Brand the damn ball already

I see plenty of fans are in a lather about Marc Ecko's plan to mark Barry Bonds' #756 ball with an asterisk then hand it to the Hall of Fame. Barry Bonds is more than a little miffed, too, threatening to shun induction if the Hall displays an asterisked ball.

I'm a lifelong Dodger fan, so you can take this with a grain of salt if you like, but:

Do you really think there's no evidence that Bonds used steroids? Use your eyes. Read Game of Shadows. Listen to Jason Giambi and Marion Jones - two clients of the same sleazebag company who also never failed a test to detect steroids. There was no test for the cream and the clear. It's like saying Ted Bundy is innocent because he was never caught by a DNA test. There's still plenty of evidence, people.

Is this really about race? Do all the Bonds haters really just want to run black players out of baseball, as one commenter suggests? Let's take a list of some of my favourite players: Jackie Robinson, Pedro Martinez, Sandy Amoros, Dock Ellis, Dontrelle Willis, Matt Alexander, Don Newcombe, Willie Davis, Alfonso Soriano, Maury Wills, Hank Aaron, Rickey Henderson, Bob Gibson, Ken Griffey Jr...

Oh, so baseball didn't specifically ban the use of non prescribed anabolic steroids? Guess what, the USA did! I bet baseball has no rule specifically prohibiting a player from shooting a member of the opposing team, either. Do you think we'd let someone into the Hall of Fame after they did that? It's wrong to break the law.

Mr Ecko: don't just mark the ball once. Take a very hot branding iron, and make damn sure there are enough asterisks on that sucker that they'll be visible no matter the viewing angle. And if Bonds wants to take his Stretch Armstrong physique and slink off in a huff, too bad.