Saturday, April 05, 2008

...she said with a deep voice and dangling balls

So in the first semi-tiring, semi-high profile BALCO case to go to trial, decidedly grody cyclist Tammy Thomas was found guilty of perjury, obstruction of justice, and promoting a new examination of the word 'bicycle.'  Demonstrating that she does not suffer from any sort of steroid-related emotional control issues, after being found guilty she yelled at jurors, "I already had one career taken away from me.  Look me in the eye. You can't do it," and to the prosecutor, "Look me in the eye .... You like to destroy people's lives."  During the trial, a University of Colorado endocrinologist testified to the existence of all the dreaded and telltale signs of manishness in Thomas.  Yuck.  I don't want to be so good at anything that I'd allow my body to change so radically, I think.  Well...yeah, yeah, I'm sure.  


Of course a significant reason the Thomas trial has been watched with interest by more than those at VeloNews and Bicycling Magazine is the impact it is expected to have regarding the Barry Bonds perjury trial likely to hit sometime in 2009.  This trial at least gave everyone a bit of a heads-up about the thoroughness and effectiveness of the government's evidence and approach to the BALCO umbrella of violation.  In this morning's San Francisco Chronicle, Gwen Knapp called the gov't's case against Thomas a "slam dunk," while referring to the Bonds case as a "long three-pointer," reasoning that the Bonds case contains very little actual evidence, even less of which can be corroborated by witnesses.  I don't know, really.  Who outside of Bonds, his pals, family and the extra-fervent die-hardiest of the Giants' die-hards actually really is interested at this point?  The MSM still follow this story because, after all, it is still a story regardless of whether or not baseball fans care any more.  But I'm not sure I'm worried about the outcome of the Bonds case, aside from maybe, post-trial saying, "Oh, okay, he was found not guilty," or "Oh, okay, he was found guilty."  It all equals a giant...meh. 

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