Columnist Takes Barry Bonds 'Case'
Now that Barry Bonds has broken Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record, a sports columnist has voluntarily taken on the role of his defense lawyer in the court of public opinion.
“It’s a thankless job making a closing argument in defense of Barry Bonds, who almost everybody believes owes his home run record to steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs,” writes Bob Molinaro of the Virginian-Pilot.
But the San Francisco Giants slugger has been targeted in a “witch hunt” that makes far too much of his alleged reliance on steroids, Molinaro writes in a lengthy column in the style of a courtroom oration. “Did he sell a gun to Phil Spector or teach Lindsay Lohan how to drive? No,” Molinaro points out.
And, of course, what some consider cheating others see as a medical advancement, he notes, saying that under same the logic applied to the Bonds “case,” pitching records should now be listing as having been earned before and after the advent of Tommy John surgery.
Perhaps most important, Bonds broke no laws of the game in circling the bases more often than any other player in Major League Baseball history, as of his record-breaking homer last night in an at-home game against the Washington Nationals. “What Bonds’ harshest critics conveniently forget to mention,” Molinaro writes, “is that at the time when my client is alleged to have used steroids, such use did not violate baseball’s rules.”
