The 2006 baseball season hasn't even begun, said Ron Cook in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but commissioner Bud Selig is already facing 'œquite the conundrum.' A new book, Game of Shadows, alleges that San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds used massive quantities of steroids and hormones to bulk up his body and become the game's most fearsome power hitter. The real problem for Selig, though, is what happens next. Thanks to his artificially assisted power binge in recent seasons, Bonds is only six home runs behind Babe Ruth's career total and only 47 away from Hank Aaron's 755—perhaps the 'œmost significant record in sports.' Among Selig's options: suspending Bonds before the season begins, or allowing him to play and putting an asterisk next to his name when he surpasses Ruth and Aaron in the record books. Whatever Selig chooses, it's going to be awkward.
Those baying for Bonds' blood should 'œgo home and take a giant chill pill,' said William C. Rhoden in The New York Times. What many seem to be forgetting is that steroids weren't banned at the time that Bonds was allegedly taking them, after the 1998 season. Testing of players only started a year ago, after 'œCongress twisted baseball's arm into setting some rules.' Would it really be fair for Selig to punish Bonds 'œfor breaking a rule that did not exist?' And it wasn't as if Bonds was the only player on steroids. Far from it. If Selig is going to go after Bonds 'œhe must go after an entire generation of players,' painstakingly 'œwhiting out' their accomplishments from baseball's sacred record books. Surely, it would be more sensible just to acknowledge that Bonds was a part of baseball's 'œso-called steroid era,' and let the record books reflect the fact that 'œBonds is the greatest player of his generation and one of the greatest ever.'
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