Friday, June 09, 2006

Baseball Thoughts...

I apologize in advance because I’m about to drop 547 words. I haven’t posted in a few days and I’ve got a lot to get out there…

1. Grimsley Fallout?: Don’t kill the messenger, but read this…If it’s true, well, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised. I wouldn’t be happy about it, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

2. A Government Agency Gone Mad, Or Why I’m Now On Barry’s Side: The first part of this article is a damn disgrace and, in my opinion, a black eye upon the face of our federal justice system. The vindictive, targeted attack on Barry Bonds simply has to stop. I’ve never liked Bonds, I don’t like him now, and I’ll never like him, but it’s becoming impossible for me not to at least see him as a somewhat sympathetic (or at least pathetic) figure.

I just can’t understand why the feds are so hot for this one guy. Is it because the estate of Babe Ruth is paying protection money to the feds to keep on going after this guy? Obviously not. Is it because he’s rich? It can’t be, because there are plenty of rich people that openly flout federal laws and get away with it. Is it because he’s using drugs? Possibly, even if it’s not “those” drugs, because our ridiculous, selective American morality refuses to live and let live on the drugs issue. Is it because he’s a minority? I wouldn’t put it past our government to institute this sort of semi-legitimate pogrom on a rich black celebrity.

Hell, if it’s back taxes from baseball card shows and autograph sessions, I’m positive Barry Bonds and his people would be happy to work something out with the IRS. Pete Rose and Darryl Strawberry, among others, worked out plea bargains for the same sort of tax violations. But the IRS is freaking out about performance-enhancing drugs. This is just absurd. The IRS has already gotten guilty pleas from the scientists and business people that ran BALCO Labs and from the chief distributor, personal trainer Greg Anderson. Why target users? What’s the point? The feds already have their big fish (Victor Conte and Greg Anderson), so why go after the street-users that are doing no harm to anyone but themselves (if conventional, government-funded scientific reports are to be believed).

To think that the IRS and other federal agencies are now trying to compel other major leaguers to wear wires, turn informant, or otherwise spill the goods about what they know, don’t know, might know, or think they know about Barry Bonds makes the whole investigation seem targeted and farcical. Worse yet, to out a player like Jason Grimsley to the public, to leak a supposedly sealed document as a means of punishing or coercing him to assist in the investigation is extremely vindictive and, frankly, demonstrates that the people going after Barry Bonds are behaving more like rabid dogs than rational agents of our government.

I’m absolutely disgusted by this. I don’t advocate cheating and I certainly don’t advocate breaking the law. But when it rains a shit-storm of trouble on the head of someone that only deserves half of what he’s getting, it certainly doesn’t create or restore my faith in the system.

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