Barry Bonds was indicted yesterday; he's being charged with four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for his alleged role in the Balco steriods case. I say alleged because it's the polite thing to do, but I really don't have any doubt that he took steriods, that he cheated. A lot of people have wondered why the government is making such a big deal out of all this, why they're spending so much time going after athletes for using steroids when they could be spending that time, energy, and money on worthy causes, doing things to help people. I don't find that to be an invalid argument, but maybe it's a little bit of a short-sighted one. Barry Bonds is a highly recognizable person in one of America's largest and most prominent social institutions, professional sports. We have to look past the frivality of sports and see that, whether we like them or not, they are a major part of American life. They represent who we are, what our values are. The more important concern than a government "wasting time and money on some baseball player" is what it says about our society if we allow the institutions that represent us to be morally bankrupt. If we allow people to taint the sanctity of our sports-which we have so passively allowed for so many years that it might be worth questioning if there is any sanctity left in them-then we allow ourselves to ascribe to a value system that doesn't prize honest acheivement. If we tell ourselves it's Ok to cheat in sports, frivilous, entertainment-only sports, then we're telling ourselves it's Ok to cheat on the serious matters. If we tell ourselves it's Ok to cheat in the name of glory, history, and monetary gain, then we're giving ourselves an avenue and excuse for dishonesty and ignomy. What we have to do is not look at the individual case of Barry Bonds, but look at how this case is symptomatic of our society, at what it implies in our value system. All that being said, as a baseball fan, Bary Bonds is a disgrace and I hope he goes to jail. I hope he is kept out of The Hall of Fame and it doesn't really matter if his records are asteriked, because no one does or will view them with any sort of authenticity. I've never liked Bonds. One of my favorite moments in baseball history is from the 1992 National League Championship Series when the Braves' Sid Bream slid into home, scoring the winning run to beat the Pirates and send the Braves to the World Series. Not only was I happy because the Braves were going to the Series, but because Barry Bonds looked foolish. Sid Bream was unquestionably the slowest man in baseball and the only reason that he was able to score was because Bonds' throw from left field was so pathetic. The sad part about it all is that, no matter how much I've disliked him throughout his career, it was always undeniable that he was going to be a Hall of Famer. He didn't need to cheat, but his ego forced him to. The whole situation is a shame for baseball and a shame for our society.