The only way that I will ever "like" him is if he were to announce his retirement from baseball effective immediately. He is a fraud and an absoulutey deplorable role model/example for the young kids to see. (Insert your "kids aren't playing baseball" joke here.) Incidentally, I thought this way long before BALCO.
Do I think he is one of the greater players of our generation.....yes
Do I think he is HOF worthy......yes.
Is he basically an insufferable jerk........yes.
Do I think that he is/has taken steroids.......obviously.
Do I think that he should be held to such a high standard.....yes (if you are holding on to your career to break a record that is held in such high regard, absolutely!)
Do I think there should be an asterisk next to ANY of his HR accomplishments.....YES!
Will there ever be one.......no, because there were "technically" no rules against the performance enhancers of that type at the time he took them.
I guess that, bottom line, he is so irritating to me that I feel that he personifies what I think is really wrong with baseball. I know I will catch a lot of flack for this stance, but it is my opinion. I just find it VERY hard to like/pull for him.....and not only because of the steroids thing, he has brought most of this on himself imo.
Sorry for the rant.....I'll do better!
Kevin