Bonds does deserve the record.

Like a lot of baseball fans, I think I've warmed just a bit to Barry Bonds' pursuit of baseball's all time home run record in the past few days. And like many of them, the catalyst was the intentionally cold, dispassionate face of Commissioner Bud Selig, sitting up in the luxury booth, almost glowering every time Bonds stepped to the plate. Yeah, I think that Barry got the record by juicing himself full of steroids, but if Selig isn't willing to step up and announce what Bonds' penalties will be, then he should quit trying to play to respond to criticism of his past failures in confronting steroid use and end up looking like that sour old butler from the movie, 'The Haunted Mansion'. Thankfully, Selig missed last night's game (because, as his office noted, he was preparing for a meeting with George Mitchell and the Steroids Committee,) and he had the class to call Bonds after the game and offer him his congratulations.

Let's also get another point straight-- steroids is now taken much more seriously as 'cheating' than it was just a few years ago when Bonds was apparently using them. In 1998, Mark McGwire was hailed as a 'hero' for breaking Roger Maris' record and he and the media brushed off allegations of steroid use. He was gushed over by that very same Bud Selig. When he retired five years ago he was still considered by most to be a sure-fire Hall of Famer.

Perceptions have changed since then. And Bonds has been part of the change. McGwire's record stood for only three years, before it was shattered by Bonds. But unlike McGwire, Bonds was surly, sometimes on bad terms with the press and besides that his name had come up in connection with a Federal investigation-- specifically that of BALCO, a San Francisco area lab that was accused of supplying steroids to a number of players for the Giants and Athletics, including Bonds. Bonds is rumored to have perjured himself in front of a federal grand jury investigating the BALCO case, so the possibility that he could be indicted on a felony charge and maybe even go to prison has loomed in the background (though luckily for him, one of the U.S. attorneys let go by Gonzalez was for northern California; though the political angle on it was that the catalyst for the firing was the investigation into corruption charges against Congressman John Doolittle (R-CA) the firing has also slowed down action on a number of other cases, most notably the case involving Bonds. The U.S. Senate two years ago began investigative hearings into steroid abuse in baseball, and McGwire, who was at that time still immensely popular, probably talked himself out of a shot at the Hall of Fame with his now infamous response to the Senate panel, 'I'm not here to talk about the past.' Why did he agree to testify then? So he could talk about the weather? And then McGwire's old 'bash brother' teammate in Oakland, Jose Canseco, published a book in which he described steroid use as rampant in baseball, pointing fingers at everyone from McGwire to George W. Bush (who was the owner of the Texas Rangers when Canseco played there and described a clubhouse practically swimming in steroids.)

So now it is being said of Bonds that he cheated his way to the record, and doesn't deserve it. Perhaps, but let's face it-- trying to get an edge, legally or not in baseball is as old as the game itself. Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry described in detail a few years ago how he doctored, scuffed and managed to spit on baseballs, in clear violation of the rules of the game. Pitcher Doc Ellis once took speed so he could throw faster, and whether he threw faster or not, he did end up throwing a no-hitter that day. Pitchers who use marijuana to help loosen up before a game have been too numerous to mention. Hall of Famer George Brett once had a home run disallowed for using too much pine tar on his bat; the call was later reversed by the commissioner's office, but one wonders if they'd have done the same if it was someone of a lesser stature than George Brett. Sammy Sosa, who gave McGwire a run for his money a few years ago and who has also been accused (without any real evidence) of using steroids, was caught using a doctored bat in a game three years ago. Remember that when Bonds is alleged to have used steroids, they were considered no higher a level of cheating than say, a scuffed ball or a corked bat, and if Canseco is to be believed then as many as half of all players on the field are using or have used steroids to 'improve' themselves. In such an environment, it's just as accurate to argue not that players who use performance-enhancing drugs have an advantage, but rather that players who don't are at a disadvantage.

One final point-- Bonds has always been a very good hitter. Taking steroids is a separate issue from that. I doubt if Arnold Schwarzeneggar could hit a home run, because hitting a home run takes a lot of concentration, good wrists, timing and other skills that have nothing to do with steroids. I'm not even sure that strength is all that high on the list-- I've seen a woman hit a softball hard enough that it was way out of the field, and would probably have left a major league park. The truth is that hitting is both an art and a science, and the assumption that one can just bulk up and suddenly home runs will come is just plain untrue.

Selig is also partly to blame. Some years ago, in the face of declining ticket sales, some changes were made to the game to juice up the offenses. Shorter fences, livelier balls, so much that even journeyman infielders can often hit twenty home runs in a season (what used to be considered a magic mark for power hitters.) So is it any wonder that the best home run hitters over the past decade have almost routinely rocketed past numbers that had stood unchallenged for decades?

So, while I agree that he did most likely get there while enjoying the dubious benefit of steroids, Barry Bonds does deserve the record. No asterisk.

And in other news-- Alex Rodriguez, who has never been accused of using steroids and who could very well have another decade left to play, hit number 500 the other night....

Ethical, unethical, against the rules, illegal

This is not a sports blog. But for at least the third time lately, I've found that what happens in sports mirrors what happens in society, politics and social perception, including in its ugly realities.

Today, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn, two class guys who no one would argue deserve it, were elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. The two ironically spent their entire careers with one team-- a rarity nowadays, though in opposite leagues and therefore will probably spend more time together during their induction ceremony than they ever did on the field, since they generally only opposed each other for a few innings every year during the All-Star Game.

The bigger story though was about Mark McGwire. Also about Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds.

During his home run battle with Sosa in 1998 to catch Roger Maris, McGwire admitted to using androstenedione, a body-building steroid. At the time, it was not illegal, nor was it considered unethical despite such well publicized cases as that of former NFL great Lyle Alzado, a small high school player, whose experimentation with early steroids likely brought to the peak of being one of the greatest defensive linemen in the NFL but then led to an early death from brain cancer. When McGwire retired five years ago, his 'andro' use was still considered a footnote, and few doubted that McGwire would get voted into the hall with Ripken and Gwynn.

But then came some devastating revelations. Jose Canseco, McGwire's 'bash brother' on the Oakland A's team that went to the world series for three years straight from 1988-1990 (and won one of those series) wrote a book in which he not only admitted using steroids, both legal and illegal ones, but he named names in the book. Among those names was Mark McGwire. Canseco said that McGwire and he used to inject each other with steroids. Conseco also made allegations against George W. Bush, in claiming that when he was the owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, Bush knew of steroid use by a number of players including Canseco (who briefly played there) and chose to look the other way. Canseco, incidentally, despite having career numbers that otherwise might have ranked him at least as a serious contender for Hall of Fame status, was named on just six ballots-- a number so small that he won't appear on the ballot anymore at all.

Then came that day before Congress. McGwire was supposed to answer questions about steroids, including whether he had ever used banned or illegal ones. His tepid and all-too-revealing answer was, "I'm not here to talk about the past." (what exactly then was he supposed to talk about in a committee hearing to discuss steroid use? His plans for the future)? In fact, his future took probably a fatal blow that day. He'd have been better off to have come clean like Canseco did (though he could still have done so with some dignity while Canseco is considered by now to be baseball's answer to Mike Tyson.) If he and Canseco took turns injecting each other with steroids in the buttocks (as Canseco says they did), well it would be better to say so than to leave a Congressional hearing with a 'no comment.' Jason Giambi, a former member of the A's whose steroid use became public when he moved to the New York Yankees, has admitted it, says he has quit and moved on. He still has a shred of dignity, therefore.

Sammy Sosa, who battled McGwire for the home run title in 1998 is another player who has been accused of steroid use. Unlike McGwire, there is no solid evidence that anyone has ever seen Sosa use any sort of performance enhancing substance, but Sosa's integrity did take a hit a couple of years ago when his bat split open during a game and revealed that it had been doctored. Sosa was suspended for several games after that episode.

Today, McGwire didn't get into the Hall. That wasn't surprising, as a lot of the Baseball Writers of America, who are tasked with electing players to the Hall had said up front that they weren't planning to vote for him. And a first ballot miss doesn't mean he might not get into the Hall later-- a first ballot election is considered a special privilege that is reserved only for an elite class of players, players like Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn. What was surprising was the margin. There are 545 voters this year. It is notoriously difficult to get into the Hall of Fame, with 75% (409 voters this year) having to name a player to guarantee election (incidentally Ripken and Gwynn got 537 and 532 votes respectively). McGwire was only named by 128 voters, not even a quarter of those eligible. This low total seems to suggest that he will never get in. It also suggests that Sosa may have a tough time ever making it to the Hall.

Which brings us squarely to the present poster boy of steroids, Barry Bonds. Bonds is in some ways the anti-McGwire. McGwire was always friendly and personable with the press-- which now seems surprising as it is those same sports writers who have to be considered as having given Mark McGwire an enormous personal rebuke today. Bonds is notoriously surly and uncommunicative with the press. Part of that is because he likely saw the grief his father, Bobby Bonds, took from the New York press after fan favorite Bobby Murcer was traded away for him in 1974. Seeing the steady stream of abuse in the press certainly made an impression on a school age boy, as Barry Bonds was then, and has led to his surliness with and distrust of the media. As such, it has been all too easy for the media to jump on Bonds today. Not that Bonds doesn't deserve it-- more on that later-- but there is no question that the kid gloves (make that fawn gloves) that the media handled McGwire with in 1998 were just never there for Bonds.

Bonds, who is approaching one of baseball's most cherished records-- Hank Aaron's 755 career home runs, has always denied allegations of steroid abuse. But everyone from his teammates to his ex-girlfriend have said that he used them. So the assumption is that he has. Somehow no one cared that McGwire, who had never hit over 50 home runs in a season before, exploded to 70 in 1998, but when Bonds bested that with 73 just three years later, people assumed the worst.

However, Bonds' most dangerous enemy now is not the media or those fans who don't want him to break Aaron's record-- the media and the fans frankly don't bother Barry a whole lot. It is the Federal grand jury investigating perjury at the BALCO trial. The BALCO trial involved a laboratory in the San Francisco Bay area that gave steroids to players on both the Giants and A's (Giambi has admitted that his source was BALCO) over a number of years. Bonds in particular was asked to testify under oath at the BALCO trial whether he had used steroids. He answered that he had never knowingly used them. The grand jury is investigating whether this is true. If it turns out that Bonds lied under oath then it is possible that he could go to prison for several years. I suspect that the pace of the investigation will go as it does without regard to Bonds' home run pace, so he might end up in a race against the jailer to break Aaron's record.

What this causes me to think about is that sometimes we as a society have a fine line between what is ethical, unethical, against the rules (whether the rules of baseball, Congress or other internal kinds of rules), and illegal. Mark McGwire has seen the effects of going from ethical to unethical (with allegations of against the rules.) Barry Bonds for the same thing (not ever proven) has always been considered unethical and now it has gotten to the point where he may have committed a felony and be on the wrong side of the law for it.

And lacking a set and spelled out standard, these grey areas can in the end be ruin. Just ask Mark McGwire.

And that is why it is such a good thing that Congress passed ethics reform this week, stating that no 'gift' from a lobbyist can be worth more than $50 (though I would prefer that you can't accept any gift from a lobbyist myself, but this is still a huge improvement), and banning free flights on corporate aircraft. Is it unethical to 'carpool' in the air, if you know someone who is going where you are? What if they will be guaranteed several hours of exclusive access to you, and you are in a position to make decisions that will affect them? I would consider that it is. But with the new lobbying bill, it is also now spelled out, that it is banned.