The Sport of Baseball vs. Barry Bonds

By Sean Roman, OTSL Analyst

Barry Bonds is being put on trial now for his liberty in San Francisco. He is officially charged with multiple counts of perjury. But that does not begin to reveal the significance of what has already happened.

After all the scientific testimony becomes a mere memory few will be able to recollect, the Man who sits atop the most revered record in American sports WILL pay the piper for benefiting the greatest from using performance enhancing substances.

If this were any other sport where a prominent American athlete were tried, the facts of the case and legal ins-and-outs would be more important to focus on.

But baseball is THE special sport.

Baseball rose with the growth of our nation as an industrialized power after the Civil War. As a game, is revered for its perfect balance of offensive and defense. The flow of the game from Spring to Autumn, as well as the trip around the base paths (where one strives to spring from home, travel the world only to make it back) is symbolic of our lives in a way no other activity can mimic.

And the way time can not strangle the game, unlike other contests which have the most vulgar of devices…a clock...is simply...ineffable. Baseball represents American Society, and Mr. Bonds has disgraced us all in a way which can not escape divine retribution.

Historically, Baseball’s Eras are just as important as national conflicts, political movements and technology revolutions. We are tracking and preserving the proceedings that are happening right now in the federal court in San Francisco for generations that will walk the earth when we are no more.

Consequently, it is fitting that the one who benefited the most from selling his very soul should have to be put through this humiliating national ordeal. The ultimate result of this case is irrelevant. This public prosecution has already fulfilled its goal as each day of testimony plays out.

Even if Mr. Bonds is found not guilty, he still can not recover his good name any more than the eight “Black Sox” Players could almost a century ago.