It came as no surprise to me that a jury convicted Barry Bonds yesterday on one count of obstruction of justice stemming from his obvious dissembling during a federal investigation into the use of steroids in Major League Baseball.
What was surprising was that the jury deadlocked on the other three counts of perjury. After all, he lied repeatedly to a federal grand jury about never knowingly taking steroids because he thought his drug dealer (who also happened to be his trainer) was just injecting him with flaxseed oil.
Moreover, one would have thought that lying about taking steroids was per se (or by definition) perjury. Further, that it was this perjury that amounted to obstruction of justice.
But I see no point in analyzing this verdict too much. Instead I shall reprise a few quotes/excerpts from previous commentaries that put this sad end to his career into context.
You will see that, even though I fully expected him to be convicted – not for taking steroids, but for lying about it, I still hoped for an O.J. jury to fully to acquit him. Assuming that women jurors would be either more susceptible to, or more ignorant about, his lies, my hopes were raised when the empanelled jury was comprised of eight women and four men. And, frankly, this jury’s failure to convict on the three counts of obvious perjury vindicates, well, at leat 75 percent of my discriminating hope….
This quote is from a commentary on a weepy, self-pitying press conference Bonds gave in which he attributed interest in whether or not he is a steroid user to a media conspiracy against him:
No one who follows baseball believes that Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire or even Sammy Sosa never took steroids. Therefore, it’s become a pathetic tragicomedy to see these sports heroes humiliate themselves with their puerile attempts to convince us otherwise… But how sad: for if Bonds were man enough to admit the obvious, I think his legion of fans would have stayed loyal to him.
(Bonds: coward, cry baby, and cheater…, The iPINIONS Journal, March 24, 2005)
This is from one in which I indicted the culture of hypocrisy surrounding the use of steroids in professional sports:
Steroid use has flourished in Baseball (and other professional sports) pursuant to an open conspiracy amongst players and team owners to feed the gladiatorial lust of fans who want to see bigger, stronger and faster cyborgs perform for their atavistic enjoyment. And, naturally, the more fans revel in their steroid-fuel feats of athleticism, the richer players, and even richer team owners, become.
(Bonds, baseball’s MVP, is a steroids junkie … duh! The iPINIONS Journal, March 8, 2006)
This is from one in which I pooh poohed the notion that Bonds should not be considered the home-run king:
Forget all of the talk about his use of steroids or putting an asterisk next to his name, Barry Bonds is the new home-run king of Baseball today – having blasted his 756th homer last night on his own field of dreams in San Francisco…
But, just as the achievements of players like Babe Ruth have not been diminished even though they drank alcohol during prohibition, the achievements of players like Bonds should not be diminished even though they’re taking steroids today.
(Bonds should be cheered, not jeered…, The iPINIONS Journal, August 8, 2007)
Finally, this excerpt is from one in which I presaged and lamented his indictment – noting that the testimony of witnesses like his former mistress were turning public adulation of Bonds into public ridicule, and that this was punishment enough:
The other shoe that finally dropped in the world of sports yesterday was the wholly-anticlimactic announcement that Baseball’s home-run king, Barry bonds, has been indicted. In fact, a federal grand jury in San Francisco has charged him with four counts of perjury [prosecutors dropped one count just before trial] and one count of obstruction of justice stemming from his patently false testimony that he thought the steroids his personal trainer was injecting into his butt was flaxseed oil….
However, because this grand jury had been investigating these charges since 2003, many sports pundits, and even Bonds’s own lawyer, expressed surprise that the jurors ended up indicting him. But I presaged this outcome when I wrote a commentary over a year ago (on 20 April 2006) in which I protested (in the title) that “The indictment of Barry Bonds would be an error for Baseball”:
I’ve been quite unabashed in proffering my reasonable suspicion that Bonds has become a home-run monster by taking an apothecary of steroids that would make Dr Frankenstein green with envy. And my suspicions were only confirmed when his injection protocol was chronicled in the recently published book Game of Shadows.
But it’s one thing for indignant sports fans to express unbridled schadenfreude over the public ridicule Bonds has been subjected to (including having steroid-size syringes thrown at him during games and his mistress testify that steroids had the ironic effect of engorging his head to twice its normal size while shrinking his balls to half its normal size; never mind the erectile dysfunction). It’s quite another for prosecutors to make a federal case out of his dissembling about steroids.
Because, even though Bonds has relished being the poster boy for the overpaid, self-indulgent, obnoxious, temperamental, whining cry-babies that professional athletes have become, an indictment would make him a scapegoat for the sins not only of Baseball but also of the entire culture of American sports. And, that just ain’t fair…
Alas, despite his protestations of innocence, I have no doubt that just as domestic diva Martha Stewart was imprisoned not for securities fraud, but for lying to a federal grand jury about it, so too will Bonds be imprisoned not for taking steroids, but for lying to a federal grand jury about it…
This means that he will effectively end his storied career not with a bang of record-setting home runs on the baseball field, but with a whimper of self-pitying tears behind bars.
If convicted on all counts, Bonds could be sentenced to 30 years. But since I think this indictment is arbitrary, capricious, and discriminatory, this is one case where I hope an ‘O.J. jury’ nullifies his guilt by acquitting him at trial.
(Barry Bonds, baseball’s home-run king, is indicted, The iPINIONS Journal, November 16, 2007)
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With that, the only question now is whether federal prosecutors will retry Bonds on the perjury charges. But I think they’ve wasted enough federal resources prosecuting this victimless crime. I’m still waiting, for example, for them to indict the crooks on Wall Street who perjured themselves by telling Congress that they thought the subprime mortgages they peddled in the global marketplace were first-rate AAA securities.
Not to mention that, even if they eventually get Bonds on all counts, the judge would probably sentence him to no more than 18 months (Martha was sentenced to only 5). Moreover, he’d probably be allowed to serve his time under home confinement (in one of the many mansions steroids bought him) just as others convicted pursuant to this misguided federal investigation have been allowed to do.
Related commentaries:
Bonds: coward, cry baby, and cheater…
Bonds indicted…
Bonds is steroids junkie…
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