Barry Bonds may be the most hated man in America. With the possible exception of President Bush, no one's name is smeared in the headlines more than that of the Giants slugger. Even with all the obvious, fair reasons to dislike Bonds, it's time to back off the assault. Big time. To clarify ahead of time, I do not love Bonds. I dislike the use of steroids and I think athletes should give away autographs till their arms are sore from signing (I know it's easy for me to say this, when no one cares about my autograph, but no one can convince me that a kid screaming for a scrap of paper with a jock's name on it isn't worth the fifteen seconds it takes to jot down a signature). In addition, I'm pretty sure Bonds knew what drugs he was doing, and that he has permanently marred his achievements with his steroid use. But let's be clear here: baseball is just a game. News flash: Barry Bonds is not a murderer. He has never raped a woman. He has never kidnapped a child. With these three guarantees, he should already be off the cover of Antichrist Weekly. But somehow he remains public enemy number one. Even on the field, Bonds has never been paid to throw a game, much less a World Series, he has never purposefully hurt another player, nor has he ever attacked an umpire. So why then are we so dedicated to dragging this man through a gutter? The sanctity of the sport? We're nearly ninety years late for that. Let us not forget where we've been; baseball has been torn by, and survived, far worse scandals than will ever come from the man with bowling ball biceps and a beach ball head. The attacks on Bonds have gone too far for too long. When a Google News search for "Barry Bonds steroids" finds more stories than searches for "Saddam Hussein weapons" or even "bin Laden terror" (honestly, try it, no quotes) then our hatred, hounding, and hell-bent lynching of Bonds needs to stop. Any day now Bonds will tie and then break the total home run mark set by Babe Ruth. Baseball fans around the nation have been treating this as a cataclysmic event on par with the end of days. What is so awful about Bonds taking the second place mark away from a drunken lecher? Bonds is not a perfect role model. He cheated. There should be an asterisk by his name in the record books. But his name should be in those books. Bonds did not do anything that countless others haven't done as well. He became the best player he could be by any means necessary. While the ends didn't justify the means, the ends are unparalleled. The reason Bonds is hated more than baseball's other caught steroid users is that he was the best at it. Bonds' gravest sin is being the best player in any sport ever to use steroids.