Earlier today, I was going to write a post regarding the World Baseball Classic, and how I thought it would be an interesting, competitive and generally successful venture. I was going to discuss some of the issues regarding the WBC, and how its interference with spring training was inevitable. But that was before I started reading some of this afternoon's press, and how I think the WBC is going to take a massive back seat to an erupting story regarding one of the game's biggest stars. Antecdotal evidence has suggested that for years, a certain San Francisco slugger was taking steroids. This is the man who destroyed Mark McGuire's single-season home run mark by 3 - smashing a record 73 in one year. This is the man who's only 14 homers away from surpassing the Babe's mark, and perhaps another (steroid-enabled) year or two away from besting the great Hank Aaron's all-time mark. Now, however, any legacy Barry Bonds might have left on the game is irreparably tarnished. If the book excerpts are any indication, this book is going to lay Barry Bonds clean. From what I've read, this book is going to detail the usage, types and every other small piece of information regarding Bonds' steriod usage. It has been seriously researched, and most are reporting that the sources are all listed and are capable of independent verification. In cases where hear-say evidence is introduced, at least it is done from court records and not by interviewing Joe Schmo on the street and writing that "an unnamed source" has "evidence." No - these are verified court records, and one should at least hope that the various people on the stand did not perjure themselves when making their testimony. I believe that it is time Major League Baseball not only took a hard line against Bonds himself, but also punishes this man. Frankly, any record that he has ought to have an actual asterisk next to it, with the notation that "illegal steroid use contributed to this record." I don't care whether steroids were illegal or not at the time the record was broken; I want to see any record Bonds has over the past 8 years discredited and earmarked. ESPN should just drop their "chase for the record" crap; it would be a slap in the face that Bonds deserves. The most arrogant, overbearing player in recent memory in baseball has defied the league, its legion of fans, and the spirit of the sport. There is nothing more sacred to many baseball fans that the records. Some have stood for decades; others might never fall again. One of the game's heralded records was beaten by a man who was so dependent on steroids that (according to excerpts) he would juice even when his 3-week cycle wasn't fully finished. He'd overlap. I hope that in every National League city where Bonds plays this year that the fans stand up and boo Bonds consistently and solidly every second he's at the plate. I hope the heckle him viciously while he's trying to play left field. I hope that his body collapses in on itself now that steroids are illegal, and that he can't even hit a weak grounder out of the infield when his body regresses to its past self. And I hope that he tries to further make an ass of himself, so that we all have the pleasure of watching this high and mighty cheater fall flat on his ass.