In November, Barry Bonds was indicted for lying to a grand jury; in February, a judge sent prosecutors back to try again, saying the original indictment was too vague or something. Today, the feds took their second at-bat, unveiling a new indictment charging the former player with 15 felony counts including obstruction of justice.

Meanwhile, the team is six or seven games under .500, but the atmosphere at the ballpark is curiously relieved, and balls hit to left field, which speedy Fred Lewis patrols nowadays, no longer drop unmolested.

This time last year, all eyes were on Barry Bonds as the Giants tried for months to get him to sign a one-year contract that wouldn’t make them look like they were bending over backwards… or maybe just bending over. In this, they failed.

This year, Barry is gone from the team and under indictment, and the winter has seen few deals. They re-signed reliever Brad Hennesey ten days ago. And today they officially lost Pedro Feliz, who signed a two-year contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. Feliz, never a fan favorite, spent his entire eight-year career with the Giants, providing a solid but rarely brilliant third base defense, and power from time to time.
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While most of the Bay Area was masturbating over MacWorld product announcements, baseball commissioner Bud Selig was getting french-fried by Rep. Henry Waxman (D. – Calif) over the Mitchell Report‘s revelations that the management of the San Franicisco Giants knew about Barry Bonds’ steroids use and did nothing.

Waxman’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held hearings today on the Mitchell Report’s findings. His opening statement called out Giants management by name — after the jump.
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Some of this may not be new to anyone who reads this blog, but here is a list assembled from the Mitchell Report released today. And did you know that a dentist can prescribe HgH? This quote pulled from page 304 of the report:

“According to the article, Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center records show that on
March 9, 2002, Williams ordered $5,693 of testosterone cypionate, human growth hormone, clomiphene, Novarel, and syringes, and on May 8, 2002, Williams ordered $6,000 worth of testosterone cypionate, nandrolone, clomiphene, Novarel, and syringes. The orders reportedly were sent to Williams at a business address in Scottsdale, Arizona. The article reported that “Williams’ prescriptions were written by the same dentist who prescribed [human] growth hormone for [Paul] Byrd and [Jose] Guillen.”

A Dentist? that’s got to be a strike at plausible deniability.
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Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bill Zwecker’s reports that Barry Bonds is steamed at the announcement that HBO will make a film of Game of Shadows, the BALCO exposé by SF Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. Zwecker quotes “a close friend” of Bonds as saying: “‘On top of everything else, Barry was not happy to hear about this.”

“On top of everything else”? I guess he means the indictment and the fact that Bonds is now radioactive for baseball teams.

Who’ll play Bonds in the movie? Toronto Globe and Mail columnist Jeff Blair suggests Wesley Snipes (pictured at left), an obvious choice as Snipes already appeared in a Giants uniform in the film The Fan.

Of course, that was nearly 12 years ago, and Snipes will be 46 by the time shooting starts in 2008. Come to think of it, not a bad choice to play the aging Bonds, who is actually three years younger.

Variety is reporting that HBO Films has purchased the rights to the book Game of Shadows, the exposé penned by SF Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams about the steroids lab BALCO and its relationship to star athletes Barry Bonds and others. (Courtesy Mediabistro.com.)

Ron Shelton (“Bull Durham,” “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Tin Cup”) will direct the film, to be shown on HBO.

How about Samuel L. Jackson to star?

A few hours after the indictment against Barry Bonds was announced, his close friend and “trainer” Greg Anderson, who was accused of furnishing illegal substances to Bonds and spent more than a year in federal prison on a contempt of court citation, was ordered released. His lawyer said he walked without ever having cooperated with federal investigators. But a NY Times story noted that Anderson might still be charged with obstruction of justice or criminal contempt.

Meanwhile, sportswriters and others began registering their reactions.

• White House spokesman Tony Fratto: “The president is very disappointed to hear this. As this case is now in the criminal justice system, we will refrain from any further specific comments about it. But clearly this is a sad day for baseball.”
• Anonymous Giants “team official”: “Nobody’s walking around dancing on his grave,” said one team official. “But there are some people very happy that he’s not ours to deal with right now.”
• SJ Mercury News’s Ann Killion: Giants got rid of him just in time.

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Barry Bonds, the erstwhile Giants outfielder and home run champ, was indicted by a federal grand jury today on perjury and obstruction of justice charges related to his testimony to the federal grand jury investigating the BALCO steroids abuse case, the Chronicle is reporting.

The Chronicle story has links in the sidebar to the text of the indictment (PDF file) which includes direct quotations from Bonds’ allegedly false testimony to the grand jury.

After some speculation over the summer that the Yankees’ marquee player, outfielder-third baseman Alex Rodriguez, might be willing to take his free-agent butt to San Francisco for the right amount of cash, Giants fans were further excited last week when the team leaded the news it wasn’t very interested in re-signing Pedro Feliz, who has anchored the hot corner for the Giants for his entire eight-year career. If they didn’t want Feliz, was that a sign they might pick up A-Rod instead?

Not a chance. Sports sections today were filled with the news that Rodriguez was back talking to the Yankees, who had earlier given up on re-signing him. The power-hitting infielder is due to break Barry Bonds’ home run record (whether or not Bonds extends it by a few next year) in six or seven years, and the Yankees want him to do it in New York. After all — much like the Giants when they first signed Bonds — the Yankees will have a new ballpark to fill in a few years too.
 
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Just one more post about Barry Bonds — unless and until one of two things happen, he retires or comes back to haunt his former team.

In an interview with NBC and the MSNBC show “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” aired on Olbermann’s show today, Bonds answered questions on his future and also commented on the fate of his 756th home run ball. (To recount: The ball was auctioned by the fellow who caught it, and clothing magnate Marc Ecko was the winner. In an online contest, Ecko asked the public to determine the fate of the ball, and a majority voted to “mark it with an asterisk and send it to the Hall of Fame” — which, to the surprise of many, accepted the doctored ball.) Bonds has heaped scorn on this outcome, and in today’s interview he said that if the ball goes into the Hall of Fame with an asterisk he will never bestow his presence on that institution. He didn’t say he would refuse induction; he said that if the marked ball is there, “I won’t be there.”

More after the jump.
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