On Thursday afternoon, it did. And what struck me first was just how unnecessary and incredibly stupid it all was. Bonds wasn’t the only one called to testify before the grand jury. He was just the one who, according to the feds, lied. He admitted to using the designer steroids called the cream and the clear, but he said he thought it was just flaxseed oil. That was his story and he stuck to it.

There are plenty of others who say Bonds knew very well what he was using to grow bigger muscles. Jason Giambi was also called in to testify, and he told the grand jury the truth and then he apologized to his team and to baseball fans. When George Mitchell asked him to talk to the commission he’s heading to document baseball’s steroid crisis, Giambi complied.

There was some squawking, but mostly Giambi was forgiven. Once he came clean on the clear – and resumed hitting home runs – the fans embraced him.

There is no clearer lesson in the benefits of telling the truth. Giambi survived and thrived, while those who couldn’t bring themselves to say what they’d done were cast out into the darkness. It wasn’t just Bonds; Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro will also pay the price of ‘fessing up forever.

Slide show 756! Images of Bonds' record-setting home run. more photos

And that’s all Bonds ever had to do. For once in his life, after swearing to tell the truth, he only needed to follow through. Surely, he had lawyers who outlined the consequences of lying to a grand jury. And just as surely, his arrogance kept him from listening.

So now he’s just another calendar item on a federal court docket. He can forget pulling a uniform on again, can forget about the few dozen hits he needs to get to 3,000, forget about ever playing the game again.

That’s a hell of a price to pay for not listening to his mother when she told him not to lie.

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