Bonds Away

God help me, but I'm rooting for Barry Bonds.

In my heart I know he knowingly used PEDs, but i'm fascinated and impressed that he has scrupulously created plausible deniability - and stuck with it - and has worked with a trainer that has been willing to go to jail rather than turn state's evidence against him (though i'm not so naive to believe there isn't some sort of monetary compensation ultimately involved).

Bonds is the most hated man in baseball. And yet, the government and baseball have not been able to definitively pin steroids use on him. More incredibly, unlike all of his peers - Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Jeff Bagwell, Raffy Palmeiro, Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi, etc. - Bonds has continually denied his knowing use of steroids, nor had any close associate rat him out.

Now comes the even greater irony. The federal government's Javert-like investigation is turning Bonds into a sympathetic victim of prosecutorial excess.

From the NY Times:

 On Tuesday, the judge ruled for the prosecution on several pieces of evidence the defense had asked to be excluded.
Illston said she would allow testimony of Kimberly Bell, Bonds's former mistress, that related to the physical and psychological changes she saw in Bonds.
Prosecutors said those changes would include how Bell noticed the shrinkage of Bonds's testicles and the worsening of his sexual performance, which the government says indicate steroid use. The judge also will allow Bell to describe an incident in which she has said Bonds grabbed her by the throat and threatened her.

What a Ken Starr-like strategy.

Seriously?

A mistress will testify on his allegedly shrunken balls and sexual performance? And the allegation of domestic violence as proof of 'roid rage? Will the defense call Milton Bradley and Elijah Dukes to the stand, both recently charged with domestic violence and clean testers of PED, to show that violence against women does not have to be the result of PED use but of misogyny?

Go, Barry, Go!