Update on Barry Bonds Case

As the sports world expected, Barry Bonds entered to his court appearance last friday looking sharp and confident that he has done nothing wrong or illegal. Bonds pleaded not guilty to a San Francisco judge on the charges of four counts of perjury and one of obstruction of justice. Heres a little taste of what Bonds had to say.

“I still have confidence in the judicial system and especially in the judgment of the citizens who will decide this case,” he said. “And I know that when all of this is over, I will be vindicated because I am innocent.” Of course all the charges are alleged offenses, but I am still going to come and say that I strongly believe Bonds is guilty on all counts.

It is still widely unknown what hard evidence the government has obtained to implicate Bonds, but it must be hardcore and legitimate because they are coming full force at Barry. (Which is a good thing for baseball).

It truly is a sad thing when a case like this surfaces no less than 3 weeks before christmas, but I am pleased to see that the U.S government has stepped in and is taking action. Major League Baseball can only benefit from this case.

Barry Bonds to stand before Judge

Well it seemed at one time that this day would never come. Barry Bonds, who was indicted before thanksgiving on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice will begin his legal journey on Friday December 7th at a San Francisco courthouse. An interesting point to bring out in all of this is the fact that the United States government is not going after Bonds for his alleged steroid use. They are actually going after Bonds because of his alleged action of lying about his steroid abuse. I don’t want to bore you anymore than I have to. Im sure you already know at this point that I don’t like Barry Bonds because of his connection to steroids. I just feel that it is necessary to point out this significant event. Bonds has found himself a part of the biggest steroid scandal in sports history, and probably in baseball history.
Nobody knows what evidence the government has against Bonds, and at this point all we can do is speculate until our mouths fall apart. Most of our questions however, will begin to be answered starting with tomorrow. NOTE: If there is anybody out there interested in this, tune in to ESPNEWS on friday december 15th, as they will be showing the hearing live.

In the next few months, we the fans shall finally know the fate of Barry “the cheat” Bonds.

Redskins Safety Sean Taylor Murdered

Although it may not be related to steroids and the cheating that goes on with sports today, I feel the need to respect the life of the late Sean Taylor and acknowledge that his life was taken from him a few days ago. Sean Taylor was the Washington Redskins safety, and was taken with the 5th overall pick in the 2004 NFL draft. A few days ago, 4 armed men broke into his home in Miami and Taylor was shot by the burglars in the groin area. Twenty four hours later, Taylor was pronounced dead, leaving behind a wife and a young son.

This is truly a tragic event for both the National Football League and the family of Sean Taylor’s. I can remember watching Sean Taylor play for the Miami Hurricanes about 5 years ago. I can recall being absolutely mesmerized by his athletic ability, and I prayed that my New York Giants would draft him. The funeral for Taylor was held today (Monday) and it was very emotional for me to witness it on national television.

I think it is a horrible thing when anyone is the victim of a heinous crime, especially when the victim has no control over the situation. All of his teammates have went on record saying how Taylor was a great man and teammate. Taylor was 24 years old, and is survived by his wife, son, and all the players in the National Football League. R.I.P Sean Taylor.

Steroids and Ethics

Surfing the web tonight, I came across a great article that looks at steroid use in sports from the perspective of ethics. The article had a great deal of powerful statements that will force the audience to think hard about what steroids and its effects mean in the scheme of living a moral life.

The author writes, he only things that work to discourage doping are testing and penalties. You can talk about personal responsibility until you’re blue in the face, but to stop steroid use, testing is necessary.” This sentence jumped out at me quickly because it reminded me a great deal of my policy paper. I feel the exact same way, and it is reassuring to know that there are others out there who share similar views as me.

I also believe that parents in many cases are either encouraging their kids to take steroids, or just have no idea that their son or daughter may be doping. According to the writer, We see parents who are in complete denial when their kids—college athletes with eating disorders—have stress fractures of their tibias or patellas because their bones are fragile from anorexia. The parents are living through the children’s achievements, so it’s very difficult to break this pattern.” Another tremendous point that truly needs to be noted.

If you are a serious sports fan, no matter what sport you prefer to watch, and feel that steroids is a cause for concern, I strongly suggest you read this article and think about the contents. If you don’t find it insightful, then I don’t know what is.

AROD the Rediculous

Although this may not directly be related to steroids and Major League Baseball, I wanted to give some attention to Alex Rodriguez and the ridiculous amount of money that he has recently demanded. Let me first point out that I am a huge Yankee fan (as you may have already known). I also believe that there is a limit to how valuable and how much a baseball player is truly worth. In my humble opinion, it is absurd that the Yankees will in the next few weeks announce a contract that will pay Alex Rodriguez 275 million over 10 MLB seasons. That is 27.5 million due each year, and thats not even counting his incentives which could put him well over the 300 million mark. I think it is horrible and disgusting that an athlete can demand this much money when firefighters and policeman (among other occupations) can rarely break the 100,000 dollar yearly salary. In a way (or just my opinion), Arod’s demand for such a huge contract is almost as bad as injecting steroids to gain a physical edge. Naturally, I am exaggerating, but I just feel that no player deserves to be paid 270 million over 10 years, especially when he opted out and didn’t even finish out his first contract, which was 252 million over 10 years mind you. Sickening. 

Does “good cheating” exist in Major League Baseball?

I came across a great article moments ago published by USATODAY that actually acknowledged that there is such a thing as “good cheating” in professional baseball. Now of course, as soon as I read the headline I put my battle shoes on and was ready to attack the story and the writer as stupid and wrong. Taking my own advice of not judging the book (or in this case article) by the cover, I continued reading. I must say that I was happy with my decision to keep reading because I thoroughly enjoyed the article.

According to the writer, “The bad cheating is known for its dark, secretive, backroom ways and is practiced by the likes of real and alleged performance-enhancing drug users. It involves pills or needles.” This I completely agree with. She then goes on to say, “The good cheating is more nuanced. It’s the clever stuff, the wink-and-the-nod deception passed down from the 1951 New York Giants to Gaylord Perry to Joe Niekro to, well, Kenny Rogers.”

I guess when I think about it, she does have a pretty good point. In just about any sport or competitive game there is always a little desire to do something small to perhaps give yourself an edge over the opponent. Baseball and its players will always find subtle, on-the-field actions to better the play. I’ve come to realize that the fun cheating that goes on, on the baseball diamond will always be different and more acceptable than shooting up steroids casually. In my humble opinion anyway.

Three More MLB Players Linked to Steroid Purchases

Well the fun truly never ends, especially for the baseball media world as three Pro Baseball players were linked to anabolic steroid use. Matt Williams, Jose Guillen, and Ismael Valdez allegedly were found to purchase steroids and various Human Growth Hormones through a Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center. This incident is bound to be overshadowed of course by the indictment handed out to the infamous Barry Bonds, however the article about this incident gave me some truly interesting statistics.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle report, Guillen is said to have ordered more than $19,000 worth of drugs from the anti-aging clinic between May 2002 and June 2005. Also, Matt Williams, is said to have ordered $16 000 worth of performance-enhancing drugs in 2002 while a member of the Diamondbacks. ANd Valdez threw down another 11,000 bucks on drugs as well. Lets face it, that is a rediculous sum of money to be spent on synthetic drugs to increase testosterone and muscle mass. Just rediculous. What is even funnier is the fact that Williams even continued to purchased over 11,000 bucks worth of syringes and HGH even after he retired as an MLB player. I guess the urge can never be subdued.

It should be added that all these guys have a connection to the same doctor who currently had had his licensed removed due to fraud and imcompetance. This should be a good laugh for all.

Baseball and its rich history of cheating

I came across a truly terrific article this evening that adressed how baseball players since the Major Leagues started over a hundred years ago have found ways to cheat. I guess it is time for all of us baseball fans to face the facts. Cheating, and finding ways around the rules has always been part of the game, and in some ways a tradition in its own illegal way. I remember hearing stories about the infamous Blacksox scandal and what not, but I never truly understood the magnitude of how cheating went down decades ago.

According to this article from MSNBC, cheaters from history made a living off of unfair advantages, and even have been inducted into the hall of fame. Hall of fame pitchers Don Sutton and Whitey Ford both owe a great deal of their personal success to scuffballs and cutballs. Yankee legend Yogi Berra used to use his sharpened shin guards to strategically cut the baseball seams in order to benefit his pitchers.

Clearly all of these acts were against the rules of baseball, however it seems the game turned a blind eye for quite some time. The author even goes on to say that there is no moral difference between these acts, and the current players who use steroids to increase performance.

There may be no moral difference, but it still doesn’t give men like Barry Bonds a free pass to cheat.

Is Lasik Eye Surgery a Form of Cheating?

With all my recent research on the influence of steroids on the game of baseball, the highly anticipated Mitchell Report, and the indictment of the king doper Barry Bonds, I came across another interesting article/argument. The author of this article provides a thought provoking argument asking, “If steroids are cheating, why isn’t Lasik?”

Now, in my opinion I happen to believe that there is a distinct difference between shooting up your body with synthetic drugs in order to unnaturally bulk up your physical make-up, and going to an eye surgeon to legally make your vision improve. However, although I may disagree with the argument, I think that the author provides some good support for it. It is true that a huge amount of athletes have received lasik surgery and as a result have improved their game-play, but in the end Lasik surgery is legal. And “legal” may be the key word when discussion the difference between injecting steroids and laser surgeries.

No, no i think in this case Major League Baseball should stay focused on cracking down on the players who are cheating by using steroids and peformance-enhacing drugs, and not waste any time worrying about a perfectly legal eye-improvement procedure.

Bonds Haters Rejoice!

Amidst all the speculation and concern surrounding the “Mitchell Report”, it seems that baseball has taken a step in the right direction as of Thursday evening. Barry Bonds, the man more famous for his connection with steroids than for breaking baseball’s home run record was indicted thursday evening (11/15/07) by a federal grand jury on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by telling the jury he never knowingly took steroids. When I heard the news, I couldn’t hold in my laugh. I must admit that I am very happy to hear that a man who has no doubt in many minds cheated his way into the record books of baseball, may very well be facing jail time.

Acording to ESPN.com, the indictment charges Bonds with 4 counts of perjury, and 1 count of obstruction of justice, and ultimately Bonds could face 30 years in prison. This is great news for any loyal baseball fan who has witnessed the integrity of professional baseball crumble before the eyes of the public. Hopefully this case starts a postive cycle that rids baseball of cheaters and dopers.