Connections…

So, has Joe Torre dropped the “cl” from class act?

I mean, to hear the media tell it for the last decade plus Torre was the Yoda of baseball management; sage, thoughtful, the Force of baseball wisdom flowed through the placid wizened baseball lifer: his own counsel he would keep when it came to deciding who would be trained in the way of champions.

It was accepted a gospel truth—Torre existed on a plane above mere mortals.

Now it’s getting crowded under the bus of the book he wrote along with Tom Verducci and the lustrous legend of Torre has developed considerable tarnish—are we to now believe that the former Yanki Master isn’t everything the media portrayed him as being?

Who knew?

Have we learned anything from this—anything at all?

Anyone?

Anyone at all?

The lesson is this: the way the media explains people within baseball may not accurately represent the truth. If they love them (or if they’re indulged by them—See Pete Rose, Steve Garvey, Kirby Puckett) they’ll create a portrait that even their intimates wouldn’t recognize.

If they don’t like you—well, let’s just say their names wouldn’t look out of place alongside Osama, Adolf, Genghis, Judas or Kathie Lee.

I think you know where I am going with this—again, I am not saying Barry Lamar Bonds is a saint and chances are good that he’s downright nasty at times but he is not the worst person ever to lace up spikes in the major leagues and probably isn’t among the top 100 (minimum 5000 AB).

However, the media’s portrayal of the man cause many people’s blood pressure to rise at the very mention of the name.

Bottom line—if you believe everything the press writes about individuals … well, no offense, but you’re really not all that bright. I’m sorry, you’re just not.

Anyway, Feds raid home of former slugger Bonds' trainer's mother-in-law; now the Feds have had since 2003 to connect the dots from various sources to nail Bonds and now they’re doing this? These are not the actions of people that feel they have a rock solid case to take to court to obtain a conviction—this is simple desperation.

The thing is, even what the fourth estate has presented about the case has been inaccurate; they have said that he confessed to using the “Cream” and the “Clear” when what was said was that he used certain substances that were later explained to him as being these things—a significant difference. Also, his “whatever dude” comment was not addressed to the prosecutors or any member of the grand jury but rather was what he testified he said to Greg Anderson.

In short, the truth has not been disseminated to the public in many respects and a lot of important details have not been given nearly the column space as the things that make Bonds look as guilty as possible.

I think the government knows it has done a poor job and is grasping at straws. It’s the price of pursuing vendettas—the media painted a picture of Bonds that caused Jeff Novitzky (and possibly others) to loath him to such an extent that they began to believe they were doing God’s work to bring him down and there would be enough slime laying around that it’d be easy to accomplish precisely that.

I think they may have overlooked one plausible scenario: I’m going to don my tinfoil hat and write something that I have wondered about; many folks have marveled at how loyal his personal trainer--Greg Anderson--is to Bonds and have speculated that BLB must have promised to look after him if he kept his mouth shut.

However, there are a couple of things wrong with this scenario—both men are extraordinarily self-centered. Bonds never shared significant amounts of his enormous wealth with his friend or anyone close to him. He has crafted prenuptial agreements, offended Kimberly Bell with the size of her “payoff” and has never shown any inclination toward spending large amounts of money for people’s silence.

These ones had “the goods” on Bonds as well but he was never motivated to look after such ones for life in exchange for their silence. I cannot see Bonds making an exception for Anderson. Bonds often treated Anderson like it was his duty to do what Bonds wanted when he wanted it done—gratitude isn’t something for which BLB is noted.

Anderson knows Bonds well and I cannot see why he would think that his friend would feel it is his responsibility to do anything that would inconvenience the moody slugger—it has always been a one-way street.

I think Anderson wasn’t protecting Bonds—he was protecting himself.

One of the things Bonds wanted from BALCO was pain relief and Bonds said that he believed the “Cream” would help with the pain.

Before I proceed further let’s be clear on this point: I think Bonds took anabolic steroids at some point, Anderson knew he took steroids and Victor Conte was aware as well.

I am beginning to strongly suspect that Bonds did not know what was in the “Cream” and “Clear” and he was being used as a guinea pig by Conte and Anderson. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Bonds was cycling steroids and HGH at the same time he was using the “Cream” and “Clear.” This might be the reason for Anderson’s silence—he doesn’t want to face the consequences of it becoming known that he was using his friend as a test subject for Conte’s experiments.

So, while Bonds was using steroids during his career and even when he was associated with BALCO, he wasn’t lying when he said he didn’t know what was in the “Cream” and “Clear.” It would explain Anderson’s dogged silence as well as the government’s inability to build a perjury case based on his grand jury testimony.

Some quotes from Bonds' testimony:

"I was just baffled like, you know, should have been doing this a long time ago, you know, drawing blood, find out what you're lacking and stuff, you know, keep your energy up if you're this or that."

And everyone tries to give me everything. You got companies that provide us with more junk to try than anything. And you know that as well. I was fatigued, tired, just needed recovery, you know. And this guy says: "Try his cream, try this cream." And Greg came to the ballpark and he said, you know: "This will help you recover," and he rubbed some cream on my arm, like some lotion type stuff, and like, gave me some flax seed old, that's what he called it, called it some flax seed oil, man. It's like: "Whatever, dude."

"And I was, like--you know, to me it didn't even work. You know, me, I'm 39 years old. I'm dealing with pain. All I want is pain relief, you know?"

"And I had a bunch of massage people trying to keep me going and, you know, a lot of training and stuff like that. And I was just getting fatigued and not recovering ... I never asked Greg. When he said it was flax seed oil, I just said: "Whatever." It was in the ballpark ... You know, in front of everybody. I mean, all the reporters, my teammates. I mean, they all saw it. I didn't hide it. I didn't hide--I didn't hide anything."

In response to a question about whether Anderson inquired about any effects, Bonds replied: "It's not doing crap. I'm still in pain. I'm still feeling the pain."

"I just told Greg I was having problems recovering. I-the pain--I have bad arthritis ... "I just need to recover," you know, that's all, the pain -- "Just take the pain away."

This is a common theme in his testimony: the “Cream” was often rubbed on areas Bonds felt pain and he complained that he wasn’t getting relief. Again, I’m not saying Bonds wasn’t using steroids at this point in his career but it might be time to consider that insofar as the substances in question are concerned that he didn’t know that he was taking steroids and he was being used by Anderson and Conte as a guinea pig.

If this is indeed the case, then the government is in tough to prove perjury and there’s no way Anderson will talk because it is not Barry Lamar Bonds he is protecting—it’s himself. Right now, the government is trying this in the press and the media is all to happy to oblige but it is entirely possible that they made a key tactical error in assuming that the steroids Bonds knew he was taking were not the substances in question but that Bonds genuinely felt that the “Cream” and “Clear” were items to help him deal with pain and alleviating fatigue common to athletes his age.

Time will tell—but this much is (ahem) clear—the government is scrambling at this point despite having almost six years to prove their case.

That is telling of itself.

Best Regards

John