Bonds’ mark a strike against integrity

“The values we care about the deepest, and the movements within society that support those values, command our love. When those things that we care about so deeply become endangered, we become enraged. And what a healthy thing that is! Without it, we would never stand up and speak out for what we believe.”

Those are the words of the late Fred Rogers – he of public television’s “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

As one who cares deeply about sports and believes sports has a place in life, although it is far too central and influential in this society at this time, Barry Bonds’ home run record cannot simply pass uncontested.

Sports are worthy of support only if they are conducted under the established rules and with sportsmanship and some degree of humility from the athletes.

Funny, we don’t talk much about sportsmanship and humility in sports any more. We should be enraged. Bonds’ part in that loss is not to be sloughed off.

Can any reasonable person believe Bonds used steroids without knowing what they were, as he says he did?

Can any reasonable person believe that his home run output as he grew older increased beyond any reasonable expectations without the help of some performance-enhancing drugs?

Bond’s comment after hitting the record breaker that the numbers are not tainted seems akin to the Rafael Palmeiro Congressional testimony when he pointed his finger at the world and said he never used steroids, leaving us to find the exact opposite to be the fact.

There is a grand jury still sitting that may yet say Bonds lied under oath on the matter of steroid use.

Major League Baseball’s Mitchell investigation is still working on the entire issue of performance-enhancing drugs in the game and Bonds is part of that examination.

We are not talking about legal culpability here, although there may be some. Rather, the issue is reasonable people refusing to look the facts in the face and stand up for the game.

Instead, we are urged by many to ignore those facts and just let the matter slide.

Some say this is the steroid era of the game and so be it.

That means it is the cheating era of the game and we should ignore the cheating.

Never.

As Christine Brennan so appropriately asked in a column in USA Today this week, “Was it so important to escape the real world for three hours (watching the record-setting home run) that people checked their sensibility at the turnstile?”

Have we become so numbed by the evils of our time that the great escape of sports is to be treated without concern for decency and fairness?

The Bonds record is tentative for the moment. If it is shown that the reasonable conclusions are correct, not necessarily in a court of law but in the court of common sense, that record should be removed.

If you care about sports, you cannot ask for less and should be outraged when anyone suggests otherwise.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.