Here we are barely two months into the baseball season and Barry Bonds is hotter than the Fourth of July! Our MLB picks are on fire too as we have racked up over 50 units of profit already! At this pace he is projected to hit six million homeruns.  I used to believe in Sasquatch, the Tooth Fairy, Nessie and the Easter Bunny too. Then I grew up, started watching the X-Files and discovered conspiracy theories.  I used to believe in an athlete’s integrity. Then there was Barry Bonds. Barry popped-out homerun no. 745 last night against the Mets and Tom Glavine. The moon shot gave the Giants their only run of the game and was Barry’s 11th jack of the season. The embattled Giant’s slugger is on the verge of breaking the most hallowed record in all of sports and for better or worse he’s gonna get it  sooner or later. But did anyone think that he would get it this soon?  Sure Barry has said that his knees feel great, his back is loose again and that he has found his swing earlier that expected. But c’mon, eight weeks into the season and he is only 10 homers shy of the record? 

I mean opposing pitchers are serving up more meatballs than a Fazoli’s drive-thru.

Bonds is at the center of the steroid scandal that has rendered this chase forgettable. Both the current record holder and the commissioner of baseball have both said that when it comes time for Mr. Bonds to break the record neither of them will be in attendance.  So maybe just maybe the rest of baseball (particularly the Giants opposing pitchers) have decided to do something about it. Perhaps Commissioner Selig has turned a blind eye to the meat-fest to get Bonds to the homerun record, over it, move him on and let him retire. The sooner baseball can deal with this the better. Barry can take all of his “clear” and his collection of asterisks and ride off into the sunset. Barry will probably never get caught nor will he ever admit to juicing so maybe we should just let it go. No amount of congressional pressure or subpoenaed medical records will force Barry to come clean. Only Barry knows for sure if he did anything illegal. But in an industry where truth is perception Bonds has done nothing to help investigators with their case or to even help clear his own name.  Fans have started participating in acts of civil disobedience when in the stands at Barry’s performances – er games. These radicals have ditched their oversized novelty foam fingers in favor of the foam asterisks. When Barry comes to the plate – the stars come out and as Barry gets closer to the record, I suspect the stands will look less like baseball stadiums and more like planetariums. Of course no pitcher will ever admit to putting one on the tee and the commish would never condone such a plan but what kind of message would that send to Mr. Bonds when all of baseball and all its fans say “we’ll give you the record.”“But, Mr. Bonds know that you didn’t earn it. We won’t attach an asterisk; just know that every ball you knock over the fence is one more served up by the smiling keepers of the integrity of the game. Over 755 served.” Then we can all wait for A-Rod makes his chase.