Bonds
posted in General |BONDS
Baseball player Barry Bonds has hit his 715th career homerun, thus eclipsing the achievent of the legendary Babe Ruth. It is a stupendous baseball accomplishment and his ardent fans are delirious over the success of their hero. But there are storm clouds that may throw cold water on what might have been a great day. Now, Bonds is a surly, moody, contrary, ungrateful soul whose personal life is a mess (kind evaluation). Among baseball fans and the general public he will never win the Mr. Congenialty contest. On top of that, he is right up to his chin in a major controversy over his use of performance enhancing drugs during his most productive home run years. The Commissioner of baseball is right on the spot – What to do with a baseball giant whose is a druggie?
One suggestion is to attach an asterisk alongside his record numbers, saying, “achieved while using performance enhancing drugs”. Bonds fears that more than anything else. He would become a druggie with phony records. He fears this more than anything else.
There is also the baseball Hall of Fame. Based on numbers alone, he would be a shoo-in. But years ago, baseball drew the line on gambling, and in the process banned from baseball FOR LIFE, the best player in the game, Shoeless Joe Jackson. Right now, a truly superb player, Pete Rose, is denied entry to the Hall because he got caught gambing on baseball games. If Rose is the pariah denied entry to the hall, how about Bonds? Gambling vs cheating on fellow players and the general public? If Bonds enters, Rose says “What about me”"
If baseball wants to clean up its act and get serious about steroids and comparable perrformance enhancing substances, now is the time. As for me, when someone mentions 715, I figure it is a quarter after seven and time for news and weather. One little asterisk, but sports all over America will notice.
Nobody forced you to do it, Barry. Nobody made you swallow the pills, and nobody forced you to take the injections. My record books will be better without the sorry chapter you wrote!