Justice

I've come across Richard Justice a few time at The Sporting News and his columns are usually garbage. This one is particularly awful.

Almost any logical person would conclude that baseball decided it wanted nothing more to do with Barry Lamar Bonds. Is this the Son of Collusion? Does Bonds have a case?

A Bonds / collusion article. The originality of this concept has almost sent me into a diabetic coma.

If a dozen baseball owners gathered in a room, you could not get them to agree on anything.

Oh so it's an anti-collusion arguement. Pray tell...

these baseball men all agreed that Barry Bonds wasn't for them.

So they did agree even though they can't agree on anything. Starting to lose the plot here a little bit.

Could Bonds have helped them win a championship? Sure he could have. They wouldn't even argue that point.

Something else they agree on?

The Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks and other teams have had a desperate need for offense at various times.

Instead of taking a low-risk chance on the best offensive player of the last 50 years, these teams gave up young talent to get players not nearly as good as Bonds.
Right so there must be collusion. I mean why would all these GM's ignore Bonds otherwise?

No reason was ever given. At least no good reason was given. There was a pattern to the snubs.
Team A would lose an offensive player or have a glaring offensive weakness. Bonds's name would be floated one day, shot down the next.

Making a pretty compelling agruement now.

Why would this be? Is it because Barry Bonds is a jerk? Is it something more than that?

Barry Bonds is a jerk. He jerked 756 Home Runs out of ballparks in his career. He is 3rd all time in career OPS+ behind Ruth and Ted Williams.

Ty Cobb once strangled the wife of black groundsman because he wasn't happy with the state of the field. He also once went into the stands and beat up a diasbled fan who had been heckling him. He continued to play baseball for a long time because he was fucking awesome.

So in summary yes I would say it is something more than being a jerk that is preventing Bonds from playing baseball.

Bud Selig is the best commissioner baseball has ever had. By miles. He's been the key for the game's amazing growth.

In case you weren't familiar with Mr. Justice and his writings let me fill you in. Richard Justice worships the very ground that Bud Selig walks on. If it were up to Richard Justice then Bud Selig would be president of the Universe.

Selig presided over the cancelled World Series of 1994, he reinstated George Steinbrenner after he had paid someone off to get dirt on one of his players to avoid giving $300k to charity, he screwed the Expos out of exsistence and he has rested a large part of the destination of the World Series on an exhibition game. Also he will only allow owners who are his cronies and persists with the ridiculous slotting system for draft picks which has killed the farm systems of small market teams. Oh yes also: STEROIDS

If Selig is the best commisioner then it most certainly isn't by far and is only because of the dross that went before him.

It's hard to believe that Selig would have telephoned teams to urge them not to sign Bonds

Read this as: It's hard for me to believe that the great Bud Selig would have telephoned teams to urge them not to sign Bonds

The reality is likely much more subtle. Teams know how baseball management feels about Bonds and about the steroid era and the desire to get beyond the Mitchell Report.

So maybe all the owners have colluded against Bonds but don't worry Bud it's not your fault (again).
This article is all over the place. No evidence or conclusions, just generalised pointless drivel. Lazy and ill-informed and disappointing.