This will probably be my most unpopular post ever, especially considering how everyone feels about Barry Bonds (myself included). I haven’t read the book Game of Shadows yet and had I read it, I might not be writing this, but it’s time for people to get over Barry Bonds breaking the home run record.
Let’s get the unpleasantries out of the way. Barry Bonds is a prick. He’s got a bristly personality, is dismissive of the press and can be antagonistic at times. He’s arrogant and tends to throw out the race card every once in a while too. He’s dismissive of others and seems to (at least publicly) revel in the hatred he gets when he’s on the road. He takes up THREE lockers in his home clubhouse and has a lot of perks no other major leaguer even comes close to having. His body has increased in size that can only be the result of hormones, seeing that he bulked up after the age of 35, a time when the human body begins to deteriorate. His head has increased by an even greater percentage than the rest of his body, thus giving his enemies (i.e. everyone outside of San Francisco) more ammunition for their steroid accusations. His trainer is in jail for refusing to testify and that really casts a huge shadow on his legacy.
With all that being said, as far as we know, unless there’s some hidden test result Major League Baseball hasn’t released or the grand jury that is investigating him hasn’t pursued publicly, he has never tested positive under MLB’s set of standardized drug tests. Yes, we all might hate him for his aloofness and maybe we’re all a little stir crazy that he hasn’t been busted before, but if a man has never been convicted we don’t have a leg to stand on.
While most of us might not like Barry and what he represents, this should make no difference to the Owner Lackey, I mean, Commissioner of Baseball. All this steroid shit happened on King Bud’s watch and he simply is reaping what he sows. For him to hem and haw about whether or not he’ll be in attendance when the record is tied/broken shows how little a spine this man actually has. Bowie Kuhn was a prick for not being there when Hank Aaron initially broke the record and it looks like Bud, a man who I might actually have less respect for than Bonds, will also make an error in judgment by hiding in Milwaukee in whatever crypt he normally spends his nights in. I don’t care if Bud is a close friend of Hank Aaron. The man has a title and he needs to be in attendance for all notable baseball events, much less the breaking of the sport’s most hallowed record. Besides, Bonds’ record will be broken in 10-15 years due to the fact that ballplayers are still getting bigger and the parks are getting smaller.
I do think that the next homer Barry hits, if it happens this weekend in Milwaukee, he will be benched to ensure he ties and breaks it in San Francisco. I honestly don’t want to see the ugly scene that will ensue if he ties or breaks the record on the road. Would I love to see Barry break the record in front of Bud’s hometown crowd? Yes, of course. But I don’t want to see a man be potentially harmed by a few crazies in a crowd simply because he broke a sports record.
It reminds me of when I was really hardcore into sports as a kid and I wanted Pete Rose dead. Why? Well, he was about to become the all time leader in hits, surpassing Ty Cobb. Being a Detroit Tigers fan, I didn’t want anyone breaking a record held by a Tiger. Maybe it was because I lived in a city where violence was the norm, but I really wanted Pete Rose killed, preferably in front of a large audience. It was a dark thought for a young kid but I didn’t care. Of course I wasn’t able to carry out the dastardly deed but that was only because I lived in an American League city and the Reds never came to Detroit since this was in the pre-interleague play era.