Barry Bonds Record - Sad News?

Barry Bonds is a remarkable athlete, no doubt. His achievements are extraordinary under any circumstances. But Barry Bonds is also (most probably) a product of steroids. I don't care what the investigation committee ever comes up with, nobody starts excelling so steeply at the age of 38. It just doesn't happen. Not naturally.

The debate sort of quieted down as Barry Bonds approaches 756 (if you missed number 754 last night, here is it). There seems to be a growing media consensus around respecting the moment now. No one wants to be accountable for spinning Baseball into a vertigo that one can only see the beginning of. Bud Selig, for example, clearly doesn't believe Barry Bonds "not guilty" pleas, but he will attend his games from now on out of "respect for the game". If you ask me, "respecting the game" means getting to the bottom of the investigation quickly and, if needed, tossing Bonds out of the record books. Ben Johnson broke an amazing record once during the Olympics, got caught, got tossed, and no one remembers the damage he did to the 100M race by now. The immediate action restored fan support and healed the wounded sport. The same should be applied with baseball or else we are most probably looking at the Tour de France in no more than a few years.

Barry Bonds is a remarkable athlete, no doubt, which is why he should be used to set the example of how that doesn't stop justice.