1 Happy St

Not to be a Barry Bonds apologist here (actually, that's exactly what I'm going to be), but does anybody else see the irony in the U.S. government's claim that Barry committed perjury? He gave a secret grand-jury testimony regarding his purchase or use of steroids. By law, his testimony should have been sealed and hidden from the media. However, two reporters from San Francisco got their hands on his statements and then wrote a book about it. The two reporters still to this day are refusing to acknowledge who leaked the testimony to them. Regardless, it was determined that Barry lied in his "secret" testimony, and so for that, he is now being charged with a crime.

Who else sees the hypocrisy here?

When all is said and done, Barry should sue the government.

[Editor's Note: This commentary does not necessarily reflect the opinions of 1HappySt or its staff. In fact, Greg and Brian both think it's wrong to ever sue the government. Or even bring up the notion for that matter. Unless of course you're Barry Bonds and you have a legitimate claim. Wait no, not even if you're Barry Bonds. You should NEVER sue the government. The government is always right. Thank you..........Please do not audit me]

On Tuesday it was reported here by Derek Zumsteg, author of a book titled "The Cheater's Guide to Baseball", that Los Angeles Angels pitcher Francisco Rodriguez is doctoring the ball before he throws it. He goes into pretty good detail (with pictures) of what he perceives to be blatant cheating, since MLB rules make it pretty clear that it's illegal for a pitcher to put a substance of any kind on the ball.

Normally, I couldn't care less about something like this. I'm the kind of person who likes cheating in baseball. I'm rooting for Barry Bonds to break Hank Aaron's HR record just so it gives the people who care (again, not me) something to cry about and me something to laugh about. But seeing as though there is now an entire book on the subject, there's no denying that it remains a hot topic for people. And I don't ignore hot topics. So my 2 cents:

I think MLB should simply remove all the 'no cheating' rules and allow these guys to do whatever they want. If they want to bulk up to 300 lbs of muscle using illegal performance enhancing drugs, so be it. If they want to dip the baseball in a jar of vaseline before they throw it, I say go right ahead. At least then every team would finally be on a level playing field. I think our biggest problem to date hasn't been with the players who continue to break the rules, but rather our inability to think outside the box for a viable solution. The powers that be will never be able to prevent cheating altogether, so they should embrace it!

[this message does not necessarily reflect the opinion of 1happyst, but only that of Brian, who with this post has officially killed any chances of ever being offered the job of Commissioner of MLB]

If you haven’t heard by now, former NBA player Tim Hardaway stated yesterday in a radio interview that he hates gay people. That’s not a paraphrase, he actually said the words "I hate gay people". This of course was in reaction to another former NBA player John Amaechi recently coming out as being gay, and Hardaway was asked his feelings on the matter. Afterwards, Hardaway apologized for his comments by saying "I shouldn’t have said I hate gay people or anything like that. That was my mistake."

I don’t know how you feel, but any time something like this happens, it puts a hop in my step. I live for situations like these. Look how close Hardaway came to using the "my bad" defense, substituting the word "bad" with "mistake". Wouldn’t you love it if more people started using this defense?

- Pete Rose, you gambled on baseball. "Yeah, that was my bad."
- Rae Carruth, you killed your former girlfriend. "Hmm, yeah, my bad on that."
- Brian, you’re not funny. "You’re right, my bad."
- George Bush, you got us stuck in Iraq with no way out. "Yeah, completely my bad."
- Barry Bonds, you took all those steroids. "F___ you!"

Some people need to work on their apologies.

Barry Bonds is sitting on 713 career home runs. This leaves him one dinger shy of the most famous home run hitter of all time, Babe Ruth. Ruth finished his career with 714 home runs, a record that stood for nearly 40 years until it was broken by Hank Aaron on April 8th, 1974. Aaron tacked on 41 more for good measure and ended with 755 career home runs. Bonds will likely tie and pass Ruth in the next week or so.

In case you've been in your mom's basement playing Doom for the last couple years, you probably know that Barry Bonds is a big cheater. According to the recent book, Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports, Bonds injected himself with so many steroids that the 1976 East Germany women's field hockey team said, "Ja, das ist too much steroids." Then they all shaved off their beards.

Since the allegations against Barry predate the newly enacted drug rules in Major League Baseball, it appears that Bud Selig's hands are tied leaving the door wide open for Barry to cruise into the record books un-asterisked.

As a last ditch effort, Selig has asked former senator George Mitchell to independently investigate the use of steroids in the Majors before the new rules were put in place, including, one can only assume, one Barry Bonds. Whether or not this commission will have any teeth or whether the commission will reach its conclusions in time remain to be seen. Experts are skeptical.

As I see it, there is one man and one man alone who can prevent Barry Bonds from breaking Henry Aaron's record of 755 home runs. That is Henry Aaron. The time is now for the Hammer to seek a court-ordered injunction to prevent Bonds from breaking his record before the commission can complete its investigation. Aaron may be hesitant to do so for fear that some will think him a sore-loser but if the investigation does, indeed, find that Bonds was chemically enhanced during the last few years, Aaron will be quickly forgiven by everyone. If Bonds is cleared by the commission, he'll then be allowed to continue chasing the record. Will any court be brave enough to unilaterally "suspend" Bonds until Mitchell's investigation is complete? What could it hurt to find out?

There are many reasons for Aaron to do this, not the least of which being that Major League Baseball will suffer irreparable harm if Bonds is allowed to break the record and subsequently found to be a big fat cheater. But Aaron must also think a little more selfishly. No single person will lose out more by allowing Bonds to break the record than Aaron himself. As the all-time home run king, Aaron and his name are a marketable commodities. Without the record, Aaron is merely another retired ball player (okay, so he's a Hall of Famer. So is Ryne Sandberg. I rest my case.) It can be argued that without the record, Hank Aaron will suffer irrepairable financial harm whether or not Bonds breaks it fairly. Aaron must act now to save baseball, and to save himself.