Not many people these days have much good to say about Barry Bonds, who reportedly awaits an indictment on perjury and tax evasion charges this week. One of the few places the Evil One can hear a kind word about Himself is San Francisco, where Examiner columnist Glenn Dickey defended Bonds' record in a Tuesday piece titled "No asterisk: Bonds great." Dickey points out how Bonds took plate discipline to an all-new level, beginning in 2000, and for the next five seasons it was difficult to get him to swing at a pitch outside the strike zone. It was during this period that the Giants' slugger set the new single-season mark of 232 walks in 2004 and won his first batting title at age 38 by hitting .370 in 2002. Says Dickey: "There were times when he might get only one pitch a game he could hit, but he stayed focused and crushed it." That's so true, and it's what made Bonds' pursuit of the single-season home run record in 2001 so remarkable. He walked 69 times from August 1 through the end of the season as he chased Mark McGwire's record, and rarely saw a good pitch to hit, but he still managed to hit 28 homers in that stretch by teeing off on the rare offering in the strike zone. Dickey also notes how Bonds developed a better understanding of the kind of pitch he could drive: "This often happens to good hitters as they get older. Hank Aaron had his career high of 47 homers in a single season when he was 37 and hit another 40 when he was 39; Ted Williams had his best homer-per-at-bat ratio in his final season, when he was 42. Hitters like Bonds, Aaron and Williams would let a strike go by early in the count if it was a pitch they couldn't drive, waiting for one they could." Bonds' success in recent years was far more than a display of brute strength. Steroids or not, he was going to hit at least 500 homers and probably still steal 500 bases. Those are Hall of Fame numbers no matter how you look at it. This writer doesn't want to see Bonds catch Aaron on the all-time home run leader board, but Bonds' Hall of Fame credentials can't be denied.