Barry Bonds in The Clear?

The blockbuster sports news of the day, to me, is that Barry Bonds might actually be in the clear. Yet the story seems to be being strangely underplayed in the media -- except for Yahoo Sports which broke the story (I haven't seen anything at ESPN.com or SI.com).

I'll let you read the story, because it's detailed, and it's good, but the summary is simple. Barry Bonds is on trial for perjury with the government alleging that he lied to the grand jury when he denied taking steroids. And the government has been basing that claim on the fact that they have records showing that Bonds did take "The Clear."

There's just one problem. "The Clear" wasn't classified as a steroid until 2005, which is after BALCO, the facility that was training Bonds and providing him with "The Clear," was shut down by the government. And it appears that the Feds were aware of this problem, which is why they tried to trick Bonds up in the grand jury questioning.

And how do we know what the Feds actually knew? Well the folks at Yahoo Sports have been reading all of the grand jury testimony --much as I did last year for Ballz with all of the Clemens/Pettitte depo/testimony. And two experts working for the government, including Jeff Novitzky, the guy who made it his mission to bring down Bonds, testified that "The Clear" was not a steroid.

What this means is that, when Bonds testified to the grand jury that he never knowingly took steroids, he was telling the truth because, to the U.S. government, it wasn't classified as a steroid at the time Bonds was taking it, in fact, it's still questionable whether "The Clear" actually is a steroid, though it is now labeled as such.

Now Bonds still has a tough road ahead. There are still results from drug tests in possession of The Feds that show that Bonds took steroids before "The Clear," but there appear to be some chain of custody issues there. So it's possible that Bonds still faces a conviction. But given a good attorney, which Bonds appears to have, his chances of getting off are much, much better.

P.S: Hey, Rocket, I've got an idea. Maybe you should give Bonds' attorney a call.