Barry Bonds perjury trial waste of government time, money

You know those riddles they give you in school where you have a list of six things and you have to pick out the one that doesn’t belong?

OK, I have a good one for you right now, here goes:

Our nation’s economy is just coming off a recession and is fighting to bounce back.

Our country has trillions of dollars in debt and doesn’t have the resources to pay it back.

One of our biggest allies is in shambles after a tsunami and earthquake.

Barry Bonds is on trial for allegedly lying under oath about taking steroids.

We’re firing shots in Libya.

Gasoline is inching closer and closer to what feels like 68 bucks per gallon.

OK, which one doesn’t belong?

If you guessed Barry Bonds, you’re absolutely right.

Baseball’s new home run king has been taken through the ringer in the past few weeks in a San Francisco federal courthouse after he allegedly lied under oath and denied that he ever knowingly took performance enhancing drugs throughout his career.

Granted, I’m not defending those who lie under oath.

Much like I’m also not defending those who degrade the game of baseball by cheating.

But is Barry Bonds really the biggest fish we need to fry as a country right now?

Is he really the guy that we should be spending countless amounts of money and time to try and put away?

The answer is no, and heck no.

Sure, Bonds took steroids. Just look at a photo of the man from 1991, then look at a photo from 2001.

It’s not even a comparison, the guy went from a lanky leadoff hitter who stole bases to a massive statue who made the baseball bat look like a twig in his hands.

Court testimony has yielded that Bonds’ hat size grew substantially in that time frame and his shoe size also had a large increase, as well. Does that happen naturally? No, it doesn’t.

I’m 23. My shoe size has been the same since I’ve been 16. It will be the same until I’m 83, if I’m blessed enough to see that age.

Bonds was taking some sort of unnatural supplement. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.

Heck, he even admitted he did, he just claims he didn’t know about it.

Granted, I find that hard to believe, because I know first-hand that athletes are incredibly OCD about what goes into their bodies.

But what draws my ire the most is that he’s just merely one member of a fully stocked choir who is being sentenced to death for the crime of singing.

Bonds is one of probably 1,000 baseball players of his generation to use steroids. Did all of them lie under oath?

No, they didn’t.

But were they all asked?

No, they weren’t.

Why was Bonds chosen to be the one they are picking on? Why is he the one that is being vilified? Why is he the face of a generation that is labeled the Steroid Era of modern day baseball?

Why not Sammy Sosa? Why not Jason Giambi? Why not Jose Canseco?

Why Barry Bonds?

No matter what the answer is, it doesn’t make sense.

What is the government trying to prove?

Are they trying to send Barry Bonds to prison? Judicial analysts say that’s highly unlikely, no matter the outcome of the trial. And even if it happens, are we really willing to spend even MORE government money housing a guy who never hurt anyone, but just allegedly lied to protect his legacy and his life’s body of work?

So throw jail out of the equation, are they trying to set a standard? It’s too late. Drugs are already out of baseball and have been for the past several seasons.

Are they trying to prove a point? Again, it’s too late. Barry Bonds has already been tried and convicted by the most powerful court in the world, public opinion, and no one will ever take any of his records seriously. Heck, people still refer to Hank Aaron as the home run king, even though Bonds surpassed the legend’s mark several years ago.

Or are they just trying to bring shame?

Whatever the reason may be, it costs money and it stinks.

It really does, it just stinks.

I’m an American. I look around me and I see countless things that need to be fixed in my day-to-day life.

Whether Barry Bonds lied about using drugs isn’t one of them.

He’s just not worth it.

Can we please move on to something else?