Bonds gets free passes beyond the batter's box

When I spotted the cover of Tuesday's San Francisco Chronicle celebrating the "RETURN OF THE KING," I choked on my breakfast and couldn't help but feel ... well ... cheated.

King of what, exactly?

Baseball? Steroids? San Francisco?

The game's greatest player, as his super-sized statistics would suggest, cheated - and admitted to as much during grand jury testimony.

Look folks, he used steroids.

That's not some wild accusation thrown at him on some sports blogger's whim. Those words came from his mouth, were heard by grand jury members and landed in the lead paragraph on the front page of the Dec. 3, 2004 San Francisco Chronicle.

"Barry Bonds told a federal grand jury that he used a clear substance and a cream supplied by the Burlingame laboratory now enmeshed in a sports doping scandal, but he said he never thought they were steroids, The Chronicle has learned."

Oops.

Correct me if I'm wrong Š and perhaps there is an actual exception clause for ignorance Š steroid use violates Major League Baseball's policy on such, using knowingly or not. But because baseball didn't have any such policy on steroids at the time, other than "home runs good," Bonds apparently is - ahem - in the clear.

And now the BALCO case has been settled ...

What's that? Didn't you read about it?

You remember the case, right? It's the one that brought baseball's steroid-plagued state to light, even moving President Bush to address it during a State of the Union speech. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft told a national audience that "illegal steroid use calls into question not only the integrity of the athletes who use them but also the integrity of the sports that those athletes play."

But after a two-year investigation, back in July, BALCO owner Victor Conte and Bonds's trainer Greg Anderson, a former Grass Valley resident who graduated from Nevada Union High School, struck plea deals with federal prosecutors who had pledged to pin 42 charges against the men for providing illegal steroids to athletes.

The deal?

As the Chronicle reported, 40 of the 42 charges were dropped.

Anderson and Conte, due to face trial this month, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and money laundering. Sentencing is set for October, but the Chronicle reported neither is likely to serve more than six months in jail.

Another apparent part of the deal was that no athletes would be named in any court documents, aside from transcripts of the grand jury report obtained by the Chronicle Š in which, for the record, baseball players Bobby Estalella, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, Armando Rios, Benito Santiago, Gary Sheffield and, yes, Barry Bonds, admit to receiving steroids from Anderson.

So that's it?

That's the end?

No more questions?

Won't Barry be called before Congress?

Won't the attorney general be back on the case?

Won't SBC Park faithful ever come to the conclusion that when they stand and applaud for No. 25 they're actually offering an ovation for all that is wrong about sports?

And, will the Chronicle soon get back to their inspiring investigative work, after the week-long PR production celebrating the RETURN OF THE KING?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Don't we?

ooo

Brian Hamilton is sports editor at The Union. His column is published Saturdays. He may be reached via e-mail at brianh@theunion.com or by phone at 477-4240.