Federal prosecutors finally stuck a pin in Barry Bonds.

Satisfying as it might have been to see all that hot air leak out of the slugger before he carried off the most cherished record in baseball, there's at least this consolation: Late is still better than never.

The perjury and obstruction of justice charges announced yesterday were four years and two grand juries in the making. Maybe it shouldn't have taken that long to shred Bonds' flimsy "flax seed oil" defense. But investigators couldn't get his longtime flunky, convicted BALCO bag man Greg Anderson, to cooperate. And for all the help baseball kept promising on the drug-testing front, it never could lay a glove on Bonds.

So in a nice bit of serendipity, even with Anderson clammed up in a jail cell, they indicted Bonds by doing the same thing that made him the toughest out in the game. They never took their eye off the ball.

"I'm curious what evidence they have now, they didn't have before," said John Burris, one of Bonds' attorneys.

Here's the answer: Enough.

Take as much time as you need at the end of this sentence to unload all those suspicions and all that anger.

Done?

Thought so.

Most of us made up our minds about Bonds long before the word "defendant" was formally attached to his name. Now Bonds' faithful fans and even those who congratulated him with tightlipped smiles can begin climbing off the fence.

President George Bush, a former owner of the Texas Rangers, felt compelled to weigh in quickly, albeit cautiously. Even while warning to let justice run its course, his spokesman called it "a sad day for baseball." No kidding.

Commissioner Bud Selig echoed those remarks.

"I have yet to see the details of this indictment and while everyone in America is considered innocent until proven guilty, I take this indictment very seriously and will follow its progress closely," he said.

How much would you have paid to climb inside Selig's head and follow the thought processes while he composed even that brief statement? Especially since he endured a lifetime of aggravation to say even that much.