Barry Bonds is one of the greatest – if not the greatest – baseball players of all time.  Only now is officially a convited felon.

He was convicted of of obstruction of justice earlier in the week.  While he was not convicted on the more serious charge of perjury, he is nevertheless a convicted felon.

While the prosecution did score a victory in terms of getting a conviction (albeit ONE conviction), there are no true winners here.

Bonds loses.  His legacy has taken a HUGE hit.  His accomplishments will always have that “yeah, but” to it.  Yeah, but he took steroids and other performance enhancement drugs.  Yeah, but he wasn’t a good teammate.  Yeah, but his alleged PED use was a huge distraction.

Bonds’ Hall of Fame chances have taken a huge hit.  The baseball writers have already made it a point not to induct alleged steroid cheats into the Hall of Fame.  They haven’t (and won’t) vote Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro.  They probably won’t vote Manny Ramirez in.

Bonds won’t go in on the first ballot, though he should (after all, he did hit those home runs and collect some Gold Gloves).  The writers are going to make a bigger statement with Bonds.  I guess the question is no longer when Bonds get in the Hall, but IF he gets in at all.

Wait, there are more losers.

Major League Baseball loses.  It’s home run king is an alleged steroid cheat.  Another black eye for the sport where its icons are being linked to steroids.  From McGwire to Sosa to A-Rod to Roger Clemens to Bonds.  When does it stop?  That’s what happens when people in a sport look the other way when it comes to cheating.

The government loses.  Nice to see our federal government put our tax dollars to good use eh?  A trial where the judge declared a hung jury on the perjury charge against Bonds wasn’t a total waste a time was it?  Gotta love our government.  Keep up the frivolous spending ladies and gents.

The American people lose.  Our tax dollars have been wasted on this trial – to the tune of at least $10 million.  As in other walks of life, the average citizen gets screwed.

BOHICA dammit!

Categories: baseball, sports story