Michael Ventre

If you’re going to jaywalk, make sure you do it in a place where lots of other people are also jaywalking. The cop on the beat can’t nail everybody.

Barry Bonds may yet benefit from this kernel of wisdom. It is impossible to tell whether he applied this concept when he first ventured into the murky world of performance enhancement, or if it came to him later. Either way, somewhere right now Bonds is standing with his arms raised to the sky, as if admiring one of his dingers headed for a salt-water landing.

Bonds hasn’t been the only baseball player wearing a black hat these days, but he certainly is the most prominent, especially after his federal indictment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. But now, after Thursday’s release of the Mitchell report — which included the name “Barry Bonds,” by the way — he has lots of company.

In this case, misery doesn’t just love company, it needs company to boost its chances of becoming a first-ballot Hall of Famer. With so many illustrious names now sullied by this steroids scandal, Bonds is not looking so bad after all. He’ll never win the game’s “Mr. Congeniality” award, but now there is slightly less motivation for Hall voters to punish him, simply because his unspoken assertion that “Everybody else is doing it, so why not me?” looks more plausible.

Bonds is not free and clear, however. There are extenuating circumstances in his case that sets it apart from all the juicers named on Thursday. A less arduous slog toward Cooperstown is still a slog.

Bonds did not just pump up his body and, as a result, inflate his numbers. He assaulted two of baseball’s most precious records. He broke the single-season home-run mark with 73 in 2001, surpassing another alleged ‘roids rascal, Mark McGwire. Then last season, he broke Hank Aaron’s career home-run mark of 755, and will bring a total of 762 into the 2008 season, assuming he can find a job.

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It isn’t just chicks who dig the long ball. It’s guys, too. Across the spectrum of humanity — or at least the segment that loves baseball — the home run is the single most important source of excitement. Barry Bonds is the home run king, but he also is considered by many to be a cheater, a liar and a grouch.

Even though lots of others have now been revealed to be users of illegal steroids and other performance-enhancing substances, Bonds still stands out because he was the most egregious practitioner occupying the biggest stage. He threw more dirt on the game than anyone else. And he was more contemptuous of criticism of his actions than any of the others.

That remains a brutal hurdle to clear en route to the Hall, even if names like Roger Clemens and Gary Sheffield and Miguel Tejada take some of the focus off of him.

Bonds is also under indictment. Depending on the legal expert you believe, he is either headed for acquittal and vindication, or a long stretch in the pen and disgrace. And there’s always a plea possibility, which will let everyone walk away saving some semblance of face.

But if Bonds goes to trial late in 2008 and is found guilty, the Hall voters will still have more ammunition to keep his name off their ballot, no matter the legion exposed in the Mitchell report or any subsequent revealing of names. To my knowledge, no one else currently in the game is under federal indictment or the subject of a federal probe.