BARRY! BARRY! BARRY!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Barry Bonds, seven-time National League MVP and baseball's home run king with 762 homers, was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice Thursday and could go to prison for telling a federal grand jury he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs. The indictment, culminating a four-year investigation into steroid use by elite athletes, charged Bonds with four counts of perjury and one of obstruction of justice. If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 30 years in prison.
Read the entire article here.
plez sez: the feds have obviously been sitting on this for at least a year or two... so why an indictment? why now? and what the heck have these federal investigators been doing for the past 4 years? is ruining Barry Bonds that high on the federal prosecutor's list?
i understand that Barry Bonds is probably the least liked athlete of our generation (OJ Simpson is from an earlier generation), but to come out with a federal indictment against just him when ALL of baseball was tainted by steroids is ridiculous. how was this ONE GUY pulled from the pack and held up to prosecutorial scrutiny after a 4 year investigation? is it because he is surly? is it because he is uppity? well, nobody likes an uppity negro! is it because he's not afraid to tell a sports writer to "f*ck off"?
raphael palmero flunked a drug test mere months after LYING before congress... where's his federal indictment? mark maguire wouldn't answer any questions about his steroid use before congress... where's his indictment? there were at least two baseball players who were caught purchasing a years worth of HGH this season (one was a pitcher in the American League playoffs)... where are their indictments?
and you know where i'm going with this... Barry Bonds in Black. everyone else i've named is white. i'll be honest, this is scary, because it is becoming more and more detrimental to your freedom and livelihood to be a Black man in this country. the disparity in news coverage, the heavy handed sentences, the lack of plea agreements, the blatant and obscene racial overtones that pervades every conversation on the topic... gives plezWorld a reason to pause!
i'd like to think that Bonds didn't take steroids, but he would've had to have been an idiot to turn down the opportunity to take something that would improve his game, yet was NOT BANNED by MLB! and does anyone reading this blog think that if Barry Bonds had admitted to steroid use, like jason giambi, that he would've gotten a pat on the back and no suspension?!? his ass would be rotting in jail RIGHT NOW (if you recall, jason giambi was given a pat on the back and continued to play the rest of the season)!
at this point, i can only wish the best for Bonds and his family. federal indictments aren't anything to play with and after 4 years, i'm sure they've scraped up enough evidence to prove perjury. i just hope he doesn't get too much time in prison, because this whole fiasco stinks to high heavens... and the need to go after one person for so long for something so benign just escapes me.
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8 comments:
Plez, I agree with your overall sentiment, but I wanted to clear up a couple of points. Palmero ain't White, he ain't Black either, but he ain't White.
McGwire and Pamero testified before congress with no penalty of perjury. Palmero lied and McGwire nwas evasive and in the public's eye were condidered as guilty as Bonds. Giambi was under the same indictment as Bonds, but was not found to have lied, therfore no perjury. Bonds did perjure himself. If he had walked away from the game like McGwire did then he would not be as villified as he has been. But he stayed on until he had the record and raised his arms victoriously at the plate when he hit the record breaker. He might as well been flipping off Hammerin Hank. We will never know what would have happened if he did come clean when he was first questioned, because he didn't!!
Why didn't he choose to do the right thing and tell the truth? Thats the issue. If he were white it would be the same issue. If anything he looks like he tried to skirt the issue long enough to get the record.
Being a dad, Black or White, I don't want someone who lies, takes drugs and has no regard for his teammates (you don't think this 4 year circus has affected them) in order to have personal gain being hailed as a hero. Hank Aaron dealt with racism, death threats, injuries and father time to get the record Bonds gained illegally and immorally.
Are there racial overtones? Possibly. But if you took the merits of the case and made every ballplayer in the Majors white, would you agree that the record is tainted and that he cheated and deserves to be indicted for lying to a grand jury?
Black or White or Hispanic or Asian....he is a bad person. He lies, cheats and has no regard for others. In the DSM IV those are indicators of a sociopathic personality.
Marion Jones was investigated in the same BALCO case, but no one bat an eye. She had her medals yanked and eventually fessed up to avaoid prosecution. Where is the outrage there? She lied just like Bonds. She denied just like Bonds. She wagged her finger and was defiant just like Bonds. They investigated her for years just like Bonds. McGwire, Sosa and Palmero (only one of whom is white, I may add) were not getting their performance enhancing drugs from BALCO, but from somewhere else, thus not implicated in the same investigation that has embroiled Bonds, Jones as well as MLB players: Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Benito Santiago, Jeremy Giambi, Bobby Estalella, Armando Rios
Hammer thrower John McEwen, shot putters Kevin Toth and C.J. Hunter, sprinters Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Kelli White, middle-distance runner Regina Jacobs, boxer Shane Mosley.
NFL players: A number from the Oakland Raiders, including Bill Romanowski, Tyrone Wheatley, Barrett Robbins, Chris Cooper and Dana Stubblefield.
Jason Grimsley (White, ex-Arizona Diamonback pitcher) was investigated for four years before he was indicted and ended up giving up tons of names that he knew taking stuff, implicating even more athletes. He was suspended for 50 games by MLB. Where is the outrage there?
The Feds would have gotten Bonds years ago, but because of his high profile and consiracy theories that he was being held back from getting the title because of his race, held off until they every shread of eveidence possible. Now they can't be convicted of holding him back, but now he WILL be convicted and he WILL go to jail. You don't lie to the feds and get away with it. He will retain the record because there was no policy stating that you could not use those drugs prior to 2005 and there were plenty of players using that shit.
Bonds is being prosecuted for lying to a grand jury, not for using steroids. Anyone caught lying to a grand jury, Black or White get prosecuted.
david,
this Bonds-thing has come up before and we didn't agree back then either. i think your rationalization of his punishment (whatever that may be) will always be about the damage that he has done to a game that you are passionate about. my rationalization will always boil down to the fact that (1) i don't see what he did as being so egregious, since a fair portion of the MLB players were engaging in similar activities, (2) i think Bonds is being "blamed" for every other player who did steroids during that period (included ones like Mark Maguire who were permitted to slither away when the heat got turned up on them), and (3) i feel that he has been unfairly targeted, investigated, and punished for the simple fact that he is an asshole! *smile* i don't even like him, he's not a likeable guy... but i think he's a tremendous baseball player.
i agree with just about everything you said, but when it's all said and done, i guess my passion for the game of baseball just doesn't rise to the level of importance that you seem to place on it. and i don't see a way to reconcile our diametric views of this whole sorid incident.
we'll just have to continue to agree to disagree on this one.
david,
wow! you've really done your research... and you are correct, lying to a federal grand jury will get you some time.
i'm still a bit suspicious about the FEDS needing 4 years to get enough evidence on Bonds to get an indictment for just perjury.
and go back and look at the LOOOONG list of names that you have provided... and tell me how many of them have done time or are looking at doing time in the federal pen on charges related to steroid use? it would seem that Bonds & Marion Jones were BALCO's only clients?
I hear ya Plez that the only people you hear about are mostly Bonds and Jones from the BALCO lab, but the pitcher Grimsley was investigated just as long and indicted and questioned, as was Bonds, but he lied. The only reason he lied was to avoid the auto matic suspension and possible banishment from MLB, because as we've seen in the Pete Rose case that the commish has absolute authority when it come to banning people for the integrity of the game. He knew that the Feds would take their time and it would be possibly be enough time for him to break the record thus being completely self serving. His ego is so big that unlike Giambi (who is as big an ass in my book) he tried to lie and use his trainer as the scape goat (that poor bastard, or stupid bastard, take your pick) as he just did a year for not giving testamony.
As I've said before, in twenty years we'll find out everyone was enhancing their game in one way or another, but the fact that he didn't come clean when trying to obtain one of the most hallowed records baseball has tainted him and put him at the top of the shit heap.
lastly, I'll agree with you that McGwire was able to slither away, buit I think if Bonds retired he would have been able to also. McGwire had just as many good years left in his bat as Bonds, but decided that once the steroid issue became big enough to "slither" away. Bonds on the other hand was defiant and from the Clinton school of "Deny, Deny, Deny", even if you are caught. The problem I think the public has with Bonds (and it might be my gripe as well) is that as you stated, everyone or at least many players were doing the stuff, but HE continued to play as if he did nothing wrong.
Its almost as if during a disaster, like a hurricane, I looted my local bar with many other patrons. When the disaster was over and the bar reopened I continued to drink at that bar and would loudly buy rounds of drinks with the money I stole from that bar (Bonds). Some of the patrons that looted there continued to drink there, but felt guilty and rarely spoke or if they did it would be in hushed tones (Giambi, Sosa). Most of the looters just took off with their ill gotten gains, ashamed, never to be heard from again (McGwire).
That horse has been beaten to death!!!!
I don't understand why a congressional hearing on the use of steroids is legal anyway. What did it have to do with the operation of this country? If the leagues banned it, does that mean it is illegal to take them.
Steroids, unless prescribed by a doctor, are illegal. Some steroids are strickly anti-inflammitories while others increase hormone production such as testosterone. Hitler was a big fan of research on steroids as was the Russians in their quest to build up their militaries.
As an athlete in my younger days I know all about steroids and have known quite a few people who have used them. The benifits do not outweigh the gain as the side effects are horrendous. When people stop using them they look like shells of themseves, like junkies.
Steroids are illegal thats why the Feds are so interested in people procuring them from a source like BALCO.
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