I hate Bonds

[430752]

There, I said it. I fell better now admitting to this.

Barry Bonds and the Babe in the same sentence, say it ain't so.

curt j.

[TB Roye]

I have to agree with you. The guy has always been a spoiled jerk and to think he might pass one of the Icons and maybe catch another makes me sick. They put an asterik after Roger Maris maybe they should put one after Bonds if he passes Ruth and Aaron. Something like "alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. I used to go to Giant games over in SF but no more. Go to the AAA Sacramento Rivercats and enjoy myself. My uncle who is 90 was a life long Giant fan but he won't ever listen to or watch their games anymore. Bonds is just as big a liar as Pete Rose and should never be in the hall.

Tom

[rickd]

barry bonds is a cheater! why mlb continues to allow this charade to go on is beyond me. for mlb to allow bonds to continue to try and overtake babe ruth and hank aaron when there is ample evidence to suspend him is disrepectful to every fan of baseball. oh yeah - let's throw mark mcguire in there too - he's just as guilty! all their records should be thrown out.

the real home run kings are hank aaron, roger maris and, of course, babe ruth. the babe hit his homer on hot dogs and beer - hardly performance enhancing drugs .

[JR]

One! Two! Three strike yer out...

Strike one - He's a Giant

Strike two - Egotistical, surly, lying scumbag

Strike three - Obvious cheater chasing the recors of the sport's icons

Strikes one and two can be forgiven (well, maybe not strike one, but you know what I mean). Strike three is just so sad because he is by far the best hitter in MLB, and didn't need to cheat to get to the hall of fame.

JR

[dlminehart]

He and his ilk have been enough to turn me off to major league baseball. I'll watch our local farm team when I want to see the game.

[Pappy]

I gave up on MLB a long time ago. I keep an eye on the Wiscinsin Timber Rattlers, only becasuse my nephew is the coach.

The last player worthy of 'hero' status was Cal Ripkin.

[Deadhead]

The last player worthy of 'hero' status was Cal Ripkin.

I totally agree. And, somehow, he managed to do it without 10 pounds of gold chains around his neck and diamonds in his ears.

[gugie]

Have any of you guys met Barry Bonds? Did he do something to you personally? I've known several people that have kids (not sportswriters) who have met Barry that say he lights up around children. You see something to that effect written every once in awhile, but the sports writing community hates him, and all of you Bonds haters know him through the words of the media.

Is he a cheater? What you mean is, did he use steroids? If this is your criteria, why don't you post something about Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Jason Giambi, or any of hundreds of others who are just as likely to have taken steroids.

Do you hate him because he probably cheated on his wife? Do you then hate Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, etc.?

Do you hate him because he makes tons of dough?

What is it specifically about Barry Bonds that gets your dander up so much that you'll post your hatred about him when you probably haven't met the guy? Why focus on Barry?

Do I like him? Don't really have an opinion one way or another, but I think I'd let my kids play with him, based on what I've heard from friends (two of which work in television broadcast with the Giants).

[rickd]

gugie,

the only time the word 'hate' was ever used in this thread was in the title of the initial posting. each post subsequent to that never mentioned the word until you used it 5 times in your post.

but, you're right i don't know barry bonds. that doesn't mean i can't have an opinion about him based on the accumulation of reports about him, watching him do interviews, reading his grand jury testimony etc. it's pretty eveident he cheated by using steroids - like a bunch of others in baseball and other sports.

the reason bonds is the focus right now is because he is about to tie and surpass babe ruth's home run totals. most of us who love baseball think this is a real travesty. we would feel the same if any of the 'steroid' generation were about to reach this milestone - mcquire, never did although his records should be stricken from baseball as well.

so, it's not about hating barry bonds at all - but, i sure don't like what he stands for.

[430752]

Point Taken

Okay, point taken on the use of the word hate as well as having never met the man. Perhaphs despise would be better. As for having never met the man, I guess I'm guilty of judging without personal knowlegde, but I don't feel too bad about it in this case where I'll never have the chance to drink a beer with him and where he is surly son of a gun, or so is said.

As far as the others? Well, sosa has pretty much outted himself as a complete cheater with the whole corked bat episode (meaning he'd do anything including roids) as well as pretty much not showing up last season.

Giambi fessed up, came clean as one could, and in america admitting to it and moving on rather than hiding and lying is good enough for me (we are the land of second chances).

And McGuire? well, I don't know about him. I agree that if we're gonna asterisk bonds, we've gotta asterisk mcguire. But I guess the biggest difference between the two is that mcguire is not going for all the glory, is not still playing, is not so entrenched with Balco as bonds, and is not the record holder. But if Bonds' records should be stripped, I agree that McGuire's should be also. Finally, and I hate to think it and don't base it for my opinion, but you gotta wonder if it some of the added attention is cuz Bonds is black and mcguire is white. just a thought.

curt j.

[JR]

One other difference between McGwire and Bonds. Mac had the 'roids on the shelf in his locker for all to see. I believe it was wrong, but at the time was not against the rules.

Bonds has lied about it. I honestly don't know of Bonds used 'roids after the rules changed, but I think he did. That would be bad.

Gugie, your comments about Bonds' interaction with kids is refreshing. We certainly don't hear much about that side of him. On the other hand he IS insular and seems to be more interested in getting status for himself without much regard for his teammates.

Also a good point about "hating" him. But then, as i said, he's a Giant, so I take nothing back!

JR

[gsmittle]

One other difference between McGwire and Bonds. Mac had the 'roids on the shelf in his locker for all to see. I believe it was wrong, but at the time was not against the rules.

JR

Just to be all technical and all, McGuire had androstenedione in his locker, a precursor to testosterone, not the steroid itself.

Just repeating what I remember reading in the papers--somebody with a medical background can explain it better and correctly, too.

g.

[JR]

JR rant on

Just to be all technical and all, McGuire had androstenedione in his locker, a precursor to testosterone, not the steroid itself.

I'm sure you're right about that, but it's on the list of banned substances now, too. You can't go back and change the rules that were in force at that time, but it's sad that such a great athlete had no misgivings about using it.

Interestingly it was hard for me to find the MLB drug policy to verify androstenedione as a banned substance. It was nowhere to be found at MLB.com. A google search saved the day, though.

http://files.findlaw.com/news.findla...ugpolicy05.pdf

My little brain doesn't usually form black and white opinions, but on this topic I'm clear. Perfomance-enhancing drugs in sports are bad.

Athletes are induced, through greed, pride or pressure, to use harmful drugs. Their health is affected to the point they have debilitating problems leading to cancer, loss of mobility, and early death. I suppose in our mercenary world some of that could be accepted, but the impact on the kids who emulate the athletes could be devastating.

Marginal junior athletes will use harmful drugs just stay in the game. Parents and coaches will force kids to use these drugs to fulfill their own misguided needs. The consequences are much greater, in my view, than recreational drug use. At least with pot a kid can decide not to use it. With steroids he's got to have it to stay competitive.

Even if you just examine the professional athletes, isn't the use of performance-enhancing drugs cheating the gambler who bets on that game? Isn't the sponsor who pays for that athlete's endorsement cheated by the inflated performance figures and eventual exposure as a cheat? Aren't the community groups who affiliate with the cheating athlete hurt when he's exposed?

I'm no goody two shoes. If a private citizen wants to bulk up in order to impress the girls at the office, he should go for it. But leading sports leagues need to develop ironclad policies to keep drugs out of the game. And they should be proud that they've done it, unlike MLB whose policy can't be found. Sure, there are a few articles on MLB.com that talk around what they've done, but there should be a main menu selection leading to the info showing how proud they are of stopping this problem.

rant off

jr

[devinjc]

The Baseball Hall of Fame is littered with "cheaters," spitball throwers, sign stealers, game riggers, drunks, wife beaters, fan beaters, coke heads, etc. and so forth. There have been some noble guys, but come on there have been tons of dirty ones.

Shouldn't all of the 80s have an asterisk by due to the amount of cocaine that was going on? Baseball just banned amphetamines this year? Seriously, the number of guys getting a little energy from a little blue pill was off the charts. Now they are all strung out on Redbull.

Lyle Alzado was pretty much killed by steriods. Of course, that was before any league made them illegal. Many NFL players late 70s through the early 90s were definitely on steriods, yet no one looks at that and says "CHEATERS!"

Marijuana was illegal long before it was illegal in the NBA.

Yeah, steriods are bad, sends a bad message to the kids. But working out 6 hours a day and taking in 50,000 calories of powdered protein is pretty **** unhealthy too and precious few people are on their soap box about that.

So go Barry, hit your home runs with your chemical enhanced body, off of pitchers with chemically enhanced bodies. Your 500th home run was the prettiest thing I've ever seen on the radio, watching you clobber Mcgwire's record was fantastic. Sitting in the stands and watching a ball sail out into McCovey Cove is simply magical. It's a game, and you make it fun to watch.

And for all you minor league fans, the minor league players are the ones falling all the steriod tests the last 2 years.

When does football start? I want to watch a few normal, regular 6'5" 375lb. guys go at each other.

[devinjc]

sorry if the tone of my post is a bit harsh. I've been bent out of shape about steriods in baseball for a few years now.

Too many professional athletes are under too much pressure to be the greatest physical specimen alive, it's only natural for them to cut an occasional corner.

And let's face it. How many really old football players do you know of period? Especially Linemen? The sport itself is unhealthy. It's hard to be self-righteous and say "Don't do that which makes you better when it might kill you in your 40s or 50s" to someone who will be lucky to see past 50 anyway, and probably won't be able to walk without excruciating pain if they make it that far?

Ban it, suspend them when they're caught with it sure. But to condemn them as filthy cheaters? I just don't see it.