Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

Game of Shadows is a book portraying the extensive use of steroids by a Mr. Barry Bonds. Authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams worked on this story for over two years, and the results they obtained are most impressive.

I choose not to go into the details of the whos and whys and hows, those can be found by reading the book (or any online news service, such as cnn.com or espn.com). Instead, I wish to talk about what this actually means to the rest of us.

Hearing as an official announcement "Barry Bonds using steroids" created the following eloquent phrase in my mind. "Well, duh." I have yet to run into a person that would actually try to say that Barry never used steroids, or that he had no idea what he was injecting into his body. So then, if everyone knew he was doing it, this announcement really shouldn't be a big deal, should it?

But it is. Huge.

It is huge because Bonds has always fought against this perception of him as a 'roid user. He testified as such. He sat there in front of the senate panel and waggled his finger and said "I never in my life have used steroids, and..." wait, that last part was Raphael Palmeiro. Oops. I tend to get these 'roid users all confused at times.

These findings are huge because it will now bring closure to what was so maddenly elusive. Suppose a report came out today that explained, in detail to the letter, who killed JFK. Do you think that would get some press? Probably just a little. While Bonds and steroids are not even in the same category as the JFK conspiracy, you can at least see the parallels of having a great mystery finally be put to rest.

So what now? To me, that is the big question. Will the commissioner himself come down off of Mt. Olympus and cast Barry into Hades with a first class ticket? Wipe all his stats, remove all his awards, and find him a seat next to Pete Rose in the Baseball Hall of Shame?

Boy, wouldn't that be nice, wouldn't it? I also have some prime property to sell you in Florida if you think that is what is going to come down.

Sadly, nothing of the sort will happen. I would wager that Barry will be the villain, and Baseball will do nothing but point fingers and whisper fiercely. But will they actually do anything? Even Pete wouldn't bet on that. I have heard the argument that baseball can't do anything about Bonds because "baseball didn't have a rule against using performance enhancing drugs like that at that time". Now I might be wrong here, but using such drugs, as a whole, is illegal, is it not? I know there are reasons why such uses are legal, but for the most part, illegal. So if something is illegal, does it need to then be laid out in every sports rulebook? Show me in the baseball rulebook the penalty for stealing a car or killing someone. Not in there, are they? What about the penalty for not paying your taxes? Hmmm...don't see that in the baseball rulebook either. If a baseball player were to willingly hurt or kill another player during a game, do you think that they would face legal charges? You can bet on that. Baseball wouldn't fine them because it's not against their rules. Rather silly, isn't it?

Take a moment and step back even further. What about the San Franciso Giants? The reports indicate that they knew Barry was 'roiding all along, and they did nothing. Why would they? Can you imagine how much money they would have lost if they stepped in and prevented Barry from doping all those years?

But shouldn't they be accountable as well? How can a major league baseball team test it's players for steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs with one hand while with the other cover their eyes to what Barry does? To me, this is a most heinous crime that should not be lost in this shuffle.

So I will say what many people are probably feeling right now. Vindication, hurt, shocked, remorse, all the many mixed emotions that come from finally proving that one of our greats is a liar and a cheater.

Liar and a cheater. Please remember that. There is no better way to describe Barry at this point.

If I were King of the World, Barry would be removed from the baseball collective from start to finish. Barry Bonds? Never heard of him. Remove his stats and his records and his name from his parking spot. You want to send a message to all those players out there using or thinking of doing so? This will wake them up.

But don't stop there. Once the scourge of the game is gone, go after the Giants themselves. Fine them, and fine them big. Fine them till they bleed nickels out of their eyes.

Not done there, either. Use the money you get from the Giant's fines and pay the reporters who worked on this story to scope out Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa too. In fact, we hire them full time as the pit bulls of Steroids. If we think you are dirty, then you got these two hatchet men to come after you.

Of course it's good to have dreams. I truly hope Barry enjoyed his run while it was going. Didn't sound like he was having much fun to me, but I hope it was all worth it.

Cheater.