What Does Barry Bonds' Indictment Mean for Baseball?

It hasn't been an overly good week for athletes and former athletes in the courtroom these last few days. Not twenty-four hours after a Las Vegas judge ordered OJ Simpson to stand trial on kidnapping and related charges, a federal grand jury returned an indictment on former San Francisco Giant, and newly crowned home run king, Barry Bonds on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice in relation to his testimony in the BALCO hearings four years ago, according to Fox Sports. Bonds will be due in court on December 7, 2007 for the arraignment.

The indictment was handed down with the statement, "During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes." This statement more than likely alludes to evidence seized by the government from Major League Baseball of samples taken from players in 2003 in order to justify to the Player's Association that random testing was needed.

Minutes after the indictment was handed down, the judge ordered that Bonds' longtime friend and former trainer Greg Anderson be released from prison, where he has been in custody for the past year while refusing to testify against Bonds in the government's investigation. In a statement to the press, as reported by Fox Sports, Anderson's lawyer is maintaining that his client is still not cooperating, but was simply released because an indictment was returned.

Having already been held under a dark cloud of suspicion by both the media and fans of the game, Bonds now has a federal grand jury saying their is sufficient evidence to prove that he knowingly took steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. But where does this leave the player who now holds the most important record in all of sports?

First off, it leaves Bonds with an even more sorted future than he already faced. Already facing questions to do with his health and his production, not to mention San Francisco's decision not to bring him back in 2008, Bonds now becomes a much tougher players to justify bringing into another team's clubhouse. As a free agent, Bonds was thought to be mostly suitable for an American League team, where he can serves as a Designated Hitter. However, with the threat of a possible trial happening as early as next Spring and the long finger of the law firmly pointing at him and labeling him a cheater, it is highly unlikely that a team will take the public relations hit and sign him. It isn't out of the question that Bonds will face the same scrutiny that was shown to Rafael Palmeiro after his positive test in 2005, with Palmeiro having not played a single game after that season.

Aside from his immediate playing future, Bonds also has a legacy in the game that appears ready to shatter. Earlier this month, as stated in this article from Sports Illustrated, Bonds stood tall in front of the media and said he would boycott his Baseball Hall of Fame induction should his 756th home run ball be stamped with an asterisk, as planned by clothing entrepreneur Mark Ecko. Now, with that soapbox having been pulled out from under him with Thursday's news, Bonds now must answer to the charges that he most strongly denied, putting not only the home run record, but all of his other accomplishments further under the microscope. There is now a much higher power than the Hall of Fame Bonds has to answer to; the court of public opinion, which had already soured on him long ago.

For all his proud talk and stand-offishness, Barry Bonds is now awfully quiet, and that silence is deafening.

Sources:
Federal Grand Jury Indicts Barry Bonds, Fox Sports
Government May Retain Intermingled Evidence Seized From MLB Drug Testing Labs, Stanford Law School
Judge; Release Bonds' Trainer From Prison, Fox Sports
Bonds Threatens Hall Of Fame Boycott, Sports Illustrated