Was Bush after Bonds?

Rachel Maddow had an unusual guest on her program late last week, Dave Zirin, the Sports editor for The Nation magazine. Sports rarely show up as a political issue on a show devoted to politics; but in this case the story involves the Justice Department’s obsessive pursuit of Barry Bonds, which has political ramifications. In fact, the case is an aberration created by the Bush Administration, or at least that is the story laid out by Zirin on Rachel’s show, and his version of events is persuasive.
Barry Bonds has long been painted as the “bad boy” of Major League baseball. Zirin compares him to Sean Penn, the “bad boy,“ of Hollywood. Both men can be surly, combative, straight-forward and truthful. They are both exceptional talents, witness the fistful of records that Bonds has racked up, and the Oscar that Penn recently won for his performance in “Milk,” not to mention the many other fine films he has made over the years. Each commands considerable respect for his skills. Zirin then ran out a scenario about the Bonds case, which was music to my ears because I have defended him a number of times on the Forum.
First of all, The presiding judge in the Bonds case, Judge Susan Illston threw out the Fed’s case last week and then it was announced that the case was suspended indefinitely, as the prosecutors, now without their evidence, ponder what to do next. The case was thrown out because the Federal agents had run roughshod over the Bill of Rights, in particular the 4th Amendment, acting as if the Constitution doesn’t exist. ESPN’s legal expert, Lester Munson, called the loss of evidence “devastating, “ a tremendous setback for the prosecutors.
According to Zirin, John Ashcroft’s Justice Department “always seemed irrationally determined to prosecute Bonds. It was as obsessive as the fisherman Santiago attempting to bring home the great marlin in Hemmingway’s THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA.” Also called obsessive was the IRA agent Jeff Novitsky, who was the agent who broke open the BALCO case; he became the steroid-busting hero to many members of the Media and newspapers, the man behind the scenes who cleaned up baseball and nailed Barry Bonds who deserves to go to jail. Zirin told Rachel that agents went into Comprehensive Drug Testing, a leading firm in testing, with a warrant to seize ten tests but instead took 4,000 medical records—that’s every player in the Major Leagues—records that were supposed to be sealed. Zirin said Novitsky was given the green light by President Bush and John Ashcroft and told them “to go for the jugular.” Three judges told the agent to return the records but he kept them as evidence. The next thing he did was to try to intimidate Greg Anderson, Bonds personal trainer and witness for the prosecution who has already spent a year in jail for refusing to testify in court. He still refuses to testify. So Novitsky tried to strong-arm his mother in law, threaten her with tax evasion and jail time. That didn’t work either. Zirin caustically observed, “They’re acting like the Gestapo.” But since the case was illegally assembled the evidence is crap and Judge Illston threw it out as a consequence.
So, in conclusion, it is quite clear that Bonds has been scapegoated for his prickly personality and because he broke Henry Aaron’s home run record, which is regarded as sacrosanct by purists, G.W. Bush, who was a part owner of the Texas Rangers for a number of years. Bonds upset the baseball gods and had to be crucified for his transgression. Then there is Management’s complicity in the steroid era. Zirin said he knows for a fact that some trainers told owners that players were experimenting with some questionable substances. They chose to look the other way because home runs made them more money. As Greg Maddox said in that famous TV commercial,” Chicks like the long ball.” So did the owners. So instead of sharing the blame for what happened and admitting their complicity, they chose to dump it all on the players, with the press and electronic media jumping in with moral judgments and endless verbal spankings of the naughty players. Barry Bonds became the poster boy of the offenders, the black sheep of the Major Leagues. His obsessive adversaries in positions of power did all they could to put him in prison. It was all so much money and time wasted by a politician now retired and nullified.
Thank you, Dave Zirin, for your diligent reporting.