Steroid use in baseball has run its course, all that’s left now is to uncover the lies. Jason Giambi has adjusted to life without steroids, Mark McGwire is long retired, Rafael Palmeiro is gone and Sammy Sosa refused a non-guaranteed contract offer from the Washington Nationals this year.

That leaves Barry Bonds. And now its time for him to go too.

Excerpts from the book Game of Shadows, by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, show a clear pattern of steroid use by Bonds. Two employees of BALCO, including owner Victor Conte, testified in front of a grand jury that Bonds received steroids from BALCO starting in 2003. Bonds’ girlfriend at the time, Kimberly Bell, testified in front of the grand jury that Bonds told her he started to take steroids after the 1998 season.

Some people think that Bonds should suffer the same purgatory as Pete Rose – banishment from baseball including the Hall of Fame. Others are unhappy because Bonds is getting a lot of hate while Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are fading into the limelight without the bitternes displayed towards Bonds.

McGwire lost a lot of respect with his cowardly response at the congressional hearings into steroid use in baseball – he refused to answer when asked if he used steroids – but the evidence of his use was a bottle of androstenedione, an over-the-counter testosterone supplement, openly displayed in his locker. Rafael Palmeiro gave us the most dramatic denial at the hearings then tested positive for the steroid stanolozol during the following season. Congress looked into perjury charges against Palmeiro but baseball didn’t test for steroids before the hearings so no charges were filed.

You could say that Bonds should be judged by the same standard as McGwire, Bonds has never tested positive for a banned substance after all. Many times, though, it’s not the crime but the coverup that gets you. Life would have been much easier for Bill Clinton if he’d just said, “I did have sexual relations with that woman.” Adultery may not be a crime but lying about it can get you into a lot of trouble. It appears that Bonds lied to the grand jury by denying that he used steroids. Bonds may have been unlucky to get involved in the BALCO scandal but so was Giambi. It’s hard to argue that Bonds is getting unfair treatment when you consider that Giambi admitted using steroids in front of the same grand jury. It pays to tell the truth.

You could also say that it’s not baseball’s job to police its players off the field but that’s like saying that Marion Jones was involved in off the field activity went she went to BALCO. Bonds went to BALCO so that he could break baseball records. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has made a career out of sticking his head in the sand. He had to be shamed into instigating steroid testing by congress and further pressured by congress to increase the penalties for positive tests. He’s getting the same pressure to penalize Bonds.

The best thing for Selig to do is to give Bonds a suspension that is long enough to effectively end his career. Barry lovers will be unhappy because Bonds will lose the opportunity to break Babe Ruth’s home run record and Barry haters will be unhappy because Bonds will still get his first round ticket into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But it’s a fair compromise and it serves a very important purpose: it brings the steroid era to a close and allows baseball to move forward.

Baseball will not have to pretend to celebrate Bonds breaking Ruth’s record and Barry will be put out of his misery because we won’t have him to kick around any more.