King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Suspending Barry Bonds wouldn't be right or likely to stand. But this Giants fan wishes it could happen today.
Read more: Sports, Baseball, Barry Bonds, Bud Selig, Steroids, King Kaufman, Sports Daily
July 20, 2006 | Speculation is that Thursday will be the day the Barry Bonds indictment comes down. The term of the grand jury reportedly contemplating perjury charges against the San Francisco Giants slugger is set to expire, though prosecutors could ask for more time.
Various experts have been quoted saying it's likely Bonds will be charged with lying to the grand jury in the BALCO steroid-distribution case when he said he never knowingly took steroids. There's divided opinion about whether this grand jury will also indict him on tax evasion charges for allegedly hiding cash income from memorabilia sales.
The New York Times and Washington Post have both reported that baseball commissioner Bud Selig is thinking about using his "best interests of baseball" powers to suspend Bonds if he's indicted, a move that Bonds and the players union would fight, with all of the precedent on their side.
The arbitrators who settle such battles have always found that players can't be suspended for being charged with a crime. There's some thought that because Bonds' alleged offense, unlike, say, Ferguson Jenkins' 1980 pot bust, has an effect between the foul lines, Selig might have a leg to stand on, but it would be a tough argument to win. Innocent until proved guilty does still carry some weight in these parts.
Here's what I wish as a Giants fan. Not as a sober commentator reflecting Solomonically on the serious issues surrounding our national pastime, but as a guy with a couple of interlocking-S.F. hats lying around in all this clutter.
I wish Selig could suspend Bonds right now, today, just for the hell of it if for no better reason, and that it could stick.
Because I want my team back, you know? I want to be able to root for the Giants without having to slosh through this quagmire of denial, moral relativism and just plain nausea.
I want to turn on a game from Your Call Is Very Important to Us Park and listen to the crowd cheer wildly for a guy in the home vanillas without thinking about how weird that is, without having to sort yet again through all these thoughts about why we suspend our disbelief about a guy's actions just because of the uniform he wears or, worse, why we just don't care if a guy has lied, cheated and generally acted in the most vile ways toward his teammates and humanity in general -- as long as he gets that guy home from second for the home nine.