They Come to Bury, Not to Praise, Bonds

Nobody with half a brain has been fooled by Barry Bonds the last six years. The league found his cheating acceptable because 1) he was filling the seats and selling the product, 2) he was innocent until proven guilty, and, 3) steroids are the Major League Baseball version of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

KEVIN H. PARK

Tarzana

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An open letter to major league managers and pitchers:

Please don’t let another record fall to Barry Bonds. Because the cheat already has the career record for bases on balls, give him a pass every time he walks up to the plate until the day he crawls under a rock somewhere.

SCOTT KERN

Santa Clarita

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I heard a rumor that Bonds’ lawyers were trying to reassemble the Simpson jury ... just in case there’s a perjury trial against their client.

DAVE ENG

Thousand Oaks

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Don’t expect Barry Bonds to want to retire any time soon. He dreads the end as much as any drunk who fears the demons that will appear the day he takes his last drink. Because it’s then that he’ll have to think about beginning to pay the piper.

After all, steroids take their toll. No one can get around that. And he’ll know then that it wasn’t worth it.

KEVIN HOLTEN

Manhattan Beach

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I hate to pummel Bill Plaschke with his own words -- it’s bad enough I had to read them to begin with. But here is what he wrote March 24, 2005, declaring that he would vote for Barry Bonds for the Hall of Fame: “I will vote for Barry Bonds.... Most of the things that make him a Hall of Fame player, steroids can’t help.”

Today, he calls Bonds a “steroid-using criminal” whom he will not vote into the Hall of Fame.

Just for clarity, which of those “things that make him a Hall of Fame player [that] steroids can’t help” has Plaschke now concluded no longer make Bonds worthy of admission?

JEFF WEINSTOCK

Encino

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Steroids or not, Bonds should be a lock for the Hall of Fame. He won three MVPs prior to his alleged start of steroid use in 1998. Did steroids give him an edge to hit so many home runs? Absolutely. But you can’t give the average player steroids and expect him to hit 50 home runs.

MATT STANKUS

Temecula

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You watch. Baseball will do absolutely nothing to punish that cheat, Barry Bonds. Like most of America, baseball is spineless when it comes to bad behavior -- except in Pete Rose’s case.

RICHARD DESANTIS

Tarzana