Free Republic

BACK IN 1997, when I was in my second year with the Cubs, I vividly recall watching batting practice when Mark McGwire stepped in the cage for the Cardinals. It was awesome. I saw how far the ball flew, and, like so many of us, I suspended disbelief. It was like watching a good horror movie, before we knew how wrong things could go. Over time, a cloud of doubt seeped into clubhouses. Suspicion about whether that teammate beating you out is playing fair. Records became mere placeholders. Every home run hit a little too far brought a hitter's integrity...

Loverro's comments on Schilling are near the end of the article, which is why I didn't auto excerpt or link the article. He referenced (and criticized) Schilling's tweets that it was Antifa that caused the Capitol ruckus.Use a search engine to search "Thom Loverro"+"Curt Schilling". I find Loverro's comments surprising given the WT's supposed conservative agenda.

If I’m Giancarlo Stanton, I’d feel conflicted about the Steroid Era, too. I’d think Roger Maris’ 61 home runs in a season is the legitimate record, too. “Considering some things, I do,’’ he said Wednesday. If I’m Stanton, I’d note the only three players to hit more than 61 home runs – Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa – had more performance-enhancing drugs in them than an East German swim team. “But at the same time it doesn’t matter,’’ Stanton said. “The record is the record. But, personally, I do [think 61 is the record]... If PED users like...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge said today that baseball slugger Barry Bonds must serve 30 days house arrest for obstructing justice during a federal investigation into his alleged use of steroids. Bonds sat stoically as U.S. District Judge Susan Illston told baseball's home run king that he had avoided prison but must spend one month in his two-acre Beverly Hills estate, two years on probation, serve 250 hours of community service and pay a $4,000 fine. A jury convicted Bonds in April of answering questions about steroids with rambling stories in an attempt to mislead a grand jury investigation...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The jury in the Barry Bonds convicted the seven-time MVP guilty of obstruction of justice, but the defense and prosecution agreed to a mistrial on the other three remaining counts. The judge, after speaking to the jury foreman, said she believes the mistrial is the proper decision given that the jury believes it has reached a crossroads. The jury is being brought back into the courtroom to read the verdict on the one count on which it agreed. The eight women and four men are returning the verdict after four days of deliberations. The jury has worked...

Over two weeks, prosecutors methodically worked to build a credible case that Barry Bonds lied to a federal grand jury in 2003 when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs. Then, on Thursday, prosecutors called Bonds' orthopedic surgeon to the stand.

Cast as a gold-digging, scorned mistress desperate to promote a tell-all book and humiliate former lover Barry Bonds, Kimberly Bell pulled a shrewd maneuver on his defense team Monday. Asked whether she had tried to "disparage Mr. Bonds in the most vulgar ways possible" on Howard Stern's radio show, Bell parried with lawyer Cristina Arguedas about what constituted vulgarity and then asked to have her memory of the show refreshed. In other words, she wanted a transcript from the interview with Stern read to her and, by extension, into the record of Bonds' perjury and obstruction-of-justice trial. Arguedas went to...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—A federal judge on Thursday barred the jury at Barry Bonds’ perjury trial from hearing angry voicemails the home run king left with his mistress during a stormy nine-year relationship. Prosecutors wanted to introduce the voicemails to show that Bonds was experiencing so-called “roid rage” when he left the messages demanding to know the whereabouts of Kimberly Bell. But U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston said Thursday that the voicemails had little relevance to proving Bonds lied when he denied knowingly taking steroids. Illston said she believed prosecutors were trying to get the voicemails into the trial for...

The former home run king of major league baseball has graciously conceded his title to zero. "It's the least I could do", said Bonds in a telephone interview earlier today from his palatial home in San Francisco. "Even though he throws like a girl, I just know he has 800 home runs in him". No word yet from Hammerin' Hank or The Babe.

Barry Bonds' agent said "it's pretty obvious" the home run king won't play in the majors this year, his strongest comments to date about the unlikelihood of Bonds returning to uniform. "I'm not optimistic any team will take him," agent Jeff Borris told The Chronicle on Monday. "I'm not a pessimistic person by nature, but it's pretty obvious he will not be a major-leaguer in 2008, because no team believes that he will be a good fit." Borris said the 43-year-old Bonds, who had 28 homers and 66 RBIs with a .480 on-base percentage for the Giants last year, isn't...

BREAKING NEWS: Barry Bonds is charged with 14 counts of lying and one count of obstruction of justice in a new indictment stemming from a steriod probe. Full article coming shortly.

Former Giants slugger Barry Bonds has asked the Players Association to consider filing a grievance on his behalf because Major League Baseball's all-time home run leader has been unable to sign a contract as a free agent for the 2008 season. In his behalf, the union has contacted the Commissioner's Office seeking information about why Bonds hasn't even been extended an offer. "We've raised both general concerns and some player-specific concerns," Michael Weiner, the union's general counsel, said, telling The Associated Press that the only specific concern raised was the case of Bonds. "We have made requests for information. I...

Caught up in the BALCO steroids scandal, an elite athlete adamantly denies using banned drugs, then mounts an aggressive defense to a perjury indictment. It sounds like the case of former Giants slugger Barry Bonds, accused of lying under oath to the federal grand jury that investigated Burlingame's Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid ring in 2003.Instead, starting today in federal court in San Francisco, a lesser-known American sports champion - Tammy Thomas, a onetime star of bicycle track racing - goes on trial, charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. Her case is of interest because it amounts to a...

San Francisco (AP) -- A federal judge is unsealing Barry Bonds' testimony to a grand jury investigating steroid use in professional sports, the evidence that federal prosecutors used to indict him on perjury charges. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston made the ruling on Bonds' December 2003 testimony on Friday

Yes, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays finished 66-96 (.407) during the 2007 MLB season, the worst team in the league (again), and an even 30 games behind the first place Boston Red Sox. But, so what? Do you think that Barry Bonds has never welcomed a challenge before in his life? Come on. Here's why Barry will be a Ray: 10. Barry Bonds is a coastal guy; loves the water because it is good for his health (also; see #1) 9. Tampa Bay has openings in all positions, especially left field 8. Barry Bonds could play DH and LF and...

U.S. baseball home run king Barry Bonds tested positive for steroids in November 2000, months before his record 73rd home run season, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday. The allegation came in a legal filing in his steroid perjury case which referred to Bonds' long-time trainer, Greg Anderson. "At trial, the government's evidence will show that Bonds received steroids from Anderson in the period before the November 2000 positive drug test, and that evidence raises the inference that Anderson gave Bonds the steroids that caused him to test positive in November 2000," U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello wrote. Russoniello, acting for the...

Barry Bonds is being shafted by the legal system. His case is, sadly, part of a pattern of judicial abuse, the stretching of the law like rubber to allow prosecutors to go after unpopular figures in business, politics and, now, sports. The indictment recently returned against him could have been rendered years ago. Why now? Because this season Bonds, an ill-tempered, arrogant, disliked athlete, broke the record for lifetime home runs. Had he not set a new record or had he been a friendly figure beloved by the fans, prosecutors would never have touched him...

Answers to key questions as Bonds begins legal journey By Mark Fainaru-Wada and T. J. Quinn Updated: December 6, 2007 When Barry Bonds walks into the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco on Friday, it will be only the beginning of an unpredictable legal odyssey. A few days after the fourth anniversary of his BALCO grand jury testimony, Bonds will surrender to U.S. marshals, go through the bureaucratic rigmarole of being arrested and later appear in court to enter a plea on four counts of perjury and one of obstructing justice. Outside the courtroom and all over the United...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — HBO Films is planning to turn a best selling book about Barry Bonds' alleged steroid use and the federal government's wide-ranging probe into performance enhancing drug use in sports into a movie, one of the book's authors said Thursday. [Snip] The planned movie based on the book "Game of Shadows" was first reported Wednesday by Variety. [Snip] Much of the book was based on secret grand jury testimony of Bonds and other famous athletes leaked to them by Troy Ellerman, a disbarred attorney sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for denying under oath he was...

Average people are tired of it. This country is already stacked toward the wealthy (mortgage interest is tax deductible; rent is not) and the privileged (the last president without an Ivy League degree was elected nearly 30 years ago).