The laughter you hear around the country is from baseball fans finding out about the law suit San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds filed against the authors of the recently published book “Game of Shadows.” Yes, Bonds has sued Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams in an attempt to prevent them from profiting from the book that goes into deep and specific details about Bonds’ steroid abuse.
Bonds sued the two “San Francisco Chronicle” reporters because he claims he wants to prevent them from using what Bonds calls “illegally obtained” evidence from what was supposed to be secret grand jury testimony.
Bonds’ attorney, Michael Raines, wrote to the court that, The true victim is not Barry Bonds, but the sanctity and integrity of the grand jury process.' Like Barry Bonds really cares about that…
The bottom line is that nothing in the lawsuit claims that the information written in the book is false, libelous or part of a smear campaign against Barry Bonds. It’s an almost Nixonian non-denial. Basically, by filing no libel lawsuit, Bonds is all but admitting the book is true, or at least that he cannot prove the authors of the book are knowingly publishing something false against him.
Trial lawyers do not have the best reputation when it comes to truth telling. I have heard friends of mine who practice law discuss the “smile test.” That means that in order to make an argument in court, it doesn’t necessarily have to be true but you do have to be able to present the argument to a judge while keeping a straight face. Bonds’ arguments in this case must have barely passed the smile test. The judge rightfully denied the baseball star’s application for an injunction, in essence saying there is little chance of his lawsuit succeeding.
Let’s face it, if half the allegations in the book are true and Bonds follows his own logic, then he should renounce all of the home runs he hit beginning in 1999 when he started abusing steroids. While Bonds may correctly argue there was no rule in baseball banning steroids at that time, the performance enhancing drugs the Giants star was injecting into his system were illegal to possess and use without a proper doctor’s prescription. Unless Bonds has some startling medical revelation to reveal, he lacked legal clearance to use steroids when he did. He used them to become a freak of nature and to hit home runs at a record breaking pace.
Now, as the 2006 baseball season begins, Bonds is poised to pass Babe Ruth for second on the all-time home run list and will make a strong run to pass Hank Aaron for the all-time lead. But the fact remains that Bonds cheated. He cheated the fans, he cheated the game of baseball and he cheated all of the baseball players who came before him and didn’t use steroids.
If Bonds did use steroids and this appears to be all but a foregone conclusion, he has no business passing a class act like Hank Aaron. If Bonds has any integrity, instead of suing the authors of “Game of Shadows” for their allegedly ill-gotten gains, he will give back his ill-gotten gains and renounce his post-1998 home runs.
Having Barry Bonds become baseball’s all-time home run king would be an embarrassment to the game of baseball. It would render the game’s most hallowed record a farce. It’s something that commissioner Bud Selig must find a way to prevent for the good of the game.
