Barry “The Asterisk” Bonds says he didn’t know. No, seriously, that’s what he says. And maybe he’s telling the truth. You can not know just about anything if you really set your mind to it, and BB may have told his trainer in advance not to tell him what he was taking.

In the world of politics and big money capitalism this is known as “plausible deniability.” I’ve been there, actually. In a past job I was tasked to work on a project (a couple of them, to be accurate) that, while not strictly illegal, was the sort of thing that could prove uncomfortable for the bigwigs if it was found out. It was clear to me that if we were found out they were gonna sell my ass like a used futon. They didn’t say it that way, of course, but I’m smarter than I look.

So I can imagine any number of ways whereby Barry could have knowingly loaded up on go-juice, horse tranquilizers, Adderal, and whatever the Incredible Hulk was on without, you know, knowing. Wink. Wink.

I think Ray Ratto probably has it about right, although you can count me solidly in the 85% majority on the ESPN poll. I understand his need and motivation for playing the plausible deniability game, but we’re under no obligation to actually be as stupid as he’s treating us.