"Barry Bonds's statistics cannot be erased. Bonds did not get away with his actions in federal court, where he was convicted of a count of obstruction of justice Wednesday. But in his era Bonds was allowed to stay on the field and hit 762 home runs and win seven Most Valuable Player awards.

Fans can judge those accomplishments however they want, but they did happen, and they are as historically valid as the 714 homers Babe Ruth hit without ever facing an African-American pitcher.

Commissioner Bud Selig said Tuesday that he had already studied the integrity of baseball's records, with help from Jerome Holtzman, the Chicago writer who was baseball's official historian."