Michael Ventre

Ah, the crack of bats, the sweet fragrance of fresh-cut grass, the pop of a fastball in a catcher’s mitt …

… and the legal motions, the public denials, the positive drug tests …

It’s almost spring, baseball is here, and Barry Bonds tested positive for steroids in November of 2000, according to a federal prosecutor. That news came Thursday, one day after the Capitol Hill showdown between Brian McNamee and Roger Clemens. It’s time for a new season of our national pastime: ferreting out the truth about cheaters.

If I didn’t know better, I would think somehow Bonds himself was behind this recent disclosure. I know that doesn’t make sense, but remember, much of the scandal that arose out of BALCO happened because Bonds allegedly was jealous of the attention Mark McGwire was getting and therefore started juicing. Perhaps in a moment of confusion Bonds dropped a dime on himself because he was upset over the amount of attention Clemens has been getting lately.

Get used to this. The steroids era didn’t happen overnight, and the sport won’t be sanitized after a few hearings and court dates. This will be long, drawn-out and painful. It will be like Enron, although instead of people losing their pensions, they’ll lose faith.

The item about Bonds that came out Thursday was contained in a court filing by U.S. attorney Joseph Russoniello, which asked a federal court to reject a motion filed by Bonds last month that requested dismissal of the charges against him that he lied about past steroid use.

It’s a significant development because the positive test in question came prior to the 2001 campaign in which Bonds set the single season home run record with 73. Besides the fact it represents more bad publicity for Bonds, it also makes you wonder just how deeply asleep those in the commissioner’s office were while positive steroids tests were turning up.

This helps to serve as a reminder that most if not all of the milestones achieved since the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs became rampant in baseball are fraudulent.

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Roger Clemens has a record seven Cy Young Awards. But four of them came since 1997, when he first met Brian McNamee, who was then a strength and conditioning coach with the Toronto Blue Jays. Clemens’ performances spiked considerably since ’97, hence the hullabaloo on the Hill.

Meanwhile, pitchers and catchers have reported to spring training. That’s just in case you missed it amid all the other baseball news.

There were other names in the Mitchell Report, too. One of them was Miguel Tejada. Last month the House Oversight and Government Committee asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Tejada lied to committee staff when he was interviewed in 2005 in connection with the Rafael Palmiero steroids case.

The Justice Department is in charge of investigating and prosecuting all violations of federal law, so you have to think that it will probably have to add some staff and maybe even erect a new building to accommodate all the baseball-related offenses that will be revealed in the coming months and years.

The Bonds case should go to trial sometime later this year. The Clemens situation is murky at the moment, not because Clemens and McNamee fought to a draw Wednesday in D.C. — in fact, Clemens suffered an early knockout — but because it’s unclear whether there is enough there to charge Clemens with perjury and/or obstruction of justice. And even if he goes to trial and is convicted, there is speculation — including some from one of McNamee’s attorneys — that he will be pardoned by President George W. Bush, one of Clemens’ Texas cronies.

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