Glavine, ARod and Bonds: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

In inverted order:
I take no joy in Barry Bonds' indictment. I see no persecution in Barry Bonds' indictment. It was inevitable, not racist, and just sad. I have written before about my childhood experience of Barry's dad, Bobby Bonds. I won't rehash the whole episode here, but whatever problems arose later, Bobby Bonds was a good man, a great player, and good for baseball. His son could have been all of that and more, but has chosen to be sullen, difficult and needlessly hard-headed. He also appears to have lied to a federal grand jury. Jason Giambi bit the bullet and owned up to what he had done before the same grand jury, and he has never been charged with anything except being a dope. Barry is not under indictment because he's black. He's not under indictment because he's a jerk. He is facing jail time because he is arrogant enough to have believed that he was above the whole process. He will now learn in painful, expensive detail that he isn't. I am looking for a ton of lawyerly posturing, then a Vick-style plea. There won't be any 30 years' jail time, but he will serve a brief term that will be intended to teach other athletes that they better cooperate and tell the truth in doing so when the feds come calling.
I take a great deal of joy in seeing superagent Scott Boras slapped down so publicly. In case you've been out of the country, Mr. Boras informed Tweedle Dee Steinbrenner and Tweedle Dum Steinbrenner that they had to bring $350 million to the table to get to talk to his client. And that was after furthering the perception that ARod is a money grubbing jerk like no other, by announcing the opt-out during Game 4 of the World Series. In a rare moment of lucidity, the Sons of George invited Mr. Boras to go look for his vast fortune somewhere else. When said quest was undertaken, the bane of sports owners everywhere couldn't find a bidder. And why in the world would anyone else bid so stupidly when the Yankees had announced, "Not us, boys!" Boras has been a terrorist-like presence in Major League Baseball for a long time. He has gotten his way far, far too often. For crying out loud, he got $70 million for J.D. Drew! But this time he screwed up. Badly. So when Prince Hal Steinbrenner told the press that ARod could come home to the Yankees, but Boras couldn't be part of the process, Alex came running with his tail tucked between his legs. Or between his mistress' legs. Sorry, Mrs. ARod; please don't aim your vulgar tshirt at me. Alex will sign a 10 year, $275 million contract with the MFYs this week. That just doesn't sound like suffering or punishment to me. But kicking Boras out of the negotiations after he so publicly misread the market is totally wonderful. And then Kenny Rogers fired him. And hopefully other players and other owners will go and do likewise. The world becomes a better place.
Finally, it appears that Tom Glavine is going home. Not in the Southern Baptist, ultimate sense, but in baseball terms. This is extremely good news! The Atlanta Braves have an atrocious record of letting their legends leave. John Smoltz may retire after an entire career in the Braves uni, but Hank Aaron didn't, Dale Murphy didn't, Phil Niekro didn't, Andruw Jones won't, and, five years ago, they let Tom Glavine leave. I don't know if Glavine's work in the MLBPA had anything to do with it. John Schuerholz has a long and detailed memory, and Tom's role as the Players' Association's face during the '94 strike made a lot of management-types angry. And that's apart from their little dustup over the details of Tom's departure for the Mets. But Schuerholz moved up to club president, and Frank Wren took over as GM. And now, it appears that Glavine will go home to finish his Hall of Fame career. He won't be the pitcher he was before he left, but it appears that he will have to be no more than the #3 behind Smoltz and Hudson. If Mike Hampton's Fall League workouts turn into a productive year, Tom can be the 4, and even at 42 he will match up well with every other National League 4. He will post his last wins with the Braves. They should all have been for the Braves, but he will be a 300 game winner pitching for the team that he led for 15 years previously. That feels like good karma to me.