The United States Vs. Barry Bonds

There are certain things in sports that seem mystical to fans. Whether Wilt's 100 points, Dan Marino's former 48 Touchdown season, Walter Payton's all time rushing record, a .400 batting average for the season, or simply a heavyweight boxing champion retiring undefeated, fans become enamored at just the thought of one of the long lasting records being broken, or in the case of Barry Bonds and his assault on the home run record, shattered. Yet in every case mentioned above the athletes who broke the long standing records, or even came close to breaking them, became the talk of the town. Embraced by fans of rival teams who previously cheered against these talented athletes, the eye always remained on the bigger picture, or in Barry Bonds case, his eye has always remained on the ball.

In the not so distant past Kobe Bryant began a torrid stretch of pouring 40, 50, 60 point games on unsuspecting shooting guards across the NBA landscape. During this stretch, it appeared that you could find a Laker game on every channel every night, as people turned in to see what Kobe would go for that night. Maxing out at 81, yet 19 points off from Wilt's 100, just the thought of Kobe breaking Wilts single game scoring record caused people to fall back in love with the phenomenal ball player from Lower Merion High School. The NBA realizing this, did not hesitate to put the accused rapist and adulterer on prime time TNT, or Sunday afternoon ABC, because fans love players flirting with those mystical records, regardless of their legal issues. Yet major league baseball has treated Barry Bonds and his destruction of Hank Aaron's home run record as a side note, almost as if it's not even taking place.....but it is.

It is mind boggling, in a country of supposed tolerance, and the belief that all men are innocent until proven guilty, that Barry Bonds is ostracized the way he is. Barry Bonds has been tested for steroids, as every other baseball player in Major League Baseball. The exception is, he has never tested positive. I repeat never tested positive. How can a man who is as scrutinized as much as Barry Bonds for performance enhancing substance abuse, possibly pass a steroid test? How can a man who sports talk show hosts, and supposed newspaper insiders, label as the poster boy for steroid use , never test positive for steroids. How can Major League Baseball stand for and ultimately support the Barry Bonds witch hunt, with no solid concrete proof? All of his detractors, are basing their disdain for the soon- to- be greatest home run hitter in the history of baseball, off of pure speculation. The fact is, if there was proof, solid proof, that Barry Bonds did half of the dirt that is attached to his name, he would not be allowed within 100 feet of a major league ball park. With that being said, the biggest question is why do we as Americans, and fans of the American past time, believe whatever these anti Barry Bonds reporters and writers feed us, as opposed to believing what our eyes show us?

Barry Bonds is a special baseball player, who we should all feel privileged to watch swing his bat. It is unfortunate that the hypocrite we know as Major League Baseball is wasting it's opportunity to catch up with the NFL and NBA in gaining the new generation of fans. People turned in to watch Peyton Manning break Dan Marino's touchdown record. Fans stayed home to watch Kobe Bryant torch players for 81 points. They would do the same in baseball, if the MLB did not make its fans feel guilty for watching Barry knock one into the bay, and we Americans hate feeling guilty, almost as much as we hate ALLEGED steroid users.