Today’s MLB Monday column looks at the evolution of the local media in San Francisco and its views of Barry Bonds. Remember, it was excellent local-media investigative reporting that blew open the BALCO scandal and won awards for the effort. Sadly, these writers left the local media within a few years due to the backlash from pathetic fans who were unwilling to accept the facts behind the myths in the City by the Bay.

It perhaps is no surprise to see recent commentary from the very publication that exposed the PED scandal more than two decades ago now pimping Bonds for the Hall of Fame—probably to save face and subscriptions from local fans who have no ethical or moral base whatsoever. Sure, they want to whine about the Los Angeles Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani, but they cannot face up to the realities of “Barroid” Bonds.

Go figure. The most liberal city in the United States is still embracing the biggest cheater in MLB history, and the local media is complicit. If Bonds had played for the Dodgers, they’d all be singing a completely different tune, of course, revealing the immense emotional hypocrisy at the center of the San Francisco Giants’ façade of bullshit. Facts over feelings, yo, just like you claim in the political world, of course, eh?

Last month, a special Cooperstown, 16-member Contemporary Era committee still decided to keep known PED abusers like Bonds and Roger Clemens—one of our personal childhood heroes that we abandoned decades ago due to his lousy characters and deceitful choices—out of the Hall. Why? Well, because they cheated; they lied; and they stole from the sport itself that had given them so much already beforehand.

Now, Bonds and Clemens won’t get another vote opportunity from this Gang of 16 until 2031. Amen to that, and while the committee membership will change by then, we still can’t see a time when people will “forget” these players were so dirty. A lot of players were robbed of their own potential successes by these cheaters, as the victims were real in the ballpark, too, on the field of play—let alone the opposing fans in the stands.

[This year’s voting committee members consisted of seven Hall of Fame players (Ferguson Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Pérez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell, and Robin Yount), two owners, four former general managers, and three media members. Amen to them, of course.]

Either way, shame on the San Francisco Chronicle for its hypocritical and irresponsible journalism, all in the probable hope of making money off the immoral and unethical fans in the Bay Area. Cheating, lying, and stealing are not American values, no matter who is in the White House at any given moment. Freedom of the press means protecting the people from tyranny—even in the sporting world. Never forget that, folks.