Hire McGwire, Bury Bonds

What's the moral of Mark McGwire's decade-late, half-baked steroids confession? White sluggers who juice get jobs, black all-time home run kings get indicted and run out of the game.

The larger storyline in Major League Baseball's long running freak show has been largely ignored.

Mark McGwire, the former home run monster with the Oakland A's and later the St. Louis Cardinals, boasting Popeye-sized arms and eye-popping homers, has gotten a very different ride by baseball officials, the government and the media than his erstwhile San Francisco Giants neighbor, Barry Bonds.

It's a black and white issue.

McGwire's steroid-jacked and record-breaking 1998 home run bash is widely believed to have been a public service drug announcement for professional ballplayers and youths everywhere that Barry Bonds could hardly ignore.

But let's compare the treatment both men received. During McGwire's astonishing 1998 home run chase with Sammy Sosa, a reporter spied a bottle of a steroid precursor in McGwire's locker.

Here's what we know. Jeff Novitzky, the intrepid BALCO investigator, did not go rooting through McGwire's trash looking for syringes. No federal grand jury was convened. Commissioner Bud Selig did not order an investigation. The media? McGwire continued to be treated as a national hero. Not a single reporter or newspaper bothered to follow up and ferret out what was staring us all in the face -- Mark McGwire was clearly taking steroids.

Fast-forward a few years, to 2002. Jeff Novitzky started telling Iran White, an undercover drug investigator, that he thought Barry Bonds was on the juice. Agent Novitzky began rooting through BALCO's trash, and with the help of ambitious San Francisco prosecutors, led a several year, 50 million dollar steroids investigation.

Roughly three-dozen athletes were called before the grand jury. Several black athletes and a black coach were indicted. An obscure white female cyclist was convicted. Meanwhile, famous white athletes, Jason Giambi of the Yankees, former 49er, Bill Romanowski, and others, were not charged.

Barry Bonds, of course, was the central target. Indicted on perjury charges, he's been in and out of court the past two years, though weak-kneed prosecutors have already punted on one opportunity to go to trial. Reports have alleged that two or more Major League owners colluded in keeping Bonds from playing the past few years, conduct that if proven sounds like a crime.

But Bonds is now 45 -- and officially retired.

Fans might say he deserves his fate. But it's hard not to see the role that color plays here. Everyone knew McGwire was on the juice, and nobody, not the league, not reporters, and not Agent Jeff Novitzky, saw a reason to launch an investigation. This week, legendary Chicago Cubs manager, Lou Piniella said McGwire deserves to be voted into baseball's hall of fame, saying, "I don't think there is anybody out there that hasn't done something that they don't feel sorry for. America forgives and forgets."

Barry Bonds' success - and predicament - has earned a radically different reaction. We can tell ourselves all we want that he's getting what he deserved, but the scorecard tells it all: 

Hire McGwire, Bury Bonds.

— Jonathan Littman

Comments

[Cheryl Steadham]

This is one reason why I no longer enjoy American sports.

Baseball was always a favorite sport because of the skill and patience that went into playing. There was also the fun of statistics that made it appealing to us math nerds. All these 'power hitters' have taken the fun out of the game.

Football used to be about running the ball and executing strategic plays. All of that is gone because the players are too bulky. It's all about crashing into each other. There's more time now spent on measuring the field to see how far the ball was moved. There was a time you could actually see it being moved because players did run. Today, they all look as if they can only run a few feet before they collapse of exhaustion.

For basketball - they need to raise the basket a least a foot to make that game interesting again. Leave the dunking for donuts and coffee. Let's seem some real skill of making a mid-court shot with nothing but net.

I'll take European football and rugby any day. At least the athletes look like athletes and not a bunch of lumbering hulks.

[Jonathan Littman]

Yes -- I was lucky enough to play European Football once, back in college. There's a reason they call soccer the Beautiful Game. Drugs, especially steroids, have turned American sports into freak shows. I too would take European football any day over lumbering American athletes. Footwork, skill and grace are still the name of the game.