Posted on 11/15/2007 2:17:18 PM PST by Publius Valerius
SAN FRANCISCO -- Major League Baseball's all-time home run king Barry Bonds was indicted Thursday on perjury and obstruction justice charges, according to KTVU reporter Rita Williams.
The five-count indictment -- four counts of perjury and one of obstruciton of justice -- capped one of the longest federal grand jury investigations in Northern California history -- a proceeding that introduced the sports world to the acronym BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative) and led to the downfall of American track and field world and Olympic champions Marion Jones, Kelli White and Tim Montgomery.
It touched the NFL with several current and former players called to testify including former All-Pro linebacker Bill Romanowski.
It also sparked the ongoing debate surrounding Major League Baseball and its problems with athletes taking performance enhancing drugs. It's a debate that has gone to such lengths that the home run ball that Bonds ripped out of AT&T Park to break Hank Aaron's all-time record was headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame tattooed with an asterisk.
The charges against Bonds stem from his Dec.4, 2003 grand jury testimony when he allegedly testified that he did not knowingly take performance enhancing drugs.
Bonds trainer and friend Greg Anderson was convicted in the BALCO case on grand jury charges, served time in jail and returned to prison when he refused to testify again against Bonds. He remains in jail.
But others have allegedly testified to the grand jury that Bonds had admitted to using steroids produced by BALCO including the slugger's former mistress Kimberly Bell and a former childhood friend Stevie Hoskins.
The tax charges stem from cash Bonds allegedly collected -- and did not report to the Internal Revenue Service -- from memorabilia shows.
Bonds broke Hank Aaron's record with his 756th home run on Aug. 7 -- an event not without plenty additional drama brought on by the federal drug probe.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig grudgingly attended the games leading up to Bonds historic homer and Aaron did not travel to AT&T Park to witness the feat in person.
The large banners commemorating the record still hang from the light posts on either side of the main center-field scoreboard at AT&T Park.
Bonds ripped 762 homers in his 22 major league season and has recently talked about continuing his career else, possibly in nearby Oakland where the American League's designated hitter rule would allow him to bat but not play in the field where his aging body has robbed him of speed and quickness.
HA HA Baroid got indict
Dang it, you’re fast...
I must say his head is gonna explode over this.
I wonder if he will be held without bond?
Very strange,,I cant believe it...../szzzzz
Couldn’t happen to a bigger jerk.
It was about to anyway.
If it hasn’t yet exploded over the enormous increase in size, I can’t imagine that it is ever going to.
*
I can’t believe it. I have a lot of Barry’s stuff. He was my hero! His son went to school with my sis’s close friend.
But it is only perjury and obstruction of justice :)
I shouldve added that its sad because he’s such a nice guy who has given everything he has to his teammates, the fans and to baseball........./sszzzzz
I wonder if he will be held without bond?
***
GROAN!
LOL
mebbe he and o.j. can be bunk buddies.
Maybe he can ask Martha Stewart for advice. ;-)
And somewhere dear old Bud is screaming at his TV “why couldn’t you do this 9 months ago!”
Anybody else received their “last warning” via FRmail in the last minute?
* last man to win the single season home-run record without the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
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