I asked Mitchell if that extended to Bonds, the beleaguered home run king. Bonds has been trampled by the news media and fans over the last three years and hammered into becoming the face of baseball’s steroid crisis. Bonds has been the target of a five-year federal investigation into performance-enhancing drugs. Last week, he pleaded not guilty to felony charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
I say not so fast. Baseball can’t move on until it apologizes. Baseball, specifically Bud Selig, owes Bonds an apology.
Sorry, Barry, for hanging you out to dry; for allowing the news media and the public to make you the vilified face of baseball’s steroid era.
Sorry for making it clear during your home run chase that I would rather be in a dentist’s chair having root canal surgery than watching you break the home run record.
Sorry for looking on as you absorbed nasty fan behavior and crude treatment from the news media.
Sorry for not being more forceful in telling fans to reserve judgment, that the steroid canyon was wide and deep. I spoke on Friday with Selig in Milwaukee. He was in no mood for apologies and refused to discuss individual players. “I just think it’s inappropriate for me to comment on anybody,” he said.
Bonds has to be smiling now. Baseball’s top slugger has been joined by one of the game’s legendary pitchers.
...
Baseball, he said, did not need “a never-ending effort to go back in time and try to find the name of every player who ever used a performance enhancing substance; what it needs is to look forward.” As we left his office, Mitchell reiterated that one of the great accomplishments of the report was that it pointed out — once and for all — that the steroid era in baseball was vast, and hardly the province of one high-profile player.
Barry Bonds is not the face of this era. He’s merely a face in the crowd.
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