Whether you want Bonds to break the record or not, he's having a pretty impressive season considering he'll turn 43 in July. And no matter how cynical you may be, I don't think anyone can believe he's using steroids this year. Not with all the spotlights on him. There's nothing MLB and Congress wouldn't do right now to nail Bonds' balls to the wall on steroids charges instead of digging through his trash trying to get him on tax evasion and perjury. He's probably peeing in more cups right now than Lance Armstrong was when he was kicking the shit out of the rest of the world pedaling through the mountains of France.
So if Bonds isn't using drugs now, that leaves us with the past. An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that Bonds used steroids and performance enhancing drugs at some point in the past. Although apparently that number is skewed pretty significantly across racial lines. While I agree that that the pursuit of Bonds is motivated, at least partially by race, I think it's pretty naive for anyone, white or black, to think that Bonds is 100% clean. But regardless of what the circumstantial evidence may indicate, there is no real evidence against him. Bonds has never tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, nor has he ever been caught while in possession of them. Meanwhile, more and more evidence is indicating that performance enhancing drug use in baseball in the 90's was rampant. Whether it was amphetamines and uppers(greenies) to increase hand-eye coordination or energy during a long road trip, or HGH to increase strength and durability, it seems Major League Baseball was basically a 30-team pharmacy for way too long.
Until 2002, MLB didn't even have a steroid policy, and they are still reluctant to implement HGH testing. This was well after it became apparent to most people that steroids were becoming a problem in baseball. After the 1994 strike, baseball was desperate to attract fans to the game. Fans love home runs, so MLB ignored the increasing drug use. The League and fans across the country cheered as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both shattered the single-season HR record, ignoring the fact that their heads were swelling up like balloons. They ignored it as Roger Clemens turned 40 and continued to absolutely dominate batters. Then a Bay Area laboratory, BALCO, was busted for developing and distributing steroids to professional athletes. During the ensuing court case, MLB decided they could no longer claim ignorance. Fans and the League pretended to be shocked that players were using drugs. Congress decided it had nothing better to do with America's tax dollars and joined the witch hunt. Suddenly the game was no longer pure. McGwire's decided he didn't want to talk about the past and Sosa forgot how to speak English. Rafael Palmeiro said he had never used steroids "Period!".
Since then, McGwire has retired and was later denied first-ballot acceptance to the Hall of Fame despite numbers that 10 years ago would have made him a shoe-in. Sosa disappeared from the spotlight for awhile(apparently to go on a diet and learn english), and is now playing again. Rafael Palmeiro was suspended for testing positive for
performance enhancing drugs. Jason Giambi has now recently admitted to, well something, and refuses to give any more details, yet no one wants an asterisk next his Comeback Player of the Year award.
For the last several years, Congress and Baseball have done everything they can to bust Bonds. Federal investigators busted Diamondback's pitcher Jason Grimsley for drugs and tried to get him to wear a wire against Bonds. A federal judge jailed the authors of Game of Shadows for refusing to name their sources of leaked grand jury testimony during the BALCO case. Meanwhile, Barry Bonds continue to plug along doing what he does best these days: hit home runs.
"To hit the ball, the guy makes it look easy, but it ain't. I don't know how you can have that swing, consistently. I don't know how steroids can do that," David Ortiz told the Boston Herald. "There are supposed to be guys using steroids in the game, and there's nobody close to Barry Bonds. What's that mean? He was using the best [stuff]? Know what I'm saying?"
Regardless of whether he used drugs or not, there's on denying that Bonds is one of the greatest to play the game. Yes, he probably used steroids, but it wasn't against MLB policy when he did it. Yes, it was against the law, but should that be enough to deny Bonds his records and deny him entrance to the Hall of Fame? If you're going to take that stand, then every baseball player who ever beat his wife, or drove drunk, or took coke should be removed from the Hall of Fame as well. Is MLB willing to do that. I doubt it. Is MLB also willing to void all records and stats recorded during the "Steroid Era"? I don't think so. Even now, baseball is against testing for HGH, Whether it is this year(as seems likely), or next year, I will cheer as Barry hits #756. And as that ball disappears over the wall, I will laugh as Bud Selig and Major League Baseball squirm in their seats and wonder how to handle this. They deserve this for allowing America's Pasttime to be forever tainted and refusing to deal with the problem while it was relatively small. Instead they decided to ignore it, and for that I hope Bonds breaks the record.
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