Bonds on Bonds

Barry Bonds has had his day in court. He and his Dream Team (and I don’t mean the San Francisco Giants) will no doubt appeal the single verdict, obstruction of justice, which did not go their way. I had a neighbor who babysat Bonds when his father, the late Bobby, a somewhat under-appreciated-fish-out-of-water ballplayer when he was with the New York Yankees, lived nearby. My neighbor said Barry was a spoiled brat from the beginning. Such is not unusual among world-class athletes, particularly ballplayers with Bonds’s pedigree, and the pressures they face are as enormous as their egos. It isn’t easy. But the abuse of steroids and HGH within the Major League Baseball community is insidious. Somehow, does it all seem a little ironic for l’affaire Bonds to be coming to a head 150 years, pretty much to the hour, after the outbreak of the Civil War? Could anything be more damaging to the House Divided that is Major League Baseball? Where are you exactly, Commissioner Bud Selig?