Mike Celizic

Any time you find yourself defending Barry Bonds by quoting Alex Rodriguez — and I think I’m speaking for all sports columnists — it’s time to reach for the Wild Turkey. So if you’ll excuse me for a moment ...

Aaahhhh. Amazing how one slug of Turkey will set a man’s mind at ease. Now, where were we?

Oh, yes. Defending Barry Bonds. It’s not really that hard to do. The man’s a legend, one of the best baseball players who ever lived before his hat size started expanding, and now an all-time star in the twilight of his career with the All Star Game coming to his home park.

The problem is the voters aren’t seeing it that way. They’re of the opinion that Carlos Beltran, who isn’t having the best of years, is the National League’s top outfielder, and right behind him are Ken Griffey, Jr. and Alfonso Soriano, with Bonds running fourth.

And since Major League Baseball hasn’t been going out of its way to be nice to the BALCO Bomber of late, there’s no guarantee that Bonds will make the team.

Here’s where I quote my good buddy, A-Rod, about whom I’ve had nothing but positive things to say over the years. (I was positive he was hurting the Yankees, positive he couldn’t hit in the clutch, positive anyone who took him on was never going to win, positive the Yanks had to trade him ... It’s a long list.) But given that A-Rod’s performance this year has been beyond criticism, not to mention beyond belief, why not cite him as an authority?

"I think it would be good for the game," he said of Bonds being chosen for baseball’s Game to Decide Home Field in the World Series. "This is not popular for a lot of people, but Barry Bonds is probably the greatest player who has ever put on a uniform. He’s awesome."

When the issue of steroids was raised, A-Rod was undeterred: "His numbers are mind boggling," he told reporters last week when the Yankees were in San Francisco for three games with the Giants. "If you see some of those numbers he had going back five, six, seven years ago, those numbers are Babe Ruth-like, if not better. There’s no one comparable in the game. The game has never seen such a unique talent, such a disciplined hitter with power."

If there is someone else like that, it’s A-Rod, who’s in the midst of one of the greatest seasons ever. So he’s worth listening to. After all, if A-Rod doesn’t know surpassing talent when he sees it, who does?

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I don’t know what baseball is going to do with this one. Heck, Bud Selig still can’t decide if he’ll use his commissioner’s pass to snag a prime seat when Bonds finally gets around to breaking Hank Aaron’s home-run record.

But unless there’s a late surge of votes for Bonds — the online balloting ends on June 28 and the starting teams will be announced on July 1 — he’s not going to be in the lineup, and maybe not on the team.

Call me crazy — or blame the Wild Turkey — but with the game in AT&T Park in San Francisco and with Bonds just about out of career, he belongs on the team. Baseball has made special exemptions before for its great players, so there’s a precedent in place. All it will take is a stroke of Selig’s quill to make it happen.

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The mere fact that Bonds has more than 1.2 million votes — Beltran leads all National Leaguers with 1.7 million –— is proof enough that there are an awful lot of fans who want to see him. The game is about stars, and there’s none bigger in the game. Love him or loathe him, he’s still the guy who generates the headlines, the guy around whose at-bats you plan your bathroom breaks and munchie runs.

Probably hundreds of players took performance-enhancing substances, but Bonds is the only one anyone cares about. And there’s a good chance they contributed to his 73-home run season. But take them away, and the guy’s still got probably 675-700 homers anyway, and I don’t even have to make this argument, because he’d be in the game. No question about it.

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And unless you’re sure of every other player’s history, you can’t pick on Bonds. The fans want to see him. I want to see him. You want to see him.

A-Rod wants to see him.

That should be enough.

But if you want to make him pay for being on the team, then cut a deal with him. He agrees to participate in the Home Run Derby with the kid sluggers, and MLB puts him on the team.

Tell me you wouldn’t pay to see that.

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