Bud and Barry-Who is to blame?

These are the high holy days of the college football season. Rivalry games, face paint, coaching meltdowns, Bo, Woody, turkeys, heroes and villains and I really did not need Texas Tech to put a beat down on the Sooners. I had already lost my three game parlay. But with all of the splendor on the grass, why do I have Barry on my mind? Barry Bonds and his steroids shrunken testicles can rot away in Federal prison for all I care about that arrogant prick. He is a former Giant. That alone will get him 2 to 4 years in Leavenworth on my ledger. I do not care that Barry used steroids. Who is the victim of his alleged crimes?

Barry’s crime is not HGH. He lied to a Federal Grand Jury when they granted him immunity if he just told the truth…allegedly. “Mr. Bonds, thank you for joining us today. Did you stick the needle filled with radioactive testosterone into your left butt cheek?” Just admit it like Giambi and Sheffield and get back to your records and $17 million annual salary. Some shame, some embarrassment when the sealed testimony gets leaked like it always does but you get to keep your job. But Barrogant, you just could not do that and risk further tainting your tainted records.

Legal issues notwithstanding, is Bonds the only culprit from the steroids era in baseball? Did he act alone or was there another shooter on the grassy knoll? In 1993, Major League Baseball drew a record 70 million fans to the ball parks across America. In 1994, Baseball had its 8th and most disastrous work stoppage in modern history. Fans always came back after the first SEVEN strikes but the 1994 strike wiped out the World Series for the first time since 1904. Fans were outraged that the beloved World Series of their parents and grandparents would be lost for the public that season. In 1995, attendance drops by 28%. The team suffering the largest percentage drop in attendance was the Milwaukee Brewers who were owned by one Bud Selig. The Budster was struggling with a terrible team, plummeting attendance while he was lobbying the state to build him a new stadium. And on top of that, he wakes up every morning in freaking Milwaukee!

Baseball limped along with apathetic fan support for nearly three years and then in 1998, chemically enhanced Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire started bombing baseballs out of the yard at unprecedented numbers. There were rumors and questions but everyone cheered their amazing exploits and went back to the park for $10 beers and $6 Hot Dogs. Barry noticed also and he contacted BALCO in 2000. The resurgence in baseball was on and attendance and all the related revenue streams jumped to new records. The billion dollar Yankee Sports Network was founded in 1999 during these heady times. And in 2001, Buddy Selig opened his new $400 million stadium financed with $310 million from the state of Wisconsin.

Every owner turned a blind eye to these “enhanced” players because the fans were coming back to the park in record numbers. In 2004, Bud sold the Brewers for $180 million; a team he purchased in bankruptcy for $13 million in 1970. During the Steroid era, he profited handsomely through revenue sharing and a new TV contract buoyed by renewed fan interest. So you think anyone was calling for an investigation then? Bud was a very happy owner, became a very rich owner and remained a very quiet owner during these times.

Now it is 2007, and we are all morally outraged that what was rumored to be happening during these times, really happened. Those players had been on steroids?! Damn, I knew something was in those sunflower seeds. The owners apparently never noticed what was dramatically apparent to the rest of the baseball fans. It was good thing because who needs the Mitchell Commission snooping in your dirt when you are trying to sell a ball team? At the end of the day the ownership of baseball earned more money and higher team valuations from the inflated statistics of these “renegade” athletes than any of those same athletes, BALCO or anyone else earned who supposedly prospered by using or distributing illegal steroids. Bud Selig prospered more than most and leveraged that success into being the Commissioner of Baseball.

Barry absolutely deserves the tsunami of feces that is going to crash down on his Michelin Man head over the next twelve months. It is not a good day when the unpleasant men in the dark suits and crew cuts are standing behind the microphones reading your name followed by a litany of charges all punishable by 5+ years in prison and one complimentary gang rape in the showers. BTW: OJ sold the White Bronco, see you in court on the 7th.

And saintly Commissioner Bud now denounces Barry. Without Barry, Sammy, and the rest of the Juice it Up Celebrity All-Stars Buddy boy, you are still one car dealership away from being somebody. Be disgusted with Barry but be outraged at Bud and the rest who looked the other way when it was profitable to do so.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity…
Charles Dickens