You can rattle off a bunch of reasons, but none of them are very good. The first would be his indictment on five counts of perjury to the federal grand jury that brought down Victor Conte and BALCO. At some point, if he doesn’t cop a plea, that case is going to trial, and you don’t want a player on your team who’s going to have to be commuting to court.

But there’s still no trial date for Bonds, and no sign there’s going to be one soon. He’s due in court for a March 21 procedural hearing, but the federal prosecutors are also under court order to redraw the indictment against him. Given the ability of lawyers to delay things, you have to figure a decent legal team can get him through the season before a trial begins. Since you only want him for one season, you don’t really care what happens to him next year.

Another reason to avoid him would be the negative image he brings with him. But let’s be brutally honest about this. If he’s helping to win games, the home fans won’t care what he did or didn’t do four years ago and more. They can tell themselves he’s clean now – or at least that he tests clean – and enjoy the victories. Certainly, few people are going to cancel their season tickets because the team hired him, and if he helps you win, you’ll sell more tickets.

You can’t argue he’s a bad influence in the clubhouse because that was never an issue in San Francisco, where most of his teammates either tolerated him or actually enjoyed playing with him. He’d actually probably be a positive force, especially with a young team. Regardless of what he may have taken, he knows an awful lot about the game, and he’s willing to share it with his teammates.

I won’t even bring up his relations with the media because that has no effect on ticket sales or team play.

In short, there’s a lot more reasons to give Bonds a look for a few teams than there is to write him off. The Mariners and the Orioles should be at the top of that short list. Both are willing to spend money, both want to win, both need another dangerous bat.

Bonds won’t cost that much. He wants desperately to play. He’s got the pop.

Why wouldn’t you give him a shot?

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