Barry Bonds is only 22 home runs away from baseball glory. This season, the San Francisco Giants outfielder could break Hank Aaron's career homerun record.

Some will applaud Bonds as the best player ever and others will jeer him because of allegations that he took performance-enhancing drugs to boost his home run count.

At the same time, two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who wrote a condemning account of Bonds' alleged steroid use could be watching the historic home run in a jail cell.

Government officials want the reporters -- Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams -- thrown in jail for a year and a half if they continue to refuse to name the sources of their investigative reporting.

Fainaru-Wada and Williams' case has caught the eye of journalists around the country, who are crying out for reporters to be able to investigate and report the facts without fear of having to reveal sources to the government.

Among them is Rick Telander, a sports columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times.

Last night, Telander told Penn State students and professors of his crusade to help the two Chronicle reporters.

"They were performing a major public service," Telander said of the 2006 book published by the two reporters, Game of Shadows. The book made the allegations against Bonds all-too-believable in the eyes of the public, and it resulted in boos for the disgraced home run slugger whenever he played away from his home crowd in San Francisco.

Telander talked of other journalists he has seen go to jail for refusing to give up their sources. This time, however, the situation hit close to home.

"Here are two sportswriters who, I saw, are likely going to be sent to jail," Telander said. "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do something."

And he has done plenty.

When the two Chronicle writers appeared in a San Francisco courthouse in September, Telander recruited other journalists who trekked across the country to stand in the courtroom in a show of support of their fellow reporters.

He talks to the reporters on a regular basis and seethes at the thought of them going to jail.

"I think I'm just gonna go there and camp out" in protest, Telander said when asked what he would do if the pair ever was put behind bars.

Their next appearance in court is less than three weeks away. According to markandlance.org, a Web site run by Sportswriters for Freedom of the Press, the two will appeal their case to a three-judge panel on Feb. 12.

With the court date looming closer, their choices appear limited, but Telander is sure of one thing.

"They can't give up their sources," Telander said. "They'll have no credence as human beings."