Bud and Bonds *

Opening Day for the 2006 Baseball season is just a couple of weeks away, a sure sign that winter is waning. Thank God.

At present, Barry Bonds has 708 homeruns. Before the end of April, he will almost certainly pass Babe Ruth's career homerun total. It's not out of the realm of possibility that Bonds could catch Hank Aaron's record of 755 this season.

I have a problem with that.

From the Washington Post:

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said Thursday he has not yet decided whether to launch an investigation into San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who is the subject of two new books alleging steroid use, but insisted he will do what is in "the best interests of the sport."

"Nature will have to take its course," Selig said during an informal media briefing before the United States-Mexico game in the second round of the World Baseball Classic. "What decision I make will be [based] on what I believe we should do and what is clearly necessary in the best interests of the sport. . . . I spent the airplane ride out here today thinking about it, and I'll continue to."

What is Selig talking about?

What does he mean by "Nature will have to take its course"? That makes no sense, AT ALL.

Is Selig hoping that the physical effects of the steroids take out Bonds before he has to make a decision?

Is this really something that needs a lot of thought?

Of course there should be an investigation. Why be afraid to investigate?

FOX Sports writes that the New York Daily News reported on Thursday that Selig HAS decided to launch an investigation into Bonds' alleged steroid use.

The newspaper said Selig is expected to announce the decision next week, but hadn't yet decided if the investigation will be done by Major League Baseball officials or outside investigators.

...Also, prompted by an upcoming book about Bonds, a congressman who sponsored legislation calling for tougher drug testing in pro sports wrote a letter Wednesday asking Selig about his role in policing steroid use from 1998-02.

"As commissioner, you have the essential responsibility to safeguard the integrity of the game and to ensure that cheaters have no place in professional baseball," Rep. Cliff Stearns said in the letter.

Stearns' House Energy and Commerce subcommittee held hearings last year about steroid use and he introduced the Drug Free Sports Act, one of several bills that would have made sports leagues give players lifetime bans for a second or third steroids offense.

Under pressure from Congress, baseball's players association agreed to toughen drug testing rules and penalties for 2005 and again this season.

If Selig has made up his mind, as the Daily News asserts, then why did he say he didn't?

Perhaps there should be Congressional hearings to get to the bottom of this. I hope someone introduces legislation that requires the baseball commissioner to have a spine and tell the truth.

It should not have taken Congress and the circus of those hearings last year to get MLB to clean up.

In terms of monitoring steroid use among players, Selig has been a disaster. In my opinion, he should have stepped aside long ago.

It should be a no-brainer for Selig to realize that he must do absolutely everything he can to protect the integrity of the game. The commissioner should not be in the business of protecting cheaters, and in the process, diminishing the accomplishments of the real heroes of baseball.

I guess that's the problem. NO-BRAIN.
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George Will wrote an interesting column on Bonds and the steroid dilemma, "Barry 'Asterisk' Bonds."

It is still unclear if there will be judicially imposed punishment in this matter. But condign punishment for a man as proud as Bonds would be administered by the court of public opinion, and exclusion from the Hall of Fame.

In any case, Bonds' records must remain part of baseball's history. His hits happened. Erase them and there will be discrepancies in baseball's bookkeeping about the records of the pitchers who gave them up. George Orwell said that in totalitarian societies, yesterday's weather could be changed by decree. Baseball, indeed America, is not like that.

Besides, the people who care about the record book -- serious fans -- will know how to read it. That may be Bonds' biggest worry.

Bonds' records are tainted. Case closed.

He chose his asterisk. He deserves it.