Springer, NBA Scheduling, and Jim Rome on to something

I was watching the Astros v. Giants the other day to check on Barry Bonds for a couple reasons: a) he's on my fantasy team and I could really benefit from him stealing a few bases (or getting a couple hits, that's more realistic) and b) if he passes Babe Ruth, they'll stop talking about him quite so much, I think that would be good for everyone. I quickly realized that Bonds wouldn't be getting an AB against Russ Springer. His first pitch was a slider that started right at Bonds' butt and moved even farther away from the plate. Then, after running the count to 3-1 on inside pitches — with the only strike coming on a foul ball off the knob of Bonds' bat that almost hit him — Springer finished Bonds off by coming up and in, hitting Barry in the shoulder.

Springer either a) has really bad control, b) wanted to get thrown out, so wanted to be warned before hitting Bonds, or c) wanted to draw the ordeal out as long as he could. He obviously wasn't trying to get Bonds out and didn't want Bonds to swing the bat. If that's the case, hit him in the butt and get the thing over with ... but please clue us in to what is so bad about Barry Bonds. You don't come up and in on multiple occasions in the same plate appearance when you've already thrown a ball behind the batter. Springer should be suspended ... it's a joke if he isn't. Oh wait, Bud Selig is still commish ... it's a joke either way.

(I just saw "the punch" and it definitely wasn't suspension worthy ... that was ridiculous ... Finley and Ginobli jumped on him! What constitutes a punch?)

Moving on, what is the deal with the NBA playoff scheduling? Why are the Suns and Clippers playing game seven on Monday? Why aren't all the series every other day? I think they should play every day that isn't a travel day, but if you're going to draw it out, every other day is long enough. The Heat are already done. The other two series could end tomorrow. There might not be any games Saturday or Sunday. That is ridiculous, although I doubt both the Cavs and Mavs will win tomorrow. Earlier in the second round, there were no games a week ago. The Heat, Nets, Suns and Clippers played Wednesday and Friday, with the other four teams having Wednesday-Friday off. Who is in charge of these things?

I'm running out of computer battery, but I have to praise Jim Rome for defending Barry Bonds, in a round about way. He actually went after Albert Pujols and his defense of Bonds. He also called out the league and the testing program, in a way, by remarking that masking agents and substances that aren't tested for still allow players to use performance enhancers if they want, and Rome believes they do. Really? I agree. Bonds probably wasn't clean a few years back, might not be clean now, but he's never failed a league drug test, to the best of my knowledge. No one really knows how many players are "cheating" or "taking advantage of the system" and the league doesn't know ... that's the point. Going after Bonds may be a good publicity stunt, but it isn't going to help fix anything except the public perception of the league. I don't know what the solution to the problem is. I'm tempted to say that if it's coming down to whether or not your chemist can stay ahead of the league's chemist, wouldn't it be fair to allow players to use steriods, at least then you wouldn't have to worry about some players having access to better masking agents and more advanced drugs than other players. In an ideal world, players wouldn't sacrifice their health for stardom. Maybe, if the amount of money at stake wasn't so outrageous, players would think twice before injecting themselves, but probably not. Chalk this one up to human nature, I guess. And, until MLB gets a testing policy that is infallible, the playing field won't be level. People will be "cheating," some will be caught, some won't. That's fair. But, that's life, I guess.