to the needs of individual patients. They have become major players in the anti-aging industry, and a growing threat to big pharmaceutical companies whose drugs often cost more.

The most telling line in the story and probably the most ignored and glossed over. Follow the money, right? Isn't that what we hear all the time? Follow the money.
Interesting, very interesting.


Also, this quote: Because it doesn't seem to be the facts as reported to us by the media or the pollsters. Accoridng to them, it's all athletes and young kids.

"As far as athletes, most of our patients don't walk up to the counter," Naomi said. "We're FedExing it [to clients] so we don't actually see the person. As far as names coming through, famous athletes, we don't see them. I mean, there are a couple, but ..."

"It's a very small number," Stan said, interjecting. "I don't know of any active athletes. It's the weekend warrior where most of it is going."

And from this follow-up story:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2781674

Victor Conte, the founder and president of BALCO, the Bay Area lab which has been the focal point in the federal steroids probe, said he was not surprised by the raid.

"People from all walks of life now are using performance enhancing substances. From athletes to movie stars, there seems to be an ever-growing need to find a competitive edge," Conte said. "Maybe it's time to fully realize that we are now living in a pharmacologically enhanced society."

Maybe its just me, but Conte and Canseco it seems have been closest to being on the mark with their comments and analysis of the situation than most. Sometimes the message gets lost due to the perception of the messenger.

Who's cheating now???? Who's cheating now???

{to the tune of "Who's sorry now" with apologies to Connie Francis, who popularized the song}

Well, well, well Mr. Clemens and Mr. Pettite, what does the media say now?

My guess is to shoot the messenger and deny, deny, deny. Even though the circumstances and the so-called "evidence" is so delightfully similar to that stacked against Mr. Bonds.

I'm sure we'll hear words to the effect of "Now remember, these are just reckless accusations of a ballplayer who may have an agenda", they'll actually make Clemens defense for him rather than attack him. I don't recall Mr. Bonds getting similar consideration. Hmmm interesting.

The scumbag, know-it-all media elements like Frank Deford, Rick Telander, Jay Marriotti, Mike Lupica, Rick Reilly et.al. who wanted to string up Bonds, and I use that term for a reason, must be spinning in their sheets. I truly hope they get whiplash from the 180 spin they'll get from having to retrofit their arguments against Mr. Bonds to fit vis-a-vis their oncoming defense of Mr. Clemens.

And now all these bubble-headed cretins can use the Clemens worship articles they wrote, usuually right after crucifying Bonds, the fruit of their work product, for it's best current purpose. TO WIPE THEIR SMUG LITTLE SANCTIMONIOUS ASSES WITH.

LET SPORTS ILLUSTRATED PUT AN ASTERISK ON A COVER SHOT OF CLEMENS.

I've always said, if a popular guy like Derek Jeter ever tested positive, we'd see these same guys trash the very testing program they worked so hard to shove down everyones throat. Although, from the Marion Jones case, we now see what a quagmire the WADA-USADA utopian world of drug testing and storm trooper tactics bring us. Hell, let's have it in baseball and high school sports for that matter.

Jason Grimsley is to the Clemens-Pettite charges what Victor Contee is to the BALCO-Bonds case. So when mouthpieces say "Well, Grimsley made these charges and then backed off them"
well guess what, so did Conte and the same beneift of the doubt wasn't given in that case. EVER.

Now let's hear from guys like David Wells and Curt Schilling, who couldn't wait to find a microphone when it was on Bonds. Talk now hyprocrites.

Just watch and listen and remember. And ask questions in your own mind and don't accept everything these media morons and quasi-racists want to shove down your throat for no reason. Or whatever their personal reasons are. Most of these guys are nothing more than modern day Klansmen in pin-striped suits.

And it's time some of the focus is put on these trainers, who are making their reputations as gurus on the basis of what appears to be fraudulent means, if not outright criminal means. I mean we barely know Barry Bonds personal trainers name, because that's what he was always referred to as, but in all these other cases, it seems as if the willing co-conspirators never suffer any consequences. They shouldn't be allowed to work in the industry again.

Feds tighten the Screws on......the Press?

What a concept, the press is not above the law. They quite possibly cannot hide behind the shield of the First Amendment to do anything, say anything, write anything without regard to the source. Go Feds. And it normally pains me to side with Uncle Sammy, but in this case, it may be warranted. Or at least good entertainment.

I'd pay some solid money to see sanctimonious pricks like Mike Lupica, Rick Reilly, Jay Moriarty (Ozzie's buddy) , Rick Telander, et al. spend some serious time in jail. Lupica as someone's bitch, that would probably be like art imitating life or something.

Ozzie Guillen rules.


from the Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Bush administration urged a federal judge Wednesday to force two San Francisco Chronicle reporters to divulge who leaked them secret grand jury testimony of Barry Bonds and other athletes who took part in the government's probe of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

Noting that it is a crime to leak grand jury materials to the media, "there is no reporter's privilege in criminal cases, under the First Amendment or under common law," federal prosecutors Brian Hershman and Michael Raphael wrote in a 51-page brief.

The attorneys said California's shield law protecting California reporters from divulging their sources does not apply to the federal probe of who violated a court order and leaked the documents.

Reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada reported a series of stories beginning in 2004 detailing the secret testimony of Bonds, Jason Giambi and others who were called to testify before a grand jury probing BALCO. The government's investigation unveiled BALCO as a steroid ring posing as a nutritional supplement company that doled out performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes from its office just south of San Francisco.

The government, in its brief targeting the two reporters, repeatedly cited a 1972 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. In that case, Branzburg v. Hayes, Justice Byron White ruled that reporters, like everyone else, must "respond to relevant questions put to them in the course of a valid grand jury investigation or criminal trial."

Despite that decision, the government noted that "the free press, relying on confidential sources, has thrived."

Over the years Branzburg was largely ignored. Judges more often sided with Justice Lewis Powell, who wrote separately in the same case. He urged the judiciary, before ordering reporters to testify, to balance the First Amendment rights of journalists against the public's right to know.

That changed in 2003, when the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune lost a bid to protect their reporters from divulging recordings of interviews of a witness in a terrorism case. A federal appeals court, citing Branzburg, ordered disclosure.

The Chronicle reporters, who are subpoenaed to testify here before a federal grand jury about how they got the leaked testimony, said through their attorneys in court briefs last month that they should be let off the hook. The First Amendment right of speech, they said, was more important than the government learning who unlawfully leaked secret grand jury testimony.

Both Fainaru-Wada and Williams say they aren't going to comply with the subpoena, which means they could be fined and jailed until they reveal their sources if they lose their legal challenge. The reporters also could be jailed for a fixed term for contempt if U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White forces them to appear before the grand jury.

They face more jail time than any of the five BALCO defendants, as the largest prison term was four months.

A hearing before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White is scheduled for Aug. 4.

The government also suspected the leak came from Victor Conte, BALCO's founder who pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges and was sentenced to four months.

Agents last year searched his San Mateo house to bolster that view. Conte and others pointed to the government as the source.

According to the two reporters, Bonds testified that he used substances provided by his trainer, Greg Anderson, but said he thought it was flaxseed oil. Anderson was among the five defendants convicted in the BALCO probe.

The Pujols Connection?

This site is reporting that one of the names mentioned in the Grimsley affadavit is none other than Albert Pujols.


http://www.deadspin.com/sports/baseball/so-weve-got-some-affadavit-names-179400.php

If true it will be interesting to see how the sanctimonious media treats this since the connection is virtually the same as Bonds to Anderson to Conte. Maybe the Feds will want to get involved or Senator Mitchell? I doubt it to all of the above. There will be a full court press defense of Prince Albert. This is the golden boy to most folks now. If he falls, they have to admit errors in a lot of the way this issue has been reported all along.

The reporter of this story will not get the same treatment from the brethren that the authors of "Game of Shadows" received I can virtually gurantee you that as well.

Conte again refuses to roll over on Bonds!! What's wrong with this guy?

So let me get this straight, the guy with the most to gain by giving up Bonds, the ultimate "stay out of jail free card" in this entire investigation, again refuses to do so. This after giving up virtually everyone else of lesser value. (ie: Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, et al). Makes perfectly logical sense.

And the authors of "Game of Shadows" continue to pick and choose what "evidence" consider "fact" and what they consider "fiction".

Quote: Lance Williams, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter who has written "Game of Shadows" with Mark Fainaru-Wada using the federal interviews to detail Bonds' alleged steroid regime, discounted Conte's denial.

"He did not come to court and challenge the drug agent and say, 'You lied,' " Williams told USA Today. "The guilty plea was pretty convincing to us that everything was true. Our belief is that he's doing this because he feels bad that he gave all of those people up."

OK, whatever. Hand these guys a Pulitzer Prize.

When one of these authors appeared on ESPN when this story first broke, he defended the use of Bonds' ex-girlfriends testimony, even though she has since contradicted some of it on Geraldo's show, by saying, and I quote " Why would his girlfriend lie?" If you read the excerpts and believe that it's true, you can only conclude, why wouldn't this woman lie? He treated her like shit it appears. Who among us would want to be judged by the character reference provided by an ex-spouse or girlfriend? Has this guy ever been laid? Has he not heard of the phrase "Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorned?" I would guess the answer to be NO to both questions. But let's just hand them a Pulitzer prize for their "most excellent journalism".

And how about the treatment of Greg Anderson? If the excerpts are to be believed, why in Hell wouldn't this guy have turned on Barry? He apparently treated him like dog shit also. And yet, when he was interviewed by the prosecutors he ends an interview with the famous line "I don't want to go to jail". And these prosecutors can't close the deal and get him to roll over on Barry? Have they not watched any cop shows on TV? This guy was begging for a deal. And yet he goes to jail rather than rat out on Bonds? This Bonds guy must be a real prince.

Conte and Anderson would both rather do time and have the weight of the IRS and the DOJ on them for the rest of their lives apparently. Most of the "evidence" in the excerpts, it seems, could have been acquired by dumpster diving behind the BALCO prosecutors office. Yes, the selective leaking of testimony to make the story appear however the author's like it is Pulitzer Prize winning work. That's according to the brethren, print media and their cousins in the electronic media. Many of whom have previously disclosed their outright hatred for Bonds.

Let's remember that this BALCO grand jury evidence was convincing enough to the grand jurors to result in only two of the initial forty two charges resulting in convictions. Two for forty two? I think I could hit two for forty two against Major League pitching. And the grand jurors heard and saw all of the evidence directly. They did not have to rely on cherry picked excerpts. And they were able to see and hear the testimony of the person's subpoenaed live and in person. They were able to judge believability by the person's voice and mannerisms, not just words on a piece of paper. And still only 2-42. Good evidence.

This issue is now in the forum that the Bonds-haters want it to be, the Court of Public Opinion not the Court of Law. You can say what you want and the standards of evidence and fairness that would apply in a Court of Law are meaningless. You can mislead at your own pleasure, just as all in the media who perpetuate the "If theses charges are untrue, why doesn't Bonds or his people sue the authors for defamation. Surely these guys know that as a Public Figure, people can virtually say or rewrite whatever they want about a public figure and the chances of prevailing in the defamation suit are virtually nil. And I'm sure these journalists are properly trained by our institutes of higher learning to at least CYA in this regard.

When I hear a Frank Deford's or Rick Reilly's commentaries re: Bonds I can honestly say I have not heard such venom and vitriol in a voice since Ron Goldman's father during the OJ trial. I mean who pissed in these guys' Wheaties? Bonds did I guess when he publicly called out the media to clean up their own houses first. Called them all liars, as I recall.

We're well past the witch hunt stage at this point and have gone directly to lynch mob mentality, with all that entails. And it looks and sounds ugly and racially motivated and wrong. And all who reflexively deny that race has anything to do with this has got to have his or her head in the sand (or some posterior orifice).

Don't give me this baloney about protecting the sanctity of records. The barn door has long closed on that. You'd sound more honest if you said you were trying to protect Madonna's virtue.

We have the Weapons of Mass Destruction motivation for going into this steroid mess to begin with, the "kids are using in droves and we've got to protect the kids". Recent reports suggest that kids are reporting steroid use at about the 3% level. The experts then conclude that the number is really closer to 5-6%. OK, I'll accept 5-6% even, but it doesn't seem to be a growing problem or epidemic, like the media and Congress would lead you to believe. Not like drinking or on-line gambling or Poker (ESPN's new sport).

We have owners, who include President Bush by the way, who profited by the use of steroids by their players and looked the other way when it was right in front of their faces but now are gleefully throwing the same players under the bus now that they don't have any use for them any more. Or looking the other way while the media does it for them. Very classy behavior. Real stand-up guys. These so-called leaders, who will gladly hold others accountable to high standards but will deflect same when it's applied to themselves.

Bush's team had Canseco, Palmiero, Sosa and many other suspects by the way. Interesting how the man could see WMD half a world away that may not have been there, but couldn't see this steroid problem when it was right in front of his face and in his own clubhouse.

We have the continuing Racial Profiling Argument ("He looks like a user") perpetuated by the David Wells' and Turk Wendell's of the world. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Wells himself admitted in a recent interview by saying he would have "never guessed" that Palmeiro wasn't using while he was his teammate and yet it appears he was wrong. How can he spot a user from across country or across the diamond when he couldn't see one in his own clubhouse?

That's one of the problems in my mind with this recent hysteria. We have people who are anointing themselves steroid experts either by their use of steroids or the ability to Google the word "steroids". Heck, I could do either or both and I wouldn't be an expert.

Remember too, the "experts" postulated that mainly sluggers were juicing and ruining the game with their inflated hoe-run numbers. But what we're finding from early returns is that pitchers are getting caught as users at a rate virtually equal to sluggers. The absolute numbers are a 1.5-1 ratio of hitters to pitchers, but that is equal to the ratio of hitters to pitchers on most rosters, so the rate is virtually equal. In the recent issue of Street and Smith's Baseball, Mike Berardino of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel did an article titled "Mounds of Trouble" documenting this surprising development. He said 35 of the first 88 minor league suspensions went to pitchers, so the ratio was 1.2-1 hitter to pitchers at that level.

We still want to glorify the guys we like like Lance Armstrong and Roger Clemens and demonize those we don't like. Even when there is as much evidence or questions about one or the other. I still submit that if you truly believe Bonds is a user, you almost have to honestly admit that Lance Armstrong is a user. But few people do say Yes to both. A failed drug test, even though he and his supporters always submit the defense that he never failed a drug test, former teammates who have "testified" in the court of public opinion that he used. Why is the "evidence" of their testimony discounted so readily and others so readily accepted?

It's really unfortunate, the treatment of guys like Sosa and McGwire has taken a 180 degree shift from guys who saved the sport to guys who are now credited with ruining it.

I don't believe I've seen anything like it since the way this country treated the Vietnam veterans, who left as patriots, doing their duty to protect this country and save it from the scourge of Communism and returned to be spat on as baby killers and symbols of an unjust war. The parallels are eerily similar.

We lauded these guys for providing Norman Rockwell moments (McGwire) and were teary eyed when he broke Maris' record, with the nations', the medias and the Maris' approval I might add. And now we want to vilify them. Very nice.

And don't give me the clap-trap-crap I hear from some weak-assed media members, like a Rick Telander, who want to jump all over themselves saying they tried to warn us of the problem, but nobody listened. Baloney. When one media member poked into McGwire's locker and found Andro, the rest of the brethren pounced all over him for invasion of privacy. More likely for pissing on the parade that was the McGwire-Sosa homer chase.

This is what people wanted, "Chicks dig the Long Ball", this is what baseball owners wanted, to make us all forget that they canceled a World Series for crying out loud and it worked. The cash registers rung loud and clear. I don't hear any call whatsoever from Congress or anyone for the owners to disgorge themselves from profits obtained under a fraudulent basis. Revenues have nearly tripled from the stain of the canceled World Series. Remember that when you want to direct your venomous attacks in the future. You'll probably sound less disingenuous.

from espn.com
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2372623

Victor Conte continues to deny that he provided Barry Bonds with performance-enhancing drugs. Conte, who said when he went to prison in December that he had never discussed steroids with Bonds, much less given him any, reiterated that position to Friday's edition of USA Today. He admitted from prison that he had provided the cream and clear, two now-illegal steroids distributed by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, to Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson.

Conte, however, declined to clarify for USA Today whether Bonds could have gotten them from somebody else connected to BALCO. "My understanding was that it was for [Anderson]," Conte told the paper. "Understand that baseball didn't have any testing. They didn't need this highly undetectable stuff I was doing with Olympic athletes. They were in another world from me. My relationship with Barry Bonds was 100 percent about his nutrition, his younger brother's nutrition and about nutrition for his father."

Conte, who denied to ESPN.com in December that he had named athletes when BALCO was raided in 2003, again denied that a memo by federal investigator Jeff Novitzky indicating he had done so was false. "Much of the information in the memorandum of interview prepared by the federal agents ... was completely fabricated," Conte's told USA Today. "I filed a declaration under penalty of perjury with the federal court regarding what was actually discussed that day, and it clearly states that I did not make a confession to the agents."

Lance Williams, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter who has written "Game of Shadows" with Mark Fainaru-Wada using the federal interviews to detail Bonds' alleged steroid regime, discounted Conte's denial. "He did not come to court and challenge the drug agent and say, 'You lied,' " Williams told USA Today. "The guilty plea was pretty convincing to us that everything was true. Our belief is that he's doing this because he feels bad that he gave all of those people up."