Oct 17th 2008 11:45AM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
Look at our Barry Bonds tag. All summer, we here at FanHouse talked about rumors that were floated about Barry Bonds signing with someone; the Mets, the Astros, the Red Sox, the D’Backs, heck, even the Royals were all linked with the disgraced slugger. If you go far enough back, Bonds and his agent said in May that if no one signed him this summer, collusion was a likely cause. Well, no one signed him and now the players union says they have proof that the teams in the league did act in concert to keep Bonds out of baseball this year:”There were numerous things that occurred that made me believe that the clubs were acting in concert,” Bonds’ agent, Jeff Borris, said Thursday. “When I testify as a witness in the case, I will delineate each and every one of them.”

[…] “We have the agreement about the timing of a potential grievance,” [union counsel Michael] Weiner said. “Our investigation revealed a violation of the Basic Agreement. It’s a violation of the Basic Agreement related to Barry Bonds and free agency.”
The idea that the owners worked together to keep Bonds out of baseball is completely believable. Bonds has brought nothing but scrutiny to baseball in the past few years and with the league looking to clean up its act, getting rid of its most notorious player is something that would seem to be high on the list of things to do. Bonds, despite all his faults, is still a very good hitter and there’s no doubt that there were a number of teams that could’ve used his help this year. Bonds might be a jerk, but that doesn’t make collusion right.