If San Francisco were Salem, Barry Bonds would be a witch. If Bud Selig were a 1950's senator, Barry Bonds would be a card carrying commie. If Baseball Tonight were the national news, Barry Bonds would be hiding Bin Laden in a bunker under home plate.

In a sport in grave danger of imploding on itself, the continued lynching of Barry Bonds is perhaps the biggest mockery in the illustrious history of America's Past Time (and that list is comprised of things like 8 Men Out, labor strikes, Pete Rose and everything Jose Canseco has ever done, including Madonna).

Love him or hate him, it cannot be disputed that Bonds is truly one of the greatest to ever play the game. His stats prove it both in the field and at bat. MVP's, Golden Gloves and soon to be more homers than all the greats. If only that were the story we would be allowed to embrace and remember.

However, in a society that revels in building up heroes only to maticulously and painstakingly tear them down, Barry Bonds has become the poster boy for all that is wrong with the MLB and has been for quite some time. Barry Bonds is now the villain in the story of a history of a sport he helped to write. He is out there, game after game, taking the blows for a sport, a league and its commissioner who continue to evade blame for the tremendous peril they have caused an American Institution.

Steroids, human growth hormones, creatin; call the supplements what you will but for over a decade they have been as common in the dugout as chewing gum and sunflower seeds. After an abysmal few seasons, they were there when Sosa and McGwire put baseball back on the map and money back in the coffers. The lack of an inclusive policy against performance enhancing drugs and lack luster testing have resulted in some of the biggest names in the game including such substances in their traveling bags, and a list of banned supplements that changes almost daily. Pitchers, perhaps the most physically abused players in the league rarely get tested to see what is getting them through their grueling schedules, and yet it seems Giambi can't piss without someone collecting it in cup.

The fact is Barry Bonds has never been convicted of anything. It has never been proven he has used banned substances and rumor aside; he has never failed a MLB drug test. Yet, a highly hypocritical front office has allowed Barry to be portrayed as a bigger junkie than Keith Richards. As he continues to sell tickets and merchandise, as he continues to play having never been suspended, even for a single game, Bud Selig waffles as to whether or not he will even attend the games leading up to Bonds breaking the HR record. The talk of asterics by his name in the record books and banning from the Hall of Fame originates from the very same office that cashes the checks for the revenue #25 brings in. When it is a slow news day for The Bigs, that same front office throws Bonds out to the lions of the press as a sacrificial lamb. When the MLB leads off Sports Center, it is Barry who gets them the spot, hitting yet another home run. Aside from The Yankees/Red Sox rivalry and a handful of Asian Pitchers, Bonds is Major League Baseball.

Here we sit, 10 home runs away from baseball history being made and amidst all the controversy and accusations stands an athlete who has reached the absolute pinnacle of his profession. With a tremendous amount of pressure on his shoulders and ears full of chanting nay-sayers calling him a liar and a cheat, Barry Bonds will continue to swing that bat sometimes striking out, sometimes walking to first and sometimes watching the ball sail off into the bay, not for yet another million to add to his collection but for a game he loves. He swings for himself, for his father before him who did the same, for his godfather before them. Facing greater odds then any man he has surpassed in the annals of game and betrayed by those who profit from his efforts, he swings to become a part of something bigger then himself that can never be taken away from him, to become history.