GoErie.com: Baseball experts say Bonds' playing career is over

Even if Barry Bonds avoids jail time, his indictment essentially slams the door on his baseball career, club executives and agents said Thursday.

[Eric Watters]

If you believe what you read in the book Game of Shadows, the government had the same information on Bonds that they did on Marion Jones. Both Bonds and Jones lied during their Grand Jury testimony. Others, Gary Shefield and Jason Giambi did not. Moreover, lesser known Track and Field competitors admitted to using steroids during the same proceedings and Balco kept the same types of records for all its clients. When Jones finally came clean, I knew Bonds was going to be indicted. I don't care how good a baseball player he is. The man is an idiot and the only sympathy I have for him is that it was probably rough figuring out who you could trust when you constantly had the world up your rear end from the age of 5 because you Daddy was Bobby Bonds.

[Rocky]

His Dad had his career cut short due to his drinking problems. Interesting that you do not see his Godfather, Willie Mays, standing up for him. Bonds always had a bit of that arrogant swagger about him and never really connected with the media or fans. There is no doubt that he is or was a great hitter and did not need the help of steroids to be a HOF player. Although Bonds needs to take responsibility for his own actions and be accountable for his decisions, the baseball owners and agents also need to take some responsibility. They turned a blind eye to the whole situation for their own personal gain for years. You can pretty much look at certain players and see who stopped using the last few years when they feared being caught.

[Eric Watters]

Rocky........but isn't blaming the owners and agents perpetuating the personal philosphy of so many Americans these days of shifting and deflecting blame ? I don't personally think I should be held accountable for somebody else's actions because I choose not to involve myself in stopping their behavior. For example, I have young children.....should I attempt to stop an armed robbery when I have an obligation to my family to be there for them ? I know that is an extremem example, but I believe there is term in Psychology, it escapes me right now, but the term is used to describe the idea that there are some things that are nice to do but not wrong not to do. I think that describes my feeling about blaming the owners or agents for Bonds using and lying about it. Of course, Bonds isn't being prosecuted for using Steroids, its for lying to a grand jury and I don't know how the Owners or Agents should be held accountable in any way for that decision.

[PJS]

Yes, Bonds needs to be held accountable for lying to the grand jury, that is for sure.

But man, the guy has taken so much heat for the steroid/hgh thing. I don't blame Bonds ONE BIT for doing steroids/hgh. The people pitching to him were/are on it. His competition for batting titles was/are on it. Pretty much all of baseball is on the juice. So why single him out?

MLB as a whole turned a blind eye to steroids during the whole McGwire/Sosa thing, and before that also. The bigwigs of the MLB knew what was going on with those two. Did they care? Hell no, their ratings were finally up. Then after the homerun chase with Mark and Sammy died down, they decided to "pick on" Barry.

Bonds saw an opportunity to level the playing field and he took it. I don't blame him one bit. However, he needs to suffer the consequences of purguring himself.

BTW, I am not a Bonds fan in any way shape or form. I think he is an arrogant, self centered, egotistical a-hole. But I still don't blame the guy for juicin.

[Schroeder]

Barry Bonds used steroids to accomplish his feat. Both he and Hank Arons played more games to reach their goals than did Babe Ruth. This is why I don't think that their fete was so great.

[Rocky]

I did not blame the owners for Bonds choices nor did I deflect any of Bonds personal responsibility. The owners and agents allowed their own personal greed to cause them to look the other way. They did not cause Bonds to use Roids, but their greed has damaged the integrity of the game. Bonds is a big boy and has to answer for his own choices. I just don't see how the owners and agents can look themselves in the mirror every morning and like what they see.