Barry Bonds Indicted

The breaking news of the indictments of 4 counts of perjury and 1 count of obstruction of justice against former San Francisco Giants outfielder, Barry Bonds, came as a shock to many. The indictment claims to have the results of drug tests that show evidence anabolic steroid use. From what I've been able to gather, much of the information in the Bonds indictment is not new information, but the same charges that the government has been pursuing for the last 4 years.

Should Bonds be found guilty of the perjury charges, he could be convicted for up to 5 years on each count. The obstruction charge carries up to a 10 year charge if Bonds is convicted. Bonds is also being investigated for possible tax fraud, however, this is not part of this indictment.

An overview of how this effects baseball is complicated at this point. Clearly, if Barry bonds is found to be guilty of of steroid use, his personal records will be questioned. Most importantly for Bonds current baseball career, it looks like his career is on-hold, perhaps permanently. Bonds is no longer on any Major League Baseball team's roster and I can't believe that any team will now take a chance on signing Bonds to a contract until they have a clearer picture of his full-time availability. I would expect that the earliest any team could depend on his availability to be late mid-late summer. Considering Bonds age (43) and the obvious decline in his athleticism seem to indicate that Bonds will be forced to play in the American League as a designated hitter.

But what should become of the records Barry Bonds has achieved over the last 5 or 6 seasons? He's won multiple Most Valuable Players awards, set the record for most homers in a season and this past season he shattered the all-time home run record and under normal circumstances, Bonds would be a first ballot lock for the Hall of Fame. However, I would clearly expect baseball to asterisk some of his records should he be found guilty of these charges. His induction into baseball's Hall of Fame would also be in question.

My initial reaction to the indictments was that a potential witness agreed to testify against Bonds, most likely his former personal trainer Greg Anderson. (and just as I'm typing this, I'm also reading that his personal trainer just happened to be released from prison...today) What will be interesting to see, if Bonds should be found guilty of the charges and found to have used steroids, what will the effect be from these charges and is this just the beginning of a larger witch-hunt against baseball players and athletes in general who have and continue performance enhancing drugs.

Clearly, it looks like the legacy of Barry Bonds has been further damaged and his career is probably over, even if he's acquitted of all charges. He's no longer a position player and has missed more than 1 1/4 of the last 2 seasons and is likely to miss at least the first half of this year. I can't imagine anyone American League team in contention would be willing to pay Bonds the money he's be looking for, to be a designated hitter at the advanced age of 43 and I couldn't imagine Bonds willing to face the wrath of the fans for shaming the game. It's a shame that the career of one of baseball's finest players of all-time will come to an end this way. Bonds was one of the greatest to take the field long before his alleged steroid use began. But Bonds jealously of Mark McGwire and greed destroyed his legacy once he began cheating and taking drugs.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.