St. Louis 8 – Atlanta 2; Chip: DNP
Barry Bonds apparently made an appearance in the booth during today’s Giants-Diamondbacks game and referred to himself, in a joking fashion, as a convicted felon. He then quickly pointed out that he was not convicted of taking steroids. Just lying. Oh, Barry Bonds. How conflicted you make me.
Did I ever mention I once saw Bonds hit a homerun into McCovey Cove? It was on another family vacation in which I managed to squeeze some baseball in. The whole family went, and I remember, as usual we had a great bird’s eye view. And I what I saw with that view was Bonds’ ball land in the water. It was late in the game. My sister and mom, who, if you remember, aren’t huge baseball fans but tag along in the name of ‘family time,’ had already headed back to the hotel. They can only take about six or seven innings, and that night it was chilly and windy. Of course windy. So they left. And not a half inning later, he hits it. Actually, they said they could hear the roar of the crowd as they were leaving the stadium. Had that been me, I would have been flabbergasted, but I think they got over it pretty easily. The shot was vintage Bonds, too. The quick swing, the choked-up follow through, the ball pulled tightly down a rope along the right field line, and, finally, the plunk in the cove.
As for Bonds the player, for the longest time I felt like the only fan in baseball who didn’t have an opinion on him. True he didn’t seem like an altogether nice guy. He seemed to alienate and seclude himself from his teammates, but there’s no rule that says you have to be friends with everyone. Maybe because I’m a quiet person, but I don’t have a problem with someone quietly going about their business, particularly if they can deliver like he could.
And – shocker – there’s no rule that says you have to get along with the media, either. Sure, it’s probably in your best interest to, but you don’t have to. And I think more often than not he just chose not to talk to them and that pissed them off, so, when he did talk, they antagonized him out of spite. Maybe that’s a stretch, but I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibilities. For whatever reason, and there were probably many, it didn’t always go well for him. And with the media’s control over image these days, I think that’s why a lot of people didn’t like him.
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t particularly like him, either. Like I said, you don’t have to be nice to your teammates or smile while you’re playing, but, hey, you’re a baseball player! How bad, even on its worse days, can that be? And he did give off this air of being constantly annoyed with his difficult lot in life. So, when those thoughts on Bonds combined, I was really just apathetic to the guy. I liked watching his homerun like everyone else but didn’t care to hear his latest whiny drama.
Notice I didn’t mention steroids. That does complicate things a bit, to the point that the subject of steroids in baseball is probably worthy of its own post. But for some context here, know that I don’t bristle at the steroids issue. I tend to place blame on players and managers and owners and league officials and even fans for what seems like a look-the-other-way approach.
The biggest question with Bonds is usually, do I think his homerun record is tainted? No, I don’t. Because it would be pointless to start siphoning off the cheaters versus those who didn’t. You’d never know one or the other for sure. And I believe there are hundreds of things throughout baseball history that could be asterisk worthy. So, in my opinion, it was just another era, like when players were on ‘greenies.’ I do have a problem with him lying, though. I don’t like liars so that conviction is probably fair.
The saddest part of all this, though, is that he didn’t need help. He was a fantastic player without steroids (assuming he took them.) In my opinion, he was even a Hall of Fame player without them. Homerun king? Maybe not. But still one of the best players in the history of the game.
In fact, that’s why, unlike some other former players tainted with the ‘steroids’ shadow, I’m in favor of Bonds being voted into the Hall of Fame. When you consider his career, it’s the last five years or so he is believed to have used steroids. If you take away those last five year, meaning you take away the numbers he accumulated, his numbers are still Hall of Fame worthy in my opinion. For example, he’d still have over 500 homeruns, and he’d still be the only member of the 400-400 club. Both Hall of Fame worthy accomplishments, among others.
So, while I hate to see him dragged through the muck, I remind myself he did bring a lot of it on himself with his perjury and temperamental personality. But, whether or not his conviction is upheld and his reputation is forever sullied as he is regarded as a cheater, I will still proudly tell people about the time I saw him hit a homerun.
grossknowledge 