Say it's so, Barry....

...so we can move on in our lives!

As opposed to that kid on the front steps of the courthouse who famously uttered the line "Say it ain't so, Joe...say it ain't so..." (or at least did in the movie Eight Men Out) to "Shoeless" Joe Jackson during the Black Sox inquest, I'm not really sure why any of this matters when we're talking about the allegations brought up in an upcoming book that will reflect on Barry Bonds' legacy in baseball.

He is the single season record holder for home runs. He is about 14 or so short of passing Babe Ruth, and if he stays healthy this season and hits another 47, he'll even pass Hank Aaron for the all-time lead.

Okay, so apparently he was taking enough steroids that Ben Johnson might have had to organize an intervention. Maybe he barely resembles the physical stature he was even as recently as 1998...but who cares? Yes, most of the drugs he took were illegal without a prescription...but people are talking about not letting him into the Hall of Fame, or even putting the dreaded asterisk beside his record (and likely subsequent records). It's not like no professional athelete has ever done drugs before...like, let's be serious. As far as Major League Baseball is concerned, he wasn't breaking any rules. Should we put disclaimers in the record books for all Babe Ruth's homers because he was drunk and/or hungover for most of them? If anything, we should pro-rate the Babe's numbers....imagine the records he'd have if he was sober??

But back to Barry...

I just don't see how you can compare him to Pete Rose or the members of the Black Sox (the only people currently banned from the Hall of Fame), as they either bet on baseball (and denied it for years) or took money to throw the World Series. Gambling being the one unforgivable sin in baseball, for whatever reason. The most clear point being that Barry Bonds didn't break any rules! MLB had no steroid testing policy, and certainly no penalties, so why does everyone have their collective panties in a bunch? Not to mention the fact that more muscle won't make you hit the ball better (farther, yes....but not better)...that's all timing and hand-eye co-ordination, which if anything is impeded by being musclebound. Granted, the recovery ability between workouts, and late in the season when you have nagging injuries is greatly helped by many steroids, which assuredly contributed to Barry's ability to get better as he now moves into his 40's, at an age when his dad was long retired, but the fact remains....the dude was a first-ballot HOFer before he went on the juice and hit all these homeruns! And also keep in mind that half of his ability comes from his keen batting eye, which makes pitchers have to throw him strikes, and when someone of his ability (three NL MVPs before taking a single steroid) gets in a zone, watch out...

Anyway, I guess my point is that the guy didn't really break any baseball rules, so who cares?

Maybe if he was nicer to reporters over the years, they'd cover for him more....