by Joe
5/23/06
Much has been made recently of Baseball's position concerning Barry Bonds. Should be suspended? Banned? Should there have been a celebration when he passed Babe Ruth? Is Barry still a Hall-of-Famer? The answers are: no, no, no and of course NO.
So what if Bonds hit 714? Seriously, so what? We all knew it was coming. Baseball wasn’t going to ban him and Bonds wasn’t going to quit. But I have to laugh at the cult of “we hate Barry Bonds because he did steroids”. Don’t get me wrong. I hate Barry as much as the next guy. I’ve got tickets to see the Giants play the A’s in June and will boo my ever-loving heart out when he’s at bat. But not because of the ‘roids, but rather because he’s a jerk.
Bonds had everything going for him. Great baseball pedigree, incredible talent.... well on his way to being considered the greatest player of his generation. But the list of what makes a 5-tool player does not read: hit for average, power, good glove, strong arm, very humble. Bonds has made enemies throughout his career. Jerky Hall of Famers have the ability to piss off a lot more people than, say, a jerky Bob Uecker. Barry burned every bridge he ever crossed, and now he’s regretting it. Every sportswriter he ever stiffed for a quote, refused an interview, etc. is enjoying writing these articles about how bad Barry Bonds is for baseball. Heck, I’m laughing my ass off writing this right now. And, what do we all do when we enjoy something? We do it again. Over and over. As much as we can. And trashing Barry Bonds is like heroin to sportswriters (or steroids to Barry Bonds). They just can’t stop.
Bonds used steroids. So did a lot of other players. But, just like on the field, Bonds was better than almost everyone else. He knew enough to have a trainer give them to him. Plausible deniability has saved bigger asses than Barry's. He knew that if Baseball was going to let him wear 20 lbs. of body armor on his elbow and hold it out over the plate, so every pitcher had to go outside into his power alley, Baseball wasn’t going to say anything about drugs he didn’t “KNOW” that he was taking. He knew to stay the hell away from Jose Canseco. No guilt by association for him. He knew that he was above the game. As long as he keeps knocking them into McCovey Cove, no one would be able to touch him. Like, what? ESPN is going to show a well executed hit-and-run? If Stuart Scott can't yell "BOO-YAH" as some guy flips a kayak over trying to catch a ball, whats the point of Sportscenter even being on 6 times a day?
Bonds didn't cheat. I’m not going to say that baseball wanted him to do it, but they sure didn’t care if he did. If nobody cares that secretaries are getting carpel tunnel and going blind from using computers all day for their 25K a year, why should they care if Bonds' testicles shrink? He's worth millions. He doesn't need testicles. So what if steroids were illegal in the United States? Blame the FBI/FDA for not catching him. It wasn't Bud Selig's job. Selig's job is to be the worst commissioner ever.
At the end of the day, Bonds would have been the greatest player of his generation, with or without the steroids. Maybe he only would have hit 60 HRs in a season, maybe 650 for a career, and had to retire a few seasons ago when the injuries didn't heal as fast without the steroids. But Barry knew that if he got enough records, they couldn't throw him out. He was just giving the fans what they wanted, anyway. Like the old saying goes, "Don't hate the player, Hate the game." And Bonds played the game well. Both of them.
So in the end, we shouldn’t blame Barry Bonds for hitting over 700 home runs while on steroids. We should blame the other players for NOT hitting over 700 home runs while on steroids.
Its all their fault.
Joe is the College Football Editor for AJS
