I Forgive Barry Bonds

As Barry Bonds approaches Hank Aaron's career HR record, I am more inclined to forgive him and honor him. I don't think he is any less guilty of steroid abuse or HGH abuse. In fact, I suspect he may have just been the beneficiary of the BEST steroids and HGH.

I've heard all the bullshit excuses before. Yeah, he still has to hit the ball cleanly. Yeah, we all saw Monday night that Pac Bell/SBC/AT&T/Frank's Telecom Park is not friendly to lefties. Yeah, he is the only guy I've ever seen intentionally walked with the bases loaded out of pure fear (Buck Showalter when skipper of the D-Backs (and yes, it worked)). Those are all valid excuses, and those all mitigate Bonds' obvious steroid/HGH abuse.
Barry Bonds Willie Mays McCovey Terry Steinbach
blahblahblahblahblah I might be forgiving him, or I might be for giving up

But shovel all that shit in the compost pile. We all need to be realistic. If you can name a team without a suspect in the mid-90's (I'm thinking KC), your team wasn't trying. As an Orioles fan, where everyone not named Cal Ripken, Jr., has been implicated, you have to accept that crucifying Barry Bonds implicitly forces you to crucify any players from your home team who are eventually implicated. Other than Cal Ripken, Kirby Puckett, Ozzie Smith, Cecil Fielder, Tony Gwynn and Joe Carter, you had better be prepared for a fecal fountain on any of your childhood heroes. If you are over 35 and able to use the intergoogles, you can adjust the timeframe accordingly.

Frankly, I want to be a steroid holier-than-thou, but I am prepared for the inevitable. The bigger this gorilla gets in baseball, the more likely that a "clinic raid" reveals that some of my favorite NFLers have been relying on something other than nutrition and hard work. Honestly, I'm not prepared for that. As a Ravens fan, I've dealt with plenty enough government involvement. No fan of another NFL team could possibly be of clean conscience. If a punter can cream-juice, so can Derrick Thomas or Junior Seau or John Riggins or Mike Singletary or basically any other beloved player. I'm certainly not saying any of those men cheated, but the odds are that a superlovedlegend cut some corners, and I personally like my NFL lore the way it stands.
Another spacer? Jessica Biel's ass has (slightly) less spacing.
"Live and let live." "Ignorance is bliss." Those idioms make sense to me. The one that does not is "Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." Fuck that. I'd rather never get hurt by someone I loved. MLB has already strayed, and I forgive her. Let's leave well enough alone.