Barry Bonds found guilty of obstruction

[JLEW1818]

SAN FRANCISCO -- The jury in the Barry Bonds convicted the seven-time MVP guilty of obstruction of justice, but the defense and prosecution agreed to a mistrial on the other three remaining counts.


The judge, after speaking to the jury foreman, said she believes the mistrial is the proper decision given that the jury believes it has reached a crossroads.

The jury is being brought back into the courtroom to read the verdict on the one count on which it agreed.

The eight women and four men are returning the verdict after four days of deliberations. The jury has worked behind closed doors since rehearing some testimony early Monday.


Bonds is charged with three counts of lying to a grand jury in 2003 and one count of obstruction.

Prosecutors allege that Bonds lied when he denied knowingly taking steroids and human growth hormone. A third count of making a false statement charges that Bonds lied when he said no one other than his doctor ever injected him with anything.

The fourth count is obstruction of justice, which alleges that MLB's all-time home runs leader hindered the grand jury's sports doping investigation by lying.

Bonds' case is the culmination of a federal investigation that began in 2002 into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, which distributed performance-enhancing drugs to athletes.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.



http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6347014

[StoopTroup]

LOCK HIM UP!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PmvsWE1k-7w/SYxv-cFtJiI/AAAAAAAAABk/7VM0h3kLbjw/s400/bonds-jail.jpg

[olevetonahill]

Who cares?

[JLEW1818]

Who cares?

lots of tax dollars wasted

[StoopTroup]

Who cares?

Kobe Bryant? :D :pop:

[okie52]

I doubt this was worth the effort.

[Soonerson1975]

*

[olevetonahill]

lots of tax dollars wasted

This is true. What they gonna do, make him do community service? Fine him a few bucks?

[OhU1]

All this because he passed Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth. Back in Babe Ruth's day if you hit the ball over the 2nd baseman's head you had a home run.

And brothers were not allowed to play! You can't have a sport without brothers. That's not a sport - that's a game! That's like winning the spelling bee but no asians were allowed to compete.

Leave Barry Bonds alone!

[mgsooner]

100% natural.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9RkPP5l-xlY/TVaU-gUoSuI/AAAAAAAAQRM/TB757fwBWo8/s1600/bonds+b+4+and+after.jpg

[2121Sooner]

If it's good enough for The Boz, it's good enough for Barry

[mgsooner]

I bet Barry has some serious backne

[cccasooner2]

LOL, the verdict will be tossed. He was found guilty of obstruction because he lied but then they couldn't agree that he lied on the foundation charges.

[Turd_Ferguson]

All this because he passed Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth. Back in Babe Ruth's day if you hit the ball over the 2nd baseman's head you had a home run.

And brothers were not allowed to play! You can't have a sport without brothers. That's not a sport - that's a game! That's like winning the spelling bee but no asians were allowed to compete.

Leave Barry Bonds alone!You sound like some week knee'd yammering ****'n *****...

[AlboSooner]

For a society who is over-medicated, I find it odd that we scorn one sport for using natural compounds (there are no steroids outside of nature) to become better, but yet we praise another for doing the same thing.

If by natural we mean, no help from drugs, then nobody does anything naturally.

[OhU1]

You sound like some week knee'd yammering ****'n *****...

It’s not that I don’t like Babe Ruth, I just don’t think he was the best of his time. Satchel Paige was striking people out from his wheel chair at age 63! And he was tenth best. There were nine Negro players better than him!

It’s almost like saying - I won the New York City Marathon this year - but no Kenyans ran!

It’s not a sport until brothers show up - it’s just a game.

[okie52]

All this because he passed Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth. Back in Babe Ruth's day if you hit the ball over the 2nd baseman's head you had a home run.

And brothers were not allowed to play! You can't have a sport without brothers. That's not a sport - that's a game! That's like winning the spelling bee but no asians were allowed to compete.

Leave Barry Bonds alone!

Aaron passed Ruth a long time ago. Maris did too. Nobody considers Mcgwire or Sosa as meaningful achievements nor should anyone consider Bonds.

yep, the game would have been better had it included blacks back in Ruth's era but Ruth had more homers in some seasons than half of the leagues teams.

Aarons and Maris's were honest achievements. The steroid boys were not.

And, in case you haven't noticed, the brothers participation in baseball has dropped significantly over the last decade.

http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/9233.aspx

[rekamrettuB]

He did some serious forehead situps.


100% natural.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9RkPP5l-xlY/TVaU-gUoSuI/AAAAAAAAQRM/TB757fwBWo8/s1600/bonds+b+4+and+after.jpg

[AlbqSooner]

LOL, the verdict will be tossed. He was found guilty of obstruction because he lied but then they couldn't agree that he lied on the foundation charges.

You can be found guilty of conspiracy even if you are found not guilty of the underlying charge. Jus sayin

[StoopTroup]

If it's good enough for The Boz, it's good enough for Barry

And if the Boz can admit it....so can BB.

[OhU1]

Aaron passed Ruth a long time ago. Maris did too. Nobody considers Mcgwire or Sosa as meaningful achievements nor should anyone consider Bonds.

yep, the game would have been better had it included blacks back in Ruth's era but Ruth had more homers in some seasons than half of the leagues teams.

Aarons and Maris's were honest achievements. The steroid boys were not.

And, in case you haven't noticed, the brothers participation in baseball has dropped significantly over the last decade.

http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/9233.aspx

Babe Ruth was a pretty good hitting pitcher and he ran well for a fat man.

He hit 54 home runs one season when the next closest player had 17. He became the all time home run king when he hit his 139th home run. His career batting average was .342. The first 6 years of his career he was a pitcher - he won 23 games as a 21 year old, he won 24 games the next year. His career ERA was 2.28 and he was 94-46.

[okie52]

Babe Ruth was a pretty good hitting pitcher and he ran well for a fat man.

He hit 54 home runs one season when the next closest player had 17. He became the all time home run king when he hit his 139th home run. His career batting average was .342. The first 6 years of his career he was a pitcher - he won 23 games as a 21 year old, he won 24 games the next year. His career ERA was 2.28 and he was 94-46.

Who was the Black guy that was a great homerun hitter during that time....he went insane but he was special.

When you are hitting homeruns you don't have to run well.

Ruth and other players were special in that era. I still think of Gehrig for all that he did. Hornsby was remarkable.

I batboyed a game for the Cards in 1962 vs the houston colt 45's. Stan the Man was there and i had an interview with him by Harry Cary. He will always be my favorite.

[Al Gore]

Seriously.....talk about pissing away $20 million dollars of taxpayers money.

[OhU1]

Who was the Black guy that was a great homerun hitter during that time....he went insane but he was special.

When you are hitting homeruns you don't have to run well.

Ruth and other players were special in that era. I still think of Gehrig for all that he did. Hornsby was remarkable.

I batboyed a game for the Cards in 1962 vs the houston colt 45's. Stan the Man was there and i had an interview with him by Harry Cary. He will always be my favorite.

Okie, "Babe Ruth runs well for a fat man" was Ty Cobb's response when asked if he thought Ruth was a great player. That was one arrogant SOB. :)

Josh Gibson hit 801 home runs in the negro leagues but I don't know a lot about him.

It's really too bad about all the steroids in baseball. I was always a fan of the numbers and much like Rainman I could still cite most of the pre 1990's all time home run list off the top of my head from Aaron's 755 down to about 271 (Steve Garvey). Home run stats are so inflated they just don't mean anything anymore.

[okie52]

Okie, "Babe Ruth runs well for a fat man" was Ty Cobb's response when asked if he thought Ruth was a great player. That was one arrogant SOB. :)
eme
Josh Gibson hit 801 home runs in the negro leagues but I don't know a lot about him.

It's really too bad about all the steroids in baseball. I was always a fan of the numbers and much like Rainman I could still cite most of the pre 1990's all time home run list off the top of my head from Aaron's 755 down to about 271 (Steve Garvey). Home run stats are so inflated they just don't mean anything anymore.

Ruth and Cobb used to have golf matches....but I can't remember who won.

Josh Gibson was who I was trying to think of.

Everything was ruined by roids. I don't know where you draw the line but I can remember in the mid 90's when everyone thought the ball was juiced instead of the players. Even did extra tests to make sure that the ball was conforming to specs. When McGuire and Sosa did their run nobody was asking about roids. And then there is Clements...who may end up being the worst offender of all.

[picasso]

All this because he passed Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth. Back in Babe Ruth's day if you hit the ball over the 2nd baseman's head you had a home run.

And brothers were not allowed to play! You can't have a sport without brothers. That's not a sport - that's a game! That's like winning the spelling bee but no asians were allowed to compete.

Leave Barry Bonds alone!

Umm, they went after Roger Clemens and McGuire and I'm pretty sure they are pasty white guys.

[OhU1]

Umm, they went after Roger Clemens and McGuire and I'm pretty sure they are pasty white guys.

A damn Lornhorn and a Trojan. Justice.

[StoopTroup]

McGuire was a Cardinal so he gets a pass.

[StoopTroup]

pretty good article with quotes from Bud Selig...


RvBCl3CBMXA

Judging Bonds Has Only Just Begun

Barry Bonds’s statistics cannot be erased. Bonds did not get away with his actions in federal court, where he was convicted of a count of obstruction of justice Wednesday. But in his era Bonds was allowed to stay on the field and hit 762 home runs and win seven Most Valuable Player awards.

Fans can judge those accomplishments however they want, but they did happen, and they are as historically valid as the 714 homers Babe Ruth hit without ever facing an African-American pitcher.

Commissioner Bud Selig said Tuesday that he had already studied the integrity of baseball’s records, with help from Jerome Holtzman, the Chicago writer who was baseball’s official historian.

“I had enormous affection and respect for him,” Selig said. “I said to him one day — because he thought that was being overblown, about steroids and the way people were reacting — I said: ‘All right, Jerome, why don’t you do this for me? Why don’t you go back to the ’20s and ’30s and show me the things that were aberrational and caused differences in records?’

“He did. It took him six months, and he did it brilliantly; I still have it in my file. And his conclusion is every era has had its problems, whatever it is.”

Selig then spoke about the color barrier, not just before Jackie Robinson broke it in 1947, but for many years later, when some teams enforced it on their own. He said he was in Detroit the day Ozzie Virgil integrated the Tigers — 11 years after Robinson’s debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Racism clearly affected baseball’s records. So did the rampant use of steroids. But all the records stand, as they should.

“That’s a slippery slope,” Selig said. “Once you get involved in that, there’s no fair way to do it. At this moment I have no feeling of doing anything differently than I’m doing.”

But while facts are facts, the Hall of Fame is subjective, and the guardians of Cooperstown are not keen on cheaters. That is why Bonds seems very unlikely ever to be enshrined.

The rest of the article....

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/sports/baseball/15kepner.html

[Adrian]

Seriously.....talk about pissing away $20 million dollars of taxpayers money.

Even a higher bill if the prosecution still pursues the other three counts...

[okie52]

McGuire was a Cardinal so he gets a pass.

Nah, I still remember him hugging the Maris family (another Cardinal) when he broke Roger's record. I think he has apologized to them in the last few years.

Now nobody even hits 50 homeruns. What a joke the roid period was.