Say Anything Blog

I do hope we find out about Bonds.  However the major news is those players that haven’t been thought of when steroids is mentioned.  Also, I don’t want to hear about the rights of the players.  Steroids are illegal unless prescribed by a medical doctor.  I doubt that many of these players had a medical reason to obtain steroids.

It is said by those who know, that there is nothing so difficult in all of sports as hitting major league pitching.  To hit a 93 mile per hour slider or “splitter,” or a 98 mile per hour fastball takes an extraordinary degree of eye-hand coordination and bat speed.

In his early years with the Pirates, Barry Bonds was a pretty good line drive hitter.  But he was certainly no power hitter.  Later this year, if he is not suspended facing charges of perjury or contempt, Bonds will likely hit his 700th career home run, but without the amazing bulking up that took place after he went to San Fransisco, many, if not most, of those homers would have been routine fly ball outs.

Whatever happens to Barry Bonds, he will never outlive the asterisk.

But more important than Bonds is the fact of the 9th Circuit’s ruling itself (the 9th is far and away the most extremely left-leaning judicial circuit) and what that ruling says about the crumbling special legal exemptions baseball has enjoyed for so many years.

There has been a steady judicial shift back toward the center over the past few years (Wen Ho Lee, Judith Miller, NY Times, etc.), particularly in matters involving criminal investigations and prosecutions.  There’s not much doubt that the MLB Players Association and other parties like Balco and Bonds will appeal this ruling.  And not much doubt that the Supremes will uphold the 9th Circuit’s ruling either.

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”