756* Baseballs Collaboration With Barry Bonds

As of this writing, Barry Bonds stands just 14 home runs shy of equaling Henry Aaron's all time MLB record of 755. He could likely end the season with anywhere from 760 to 770, putting his name at the top of baseballs most hallowed record. Of course, it is not when he does it that has people talking, but how he did it.

Throughout his career, Bonds always had above average power, yet prior to 2000 had hit 40 or more in a season only three times. From 2000 to 2004 however, he hit 49, 73(the all time single season record) 46, 45 and 45 respectively. Problem was Bonds was over 35 years old. His body was supposed to be breaking down and instead he was hitting the ball harder and farther than ever before. A man built like guide wire suddenly ballooned into a mass of upper body muscle almost over night and whose entire body mass changed right before our very eyes. How did this happen?

Simple really, following the season of 2000, Barry hooked up with a man named Victor Conte, who ran a company called BALCO. We all know what happened afterwards, the cream and the clear, HGH all that good stuff. Many have pointed the finger at Bonds, Conte and others like them declaring them the enemies of fair play and good sportsmanship. Of course, like all finger-pointers, they are merely trying to cover up their own involvement.

Bonds could never have gotten away with cheating his was into the record books without the aid of Commissioner Bud Selig, the owners, managers, trainers, sports writers and most damning of all, the MLB Players Association. They all had a hand in Bonds cheating and would like nothing more then to have their own culpability swept under the rug.

In 1998 baseball needed a shot in the arm. The aftermath of the strike of 94 was still going on and MLB knew they needed something to draw the fans back. Enter Sosa and McGuire, chasing down Roger Maris' magical 61 home runs. Both surpassed Maris, with the Talking Neck McGuire setting the record at 70. Both were also shooting themselves full of steroids, something neither would admit to yet would embarrass themselves years later in front of a Congressional hearing on the very subject. No one questioned how these two managed such an incredible display of power, and who would? The owners raked in millions, the players got their slice and the reporters got their press. Win win all around. Thus the silent collaboration that would lead to the BALCO scandal was born.

Selig and the owners knew something was up, but also knew that the long-ball was the golden goose. TV ratings were up, attendance was climbing and advertisers were suddenly calling again. All this new money meant that the players would see pay increases and why mess with that? Managers simply shrugged, what were they supposed to do after all? They could have done a lot, but chose not to.

Of the three major sports in the USA, baseball was the last to implement a serious steroid testing policy. Basketball had one, football still has the most thorough yet baseball had nothing until recently, and their first attempt was so pathetic it bordered on insulting. The owners never fought hard for a policy and the players refused to add one. While abusing drugs and alcohol could result in suspensions and gambling with a life-time ban from the game, steroids were strangely left off the list. Gee, I wonder why?

The players certainly were not going to bring one to the table. Performance enhancing drugs were upping their salaries on a yearly basis. Who cared if you died at fifty, you made all those millions didn't you? New Yorks Jason Giamboid was reportedly ingesting so much artificial testosterone that he had to start taking birth control pills to try and balance out his hormone saturated system. In the end he missed nearly an entire season with a laundry list of medical problems that to this day have never been fully explained.

Owners refused to fight for a testing policy because steroids and HGH meant more home-runs, which meant higher ratings and attendance numbers. Selig, in bed with ownership from day one, stuck his head in the sand and pretended nothing was happening. And the whole time not one sports writer dared speak up, or even seemed to care. Reporters who are around these athletes every day for months never once looked into the issue.

But then something funny happened. An egotist named Jose Canseco wrote a self-serving book that blew the lid off baseballs little game. While never taking the bold step of exposing just how high up the chain the don't ask don't tell policy went, Canseco managed to get peoples attention despite his megalomaniac reasons behind his autobiography. A Congressional hearing was even called on the subject. Suddenly people started writing articles and even books about Bonds, BALCO and cheating in baseball.

Baseball initially came up with a testing policy, but it was so impotent that nothing really changed. It was deliberately filled with gaps that would allow players to slip through the cracks, get cleaned up, then keep right on going. Baseball contracts are guaranteed, so once they had the multi-year, 50 million dollar contract, who cared if they never hit 30 home runs again? By the time MLB implemented a strict policy that would ban a player indefinitely after three positive tests it had given cheaters like Bonds, Jason Giambi and Sammy Sossa the chance they needed to get clean.

And so here we are, with Bonds about to make history and no one outside of the bay area caring. There are times I feel bad for Bonds, not because of his childhood, the negative media or even his family problems but because of what MLB has turned him into. A sacrificial lamb, the Christian to the lions of the media and the fans. Selig and the owners have offered him up as their pound of flesh and the media that once refused to debate the issue now uses him as their whipping boy. All this done in a concerted effort to wipe their fingerprints off of the syringe. Make no mistake, Bonds cheated to make it this far, but he never could have done it alone.