SCOTT SIMON, Host:
NPR's - our Howard Bryant - ESPN's Howard Bryant (unintelligible) joins us. Howard, thanks for being with us.
HOWARD BRYANT: Hey Scott, how are you?
SIMON: I'm fine, thanks. Well, perhaps better than Barry Bonds, although he'll always be a lot richer. Anything in the grand jury testimony, anything new, that we haven't heard before?
BRYANT: And so it seems to me that Barry is in a fair amount of trouble simply because of the revelations of the second drug test.
SIMON: Yeah, so as you see it, it doesn't substantially alter the basic case?
BRYANT: It doesn't change it, no, it doesn't - because once again, I think the interesting part was that it seemed like it was a victory for the defense and also because they wanted the federal government to re-do the indictment.
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: But it's also a blow to Barry because when you're in the public eye, he had always alleged that he had never used, and now you've got two examples that they're going to prove that indeed he did. So it doesn't look good for him.
SIMON: Is he going to play baseball this year somewhere?
BRYANT: Well, I've been saying to people over the last few days, because we've heard stories that the Tampa Bay Rays want to - notice no Devil anymore - notice the Tampa Bay Rays don't - they've been thinking about signing Bonds.
SIMON: I was about to say if he signs, some people might choose to amend that, but go ahead.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BRYANT: It's a great slap in the face to baseball, and baseball is slapping the public in the face because they say they keep wanting to move on, and yet you have these organizations continuing wanting to bring back the faces of the steroid era. So indeed if he does play again, it's just more proof that baseball is not really serious about moving forward, that moving forward is a euphemism for business as usual.
SIMON: What about Japan? Is that a possibility?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BRYANT: You know, now if we're going to talk about globalization, well I guess all bets are off.
SIMON: This week, the Justice Department, we learned - it's been reported - has been asked to investigate Roger Clemens over his testimony before a congressional committee. Do you see this as a fit use for the time of Congress? Does it have any potential impact on the rest of the steroids investigations?
BRYANT: And of course it's a proper use of the time because I think that at the end of the day, if the public says okay, well one of these guys is allowed to lie, what does it say about the process?
SIMON: Howard, thanks so much.
BRYANT: As always.
SIMON: Howard Bryant, senior writer for Espn.com and ESPN the Magazine. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.