Witch Hunt

Sticking up for Barry Bonds makes me want to projectile vomit, but here it goes...

Federal prosecutors have reportedly convened a grand jury to look at indicting Barry Bonds for allegedly perjuring himself during testimony to the BALCO grand jury. New evidence? Nope. As the authors themselves acknowledge, most of the allegations against Bonds that surfaced with Sports Illustrated's publication of the excerpt from Game of Shadows were drawn from information that was in front of that grand jury. Since they had all this evidence last year when they decided not to prosecute, why have they decided to go after Barry Bonds now?

We all watched Raphael Palmiero adamantly deny--under oath in front of a congressional committee--that he used steroids, and then we watched him test positive for them only a couple of months later. They looked into prosecuting him, but decided against it. Why Bonds? Mark McGwire's weepy evasiveness before that same committee could have landed him contempt charges, but didn't. Why Bonds?

I'll tell you why it's Barry they're going after: because there's political hay to be made by prosecuting him. Some Eliott Ness wannabe is salivating over the chance to take down baseball's answer to Al Capone.

Barry Bonds has gotten worse press over the past month than that Iranian asshat who wants to blow up the world. Prosecutors are like sharks, and massive public hate-ins smell like blood in the water to them. They know that prosecuting a pariah like Bonds means the potential for quality media face time and career advancement, so they move in for the kill. I think that's exactly what's happening here, and I think it stinks.

There's a name for politically motivated prosecutions against unpopular people: they call them witch hunts. That's exactly what this is.