Bonds’ quest a fraud
Barry Bonds hit another home run Sunday night, the 746th of his career. The feat was trumpeted on SportsCenter. It earned headlines in newspapers around the country. It was mentioned on television and sparked conversation all over the Internet.
It’s a fraud.
It’s also an inevitability the San Francisco Giants slugger will soon pass Hank Aaron’s career home run record of 755, the most hallowed record in a sport steeped in hallowed records.
As Bonds inches closer to Aaron’s record, the conversation about the validity of Bonds’ chase grows louder. Questions are bandied around. Will Aaron acknowledge Bonds in person? How about baseball commissioner Bud Selig? What do fans think? Are they divided by race? Is Bonds getting the recognition he deserves? Or is he being pilloried unfairly?
All good questions, but all immaterial.
Only two questions really matter: Did he use performance-enhancing drugs and if he did, should we care?
Yes and yes.
After years of research, trying to come to grip with baseball’s problem of performance- enhancing drugs in general and Bonds’ quest for Aaron’s record in particular, I finally read through “Game of Shadows,” the Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams book on the BALCO investigation.
No wonder the federal government wanted to put the two San Francisco Chronicle reporters in jail. There is so much evidence in the book, there is no way anyone involved with BALCO, and that includes Bonds, could receive a fair trial. All the evidence, even secret recordings and grand jury testimony, is in the 350-plus pages.
Still, after all the proof has been disseminated to the general public through the book, through magazine and newspaper stories, through ESPN reports, there is a large percentage of people still in Bonds’ corner.
He hasn’t tested positive in any drug test, they like to say. Or they fall back on the criminal courts excuse: He hasn’t been convicted of anything.
The first argument is just illogical. Of course Bonds never tested positive. He was using drugs for which there were no tests – the Clear, the Cream and human growth hormone. Baseball still doesn’t test for HGH, Bonds’ performance- enhancing drug of choice according to Fainaru-Wada and Williams.
In the world of track and field, where drug testing theoretically has reached its zenith, athletes can be banned from competitions without ever testing positive for use of a banned drug.
The “non-analytical positive” in the World Doping Code means an athlete can face punishment if there is convincing evidence, other than a positive test, that they’ve used banned drugs. It was this standard that snared many track athletes in the BALCO investigation. There were no tests for the BALCO drugs, but plenty of evidence the athletes used them.
The same can be said of Bonds. He may never have failed a drug test, but there is overwhelming evidence of a “non-analytical positive.”
As for the legal argument, all anyone can say is the wheels of American criminal justice are slower than Bengie Molina.
But why do you think Bonds hasn’t sued Fainaru-Wada and Williams for libeling him and ruining his reputation?
Because there may not be enough evidence to convict Bonds of using illegal drugs in criminal court (where beyond a reasonable doubt is the standard), but there is in civil court (where the standard is preponderance of evidence). Trying to earn a libel judgment in civil court would be a lost cause for Bonds. The evidence is overwhelming he used PEDs.
Then there are the Bonds – and Jason Giambi and Mark McGwire and on and on – supporters who may concede drug use, but argue drugs don’t help in hitting a baseball. Giambi himself made that argument in a recent USA Today story.
But if performance- enhancing drugs don’t make hitters better, then why would they use them, risking long- term physical damage and even death? Of course they help. They make it possible to train harder, longer and with faster results. They shorten injury- recovery time. They promote strength and boost confidence. There is even anecdotal evidence they improve hand-eye coordination.
They are worth the risk to many, too many.
Sadly, a recent ESPN/ABC News poll showed a divide between black and white fans and their perception of Bonds’ treatment.
This shouldn’t be a race thing, though it should be a black and white thing. There are no gray areas here. Barry Bonds cheated and is probably still cheating. Cheating is wrong. It should be punished, no matter the color or gender or economic status of the cheater.
On SportsLink there are multiple links to recent blog posts on Bonds’ chase and the taint of PEDs. Some writers see it as a minute problem at worse, others as enough to invalidate his inevitable home run record. One commentator even goes as far as trying to redo the numbers without steroids, though his approach is crude and ineffective.
But it shouldn’t be too hard for a true sabermetrician to invent a formula using statistics from all clean major leaguers over the age of 34 – when Bonds began using performance-enhancing drugs – to reevaluate his tainted numbers. Maybe it would work the other way around as well, and we could envision Aaron’s numbers if he had been allowed to break the law, use outlawed drugs and extend his career. Maybe he would have hit 855.
We’ll never know of course, because only one of the top three home run hitters of all time crossed the line. Only one used drugs to enhance his abilities. Only one made a mockery of the game. And only one who should be shunned forever.