Shadow Will Cover More Than Barry

After years of being restrained in dark clubhouse corners and furrowed front office glances, the truth is out, and it’s ugly, and it has just collided with one of the biggest forces in sports.

It has landed between shifty eyes. It has splattered across deceitful lips. It has dripped past a stubborn chin.

It will expose. It will dissect. It will humiliate.

It won’t do this to Barry Bonds.

It will do this to baseball.

Tuesday’s revelations from a well-researched book recounting specifics about Bonds’ repeated use of steroids will have little effect on Bonds.

We all figured he was juiced. We all knew he was a jerk. He has banked his money, he’ll keep his hometown cheers and, very soon, he will have baseball’s most sacred record, so what does he care?

But, holy cow, does this ever wallop the national pastime.

After years of denying its steroid problem to the heavens, baseball must now endure a summer of hell.

Its two most revered figures are being stalked by a certified cheat, and there’s nothing baseball can do about it.

With each of Bonds’ seven home run swings required to pass Babe Ruth’s total of 714, the world will be reminded of proof that he hit nearly 300 of them illegally.

With each of Bonds’ 48 swings required to pass Hank Aaron’s record of 755, the world will be reminded that he has accomplished this while shooting dangerous drugs into his buttocks and dripping them under his tongue.

The talk will not be of fastball and curveball, but the cream and the clear.

Discussion of hitting technique will be drowned out by gossip about sexual dysfunction.

Instead of comparing Bonds to great sluggers, he will be compared only to the great cheats, guys like Ben Johnson and Rafael Palmeiro, both of whom used Bonds’ initial drug of choice, Winstrol.

When he finally does break Aaron’s record, well, Aaron has already said he’s not showing up, so who will be standing at home plate to greet him?

Gov. Schwarzenegger?

The book, written by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, is titled, “Game of Shadows.” Those words are supposed to refer to Bonds.

But this summer they are all about baseball, a game whose integrity has now been postponed because of darkness.

“The bigger blemish is not really on Bonds, none of us are really surprised he was on steroids, you just had to look at him, we all knew,” said Michael Josephson, president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics. “The bigger blemish here is on baseball.”

And there’s nothing baseball can do to remove it.

After years of protecting steroid-using criminals such as Bonds, it is only fitting that baseball now spend a summer sharing his cell with no hope of escape.

Baseball can’t suspend him. He never failed a drug test and, unless all those growth hormones have turned his brain into a beach ball, he won’t fail one now.

Baseball can’t force him to retire. The San Francisco Giants wouldn’t allow it, and Bonds wouldn’t do it, even though, if he had one remaining ounce of honor or dignity left in that bloated body, he would walk away today.

Baseball won’t take away his old records, or erase his new ones. That’s a slippery slope Commissioner Bud Selig will wisely avoid. If you start hacking away at one cheating record, where do you stop? The books are filled with marks made by corked bats, emery board gloves and Gaylord Perry.

Baseball can’t even embarrass Bonds out of this. Have you ever watched him at Dodger Stadium? Have you seen how much he enjoys running into a left field where the boos are the worst he will hear?

He is ignorant of reproach. He is beyond belittling.

It is impossible to influence the heart of a man who just doesn’t care.

The book probably cost Bonds a place in the Hall of Fame -- this voter is no longer supporting him -- but Bonds probably hates August in Cooperstown anyway.

So this summer baseball is stuck in the worst of nightmares, each step of its biggest star showcasing its biggest sin.

“If Bonds wants to subject himself to that kind of abuse, well, it’s going to be a long summer,” Josephson said.

With every big Bonds swing, baseball is going to be reminded of how one of its franchises swung open its doors to Bonds’ drug supplier.

With every slow Bonds trot, baseball is going to be reminded how it ran from the problem.

Video of San Francisco fans cheering their cheat will embarrass those fans.

“We’ll see what has become a real force in sports today, that dark side,” Josephson said.

Video of booing fans from everywhere else will show baseball at its ugliest.

“Just because something is in a book doesn’t mean it’s been proven,” Josephson said. “But the court of public opinion is different, and this summer we’ll hear from them.”

Already, the start of the World Baseball Classic has been overshadowed with the news about Bonds, and he’s not even there.

So what happens if Bonds actually stays healthy enough to break Aaron’s record? And what happens if he does it away from forever-friendly San Francisco?

The scene will be dark carnival. The boos will be overwhelming. The stain will be forever.

And what exactly does Bud Selig say to Bonds during the ceremony at home plate?

It should be a lovely conversation, especially considering the other big baseball news this week.

Shortly before the contents of the Bonds book were revealed, baseball made the unsettling announcement that teams would begin selling approved supplements to players to help them avoid positive drug tests.

A lovely conversation indeed, baseball’s steroid-addled homer king embracing baseball’s pharmacist.