No, Mr. Bond's, I expect you to ... ???
Goldfinger reference, in case you were wondering.
T.J. Quinn of the NY Daily News broke this story on Sunday about Major League baseball's alleged investigation into the various unsavory issues Barry Bonds is at least tangentially involved in.
The story makes for good reading, but what really interested me was the discussion over it that took place on Sunday on the Baseball Show, on ESPN radio.
First, former Mets GM Steve Phillips chimed in with his opinion - that Major League Baseball would likely dig deep into the Bonds matter, because they're uncomfortable with the thought that a guy with so much baggage could very well wind up with the game's most prestigious record. In other words, the best way to keep Bonds from breaking Henry Aaron's all-time home run record is to keep Bonds away from the game for a while, in the hope that he retires. An interesting argument and one that I believe has at least some merit. But not the sort of thing I'd think you'd want to voice out loud if you're ever interested in getting another job in baseball. Maybe Phillips is content being on the broadcast side.
It took me a while to place the voice behind the other strong opinion about Bonds. It was clearly a former player, who clearly believed that Bonds was being treated unfairly.
"Surely, Major League Baseball has better things to do,'' the player said.
A few moments later, I discovered that the voice belonged to former Baltimore Oriole, Brady Anderson.
That made things even more intriguing. You may remember that Anderson had one of the biggest statistical anomalies in baseball history when he hit 50 home runs in the 1996 season. He never hit more than 24 homers in any other season. Even back before BALCO there were loud whispers from skeptics wondering about Anderson's enhanced numbers.
Of course, that happened before baseball's drug testing, so we'll never know, one way or the other. So Anderson, and others like him, will stay in this permanent limbo between guilt and innocence. And when he voices an opinion about steroids, it will be hard to resist the urge to arch an eyebrow in response.