Barry Bonds, Carlos Delgado, Josh Hamilton and Terry Collins

Where would the yakosphere (trademark Neil Best) be without Jim Spadafore? The very thought makes me shudder. Days like today would be awfully difficult. 

Let's get right to it.

News: A jury convicts Barry Bonds of one obstruction of justice count and fails to come to a conclusion on the three perjury counts.

Views: As I've written all along on this topic, I don't have a legal degree, nor did I attend any of the proceedings of any of the past weeks, so I'm hesitant to weigh in too heavily on the actual verdict here. It was fun to look at ESPN's webiste and see that Lester Munson considers this a victory for the government, while Roger Cossack (video on the same page) seems to think the government largely whiffed.

I preferred George Dorhmann's column on SI.com, which I found thanks to the never-obstructive, always-honest Twitter.

What I think I can address with some level of competence is the baseball angle of this.

First of all, forget about any sort of retroactive asterisk or anything like that in the baseball record books. If you read the linked Associated Press story, you'll see that Bonds' actual transgression was being evasive when making statements to the 2003 grand jury. To try to connect this to his alleged illegal performance-enhancement drug usage would require a argumentative leap that would be the equivalent of traveling from Long Island to London by swimming the Atlantic Ocean.

SEE PHOTOSThe 3,000 hits club

And in a similar vein, the only way this should seriously impact Bonds' Hall of Fame campaign would be if a voter regarded the actual obstruction charge as violating the "integrity, sportsmanship and character" language on the ballot. In other words: "He yammered while being questioned by the Feds. He's out!"

But this result can't be cited as legal evidence that Bonds used steroids or anything else.

To clarify: Of course I think that Bonds used illegal PEDs. But he never earned a suspension under baseball's rules, so to start holding him to standads that baseball itself didn't apply? I'm not going there. Not at this juncture, anyway.

News: Carlos Delgado announced his retirement.

Views: First of all...tremendous career, but no, I don't think he's a Hall of Famer. If he had put up his offensive numbers at a more premium position, then yes. But not as a first baseman. While I never like to speak on behalf of my fellow Hall voters, I'd say that my hunch today is that Delgado won't gain induction.

(Because he hasn't played in the majors since he was on the Mets in 2009, Delgado is already two years into his five-year waiting period. He'll be on the ballot released in December 2014.)

As for Delgado's legacy? An explosive slugger, and a free (and brave, IMO) thinker. Remember when he wouldn't stand for "God Bless America"? 

But part of his resume, particularly here in New York, will be his eyebrow-raising 2008 season:

With Willie Randolph as manager: .321 OBP and .407 SLG in 67 games, totaling 280 plate appearances.

With Jerry Manuel as manager: .374 OBP and .597 SLG in 92 games, totaling 406 plate appearances.

Maybe it was just a coincidence. But given what transpired with Tony Bernazard's backstabbing of Randolph, and how Delgado transformed so dramatically from helpless to fearsome...it sure didn't look good.

News: Josh Hamilton apologizes to Rangers third-base coach Dave Anderson for throwing him under the bus, after Hamilton broke a bone in his right arm Tuesday.

Views: Hamilton obviously did the right thing by ending the public battle with his coach, which he never should have started. Perhaps now he'll realize that, while he can be frustrated with others, he ultimately has to be accountable for his own actions.

Speaking of which, Joe Girardi spoke to his players about head-first slides like Hamilton's, Jim Baumbach writes.

News: Terry Collins makes a questionable decision (or non-decision, as Tom Rock describes it) and then calls a team meeting after the Mets' loss to Colorado.

Views: Didn't see the game, so it's hard for me to make a call on Collins' call to pitch to Troy Tulowitzki, as opposed to intentionally walking him. As for the team meeting? Yeah, probably a good idea, given this recent run of frustrating losses - although that public proclamation that the Mets will need to be 9-2 in their next 11 games will probably come back to bite him.

We'll see how the team responds.

--Chris Young's next start has been delayed. If you thought Young was going to make it through the season starting every fifth day, then I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine...

 --Over in the Bronx, the Yankees defeated Baltimore behind another solid outing by A.J. Burnett. Pedro Feliciano might need shoulder surgery. Hector Noesi looks likely to be called up to replace the injured Luis Ayala.

--Stop by later for a giveaway contest.