The following was in the New York Daily News today:

The Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 that federal investigators may use the names of 104 players who tested positive in supposedly anonymous testing in 2003, shooting down the MLB Players Association’s attempts to keep the names private.

Speculation is sure to center on whether Barry Bonds’ name is on the list, although even if he did test positive in 2003, he could argue that he did not intentionally take illegal performance enhancers. Bonds is the target of a government perjury investigation.

At this point, does anyone think that Barry Bonds did not intentionally take illegal performance enhancers? If his name were on the list, how many people would gasp with shock? Not many, I’m sure. The fact is if you compare the 1986 Barry Bonds to the 2006 Barry Bonds, there is a pretty noticeable difference. And yes, people put on pounds as the years go by, but look at Barry’s head! It’s huge! He could head-butt a rhinoceros with that melon. Personally, I think Barry did use performance enhancers. What kind, I don’t know. And it isn’t only him. In 1986 Mark Mcgwire looked like your next door neighbor. Not skinny by any means, but definitely human. Now he looks like the friggin’ Michelin Man. His neck is like a tree trunk and one of his legs is big enough to feed a Guatemalan family for a year. Does anyone question whether he used performance enhancers? Only a blind man would.

So why pick on Barry? This is why. For one thing, Barry is an arrogant S.O.B. If he were a nice guy, they’d still look at this closely for other obvious reasons, but perhaps the vitriol directed towards Barry wouldn’t be so acidic. A lot of the media hate Barry because he treats them like they are a nuisance. Fact is, without the media nobody but hardcore baseball fans would care about what Bonds has done. So when the chance comes to bury a man who seems to luxuriate in his own hubris, the media becomes ravenous and unrelenting. The media can propel you to great heights or make you disappear. One only wishes their power to persuade was as great when Ty Cobb was around. Cur that he was.

The main reason why people are picking on Barry is because he is about to break the most coveted record in major league baseball and, one could argue, all of sports. Barry surpassed Babe Ruth last year in home runs and I am sure that chapped a lot of hides. But now he is bearing down on Hammerin’ Hank Aaron. By all accounts Hank Aaron is the antithesis of a Barry Bonds. Humble, congenial. He’s the kind of man you want to hold the record. There’s little room for ambivalence when it comes to Hank Aaron, especially these days. But Barry with the attitude and the alleged drug enhanced bulk is an easy target.

Should an asterisk be placed by Bonds’ name if he breaks the all-time home run record? Does it matter? People will always think he broke the record under false pretenses. They will never give him the credit he will think he is due, whether he deserves it or not. And if his name is on that list, well…bye bye Barry. You can hit 800 homers. No one is gonna care. And even those who do will wonder if you could have done it without the medicinal nudge.

After the strike in ‘94 baseball was revived when Mark Mcgwire and Sammy Sosa locked horns and the chase for the most home runs in one season was on. Looking back, one has to wonder what, if anything, these guys were shooting into themselves or rubbing onto themselves or whatever they had to do to hit so many homers. The romantic in me would like to think that Mark and Sammy did it all with grit and determination. But the cynic in me now thinks that home run chase was the beginning of the end of baseball as we knew it.

And if Barry’s name shows up on that list, baseball may never be the same again.