The Barry Bonds perjury trial has begun, and if you're anything like me, you're glad that this nonsense will soon reach its merciful end. In these dire times, doesn't our federal government have more pressing concerns than prosecuting a former baseball great who, more than likely, knowingly took steroids and lied about it?
The Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) investigation and Bonds, at this point, are like Milli Vanilli. No one really cares anymore. Whatever punishment the judge doles out will not compare to the fact that the man, who should've been one of baseball's immortals, will forever be a punch line in the court of public opinion.
During the trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew A. Parrella, called BALCO founder Victor Conte, Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, and Bonds "the three Musketeers of BALCO."
Anderson repeated his long-standing refusal to testify against his childhood friend and was held in civil contempt of court, taken into custody by U.S. Marshals and escorted out a backdoor.
According to the AP, this will be his fourth time in prison, his third for refusing to testify against Bonds, and he likely will be held until the end of the trial. The case is expected to last about a month.
Anderson also served three months in prison and three months in home confinement for money laundering and steroids distribution from the original BALCO case. Anderson's plea in that instance happened in 2005. Bonds' trial is the last to stem from the BALCO investigation.
Anderson was the go-between for Bonds in his contact with BALCO, and without his testimony to authenticate that contact, the judge excluded what the government said were three positive drug tests performed for the lab. Because Anderson isn't testifying, the government will have a harder time proving the charges in Bonds' indictment, which includes four counts of making false statements to the grand jury and one count of obstruction.
The AP also reports that the government's star witness, Steve Hoskins, has testified that he saw Bonds and Anderson leaving Bonds' spring training bedroom with a syringe and assumed that Anderson had injected the player with steroids. He testified that he saw the two disappear into Bonds' room "once or twice" at each spring training over three consecutive years beginning in 2000.
Hoskins said today that he was a childhood friend of Bonds' and traveled with the slugger as an assistant between 1999 and 2003. Hoskins testified that Bonds' significant weight gain began to concern him so much that he secretly recorded a conversation with the trainer about steroids so he could convince Bonds' father, Bobby Bonds, that his son was using the drugs.
But that may not be enough. Bonds insists that he thought he was getting injections of "flaxseed oil" and "arthritic cream."
Like Bonds, I always forget to ask my doctor just what's in that needle before I get injected. We all know the truth, but isn't it just a tad hypocritical to condemn Barry Bonds for taking performance-enhancement drugs, when you can't watch a football game without being inundated with ads for Cialis and Viagra and you can't flip through People magazine in the grocery store checkout line without being flooded by images of insecure, rich people with all types of plastic surgery and bodily implants?
If he's found guilty of lying to a grand jury, by all means, give him his due punishment. As for the details and prime-time press coverage, I'd rather do without. If we really insist on wasting precious government resources, my vote goes to locking up Charlie Sheen's crazy behind for something.
Now, that would be a real accomplishment.