Declaring that yesterday’s raid on the home of Jason Grimsley is the start of “a long, horrible and scandalous summer — with Bonds still the centerpiece, but part of a much, much larger picture,” the San Jose Mercury News’ Marky Purdy writes we oughta be braced for a good deal more naming and shaming.


Before, if baseball’s ongoing drug drama were an album cover, it would be Bonds with one guitar, sort of like Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. Now, that cover is on the way to resembling the sprawling “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” cover, featuring Bonds in the front row but surrounded by dozens of faces, desert landscaping, coffee pots and a revolving police gum ball light.

And stay tuned. It’s going to get even more interesting. A whole new wing of the steroid investigation was opened Tuesday when federal agents executed a search warrant at the house of Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jason Grimsley.

Grimsley wasn’t at home, so the agents forced open his door. And for the next six hours, they searched for evidence related to Grimsley’s alleged use and illegal purchase of human growth hormone. The substance is a powerful performance-enhancer. It’s banned from baseball, illegal to obtain without a prescription.

By Wednesday morning, the Diamondbacks had agreed to release Grimsley. And word of the whole affair had reached the Giants’ clubhouse at AT&T Park. Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel was a teammate of Grimsley’s with Cleveland in 1994-95. Asked for his reaction, Vizquel initially uttered just one word.

“Weird,” Vizquel said.

Weird? How so?

“There were guys searching his house,” Vizquel said. “Even if you hear of a guy who used something, you don’t see them searching a house.”

Bingo. In a few seconds and a couple of sentences, Vizquel had grasped and elucidated the significance of the Grimsley situation: Namely, that the federal investigation into baseball’s substance-abuse problem — which began with a probe of Burlingame’s Balco Laboratories — has taken a huge new step.

And if you happen to be a major league player, the step could be a scary one.