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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted at 1:42 p.m., Wednesday, March 4, 2009

MLB: Barry Bonds shouldn't be denied his legacy

By Ann Killion
San Jose Mercury News

It's a columnist's prerogative to change her mind. So that's what I'm doing.

I hope some team signs Barry Bonds this season. And Major League Baseball can wallow in all its glorious hypocrisy.

This week, Bonds' agent, Jeff Borris, told USA Today that he will contact all 30 teams about signing Bonds. Bonds was supposed to be wearing a suit in court, but due to an appeal by the prosecution, the trial is delayed indefinitely.

A legal analysis of the federal appeals system estimated the process could take as long as 19 months. That would put us into late 2010, a mere eight years after the investigation was launched.

Instead of twiddling his thumbs and writing out checks to his lawyers, Bonds would like to exchange his Armani for a baseball uniform.

"I will be making the rounds this week to see if there's any interest in Barry playing for the 2009 season," Borris said, adding that he wasn't optimistic that anyone would sign his client.

My opinion a year ago was that no one would touch Bonds and that it was just as well. Let the face of the steroids era fade away and let baseball try to move on with its future.

Uh, check that thought.

The steroids era isn't over, not by a long shot. Bonds has plenty of company in the Team Steroids photo, including the most high-profile member of the most high-profile team in baseball. The Yankees' Alex Rodriguez is heir apparent to not only the home run record but also Bonds' crown of Steroids King.

Everywhere Rodriguez goes — including to practice for the Dominican Republic team in preparation for the World Baseball Classic — the steroids circus follows.

Dominican Manager Felipe Alou at least has been well-prepared for his current job, saying, "I am a well-tested person when it comes to controversy."

Alou, of course, maintained his dignity as manager of the Giants while a reality show was being filmed in his clubhouse, the feds were pursuing his star player and his bosses were burying their heads in the sand.

Like Bonds before him, Rodriguez is being singled out because he's the best player in the game. But there's the untidy matter of 103 positive steroid tests still dangling. Until those players come forward voluntarily — did you just spit out your orange juice in a guffaw? — or are outed in the same manner Rodriguez was, everyone is a suspect.

And I mean everyone. From Captain Pinstripe Derek Jeter to Jeff Kent. Everyone. That's the price baseball has to pay for its sordid little business.

I know we all have Steroid Fatigue. We need a performance enhancer just to find the energy to move on. Most people have Bonds Trial Exhaustion as well, and can only hope that belt tightening in the Department of Justice could end this Trial Without End.

But being tired of a story doesn't mean it's going away. The steroids era will go on and on and on. Rodriguez has nine more years left on his contract and his long, slow march toward the tainted home run record will be conducted in lockstep with qualifications about steroids use.

The steroids era will go on and on and on as long as Bud Selig remains in charge. Commissioner Juice manages plenty of false outrage and emotion when the positive tests get leaked. In the past few weeks he has said Rodriguez has shamed the game.

He has said "I don't want to hear the commissioner turned a blind eye to this or he didn't care about it. That annoys the you-know-what out of me. You bet I'm sensitive to the criticism."

He has mused about tinkering with the record book and has cried crocodile tears: "I am saddened. This is breaking my heart. I don't mind telling you that."

All the while, he's sitting on a pile of money that would make an AIG executive blush. Selig made $18.35 million last fiscal year and I'm pretty sure he hasn't offered to give back one penny of his reward for presiding over baseball's ongoing shameful era.

So why not bring back Bonds? His era is still going on without him.