Finally, the Balco investigation has led to a perjury and obstruction of justice charge against MLB's all-time HR leader, Barry Bonds. It took just four years. For those who only think of the Balco investigation as the vehicle to get Barry Bonds, this is what the investigation orginally covered:
But that is secondary to this piece of information:
Okay. So, I got to ask, Mr. Bonds. There's this number associated on a document with your name, and corresponding to Barry B. on the other document, and it does have these two listed anabolic steroids as testing positive in connection with it. Do you follow my question?
I'm not a lawyer nor am I naive enough to ignore that one-sided nature of the indictment, but I am inclined to believe the government took the time it did (at considerable taxpayer expense some could add) in order to secure as airtight a case as one could bring.
How this affects Barry Bonds' prospects for continuing his baseball career in 2008 is a less important concern. Hopefully, he has made plans for this day and saved enough of the millions he earned to pay for lawyers. It'd be sad if he had to continue playing just to pay the bills.
Here is the 10 page indictment, and it includes more snippets of damning testimony - assuming Bonds was in fact lying.