I'm Finally Starting To Like This Man

[1998 Yankees]

Yahoo Sports Headline: "Barry Bonds: 'I'm an embarrassment'."

Barry Bonds flipped a laundry cart to the ground and stalked away.

Calling himself an "embarrassment" and mired in one of the worst slumps of his career, it was his hardest hit of the day.

Bonds had a second straight 0-for-5 performance to extend his hitless stretch to a season-worst 20 at-bats, and his San Francisco Giants lost their 11th in a row at home to the rival Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-3 on Sunday.

"It's an embarrassment for me to be wearing this (expletive deleted) uniform 'cause of the way I'm playing. There, that's it. Now go away," Bonds said at his locker. Then he overturned the cart as he walked through the clubhouse, a rare public display of emotion with his chase of Hank Aaron's home run record at a standstill.

He's definitely growing on me (no pun intended).

[Prodigal Son]

Hey, I finally agree with Barry on something!

[eriqjaffe]

a rare public display of 'roid rage with his chase of Hank Aaron's home run record at a standstill.

Fixed that for them.

[Comedian2004]

I hear that the betting websites are offering 10 million to one odds of Barry refusing the money he was paid for those 0-20 games.

[1998 Yankees]

I'm thinking that this is his last year if this keeps up, as long as he gets the record. For that reason alone, I hope he does. It would be better if he does not come back for next season.

[Tribe Fan 24]

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

[Jason Moyer]

Originally Posted by Tribe Fan 24

TDo 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!)

I thought he was hanging on to his career because he was still the best hitter in the national league, even playing so poorly relative to his best seasons.

[Russ]

I wish Bonds played in the NBA instead of MLB.

[darkhorse]

Originally Posted by Tribe Fan 24

1. 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.

2. Do I think he is one of the greater players of our generation.....yes

3. Do I think he is HOF worthy......yes.

4. Is he basically an insufferable jerk........yes.

5. Do I think that he is/has taken steroids.......obviously.

6. 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!)

7. Do I think there should be an asterisk next to ANY of his HR accomplishments.....YES!

8. 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.

1. Nothing at all fraudulent about his unsurpassed baseball skills.

2. Yes, he is the greatest baseball player ever.

3. His career accomplishments would place him in the HOF twice over.

4. Never met the fella.

5. Hasn't failed a test. He can deal with the consequences if that occurs.

6. Bonds is "hanging on" to nada. He's one of the elite hitters this season.

7. Asterisk my patootie. Start with that foolishness and you'll never see the end of the asterisks.

8. Confident, arrogant minority athletes have always incurred outrage far exceeding merit.

[mikev]

1. Except the cheating.

2. Babe Ruth

3. Agreed.

4. Agreed.

5. He failed an Amphetamines test and admitted to taking steriods to a grand jury.

6. It sounds funny, but this is the "weakest" 1.100 OPS I've ever seen. He's only got 60 base hits this season, granted half of them are either homers or doubles... It's just... weird.

7. Meh. Whatever.

8. Way to toss the race card out there.

[edrooney]

Blah blah blah blah. Cheater Cheater doody eater. Mean old roidy Bonds can go to hell blah.

[Prodigal Son]

Originally Posted by edrooney

Blah blah blah blah. Cheater Cheater doody eater. Mean old roidy Bonds can go to hell blah.

No wai! Everybody is doing it, so it's ok! Even Willie Mays!

[CMH]

I think it's amazing that Bonds is having what is being called one of the worst slumps of his career and he's a mere 1 for his last 21.

I know that's bad but for a guy that's been playing baseball for as long as he has I think it's impressive that he's just now having a 5 game slump like this one.

[PotatoPeeler]

It only took him five or so years to figure out he's an embarrassment? That's not bad. At least he finally realizes it. There's so many players in professional sports that haven't come to that realization yet.

[darkhorse]

Originally Posted by mikev

5. He failed an Amphetamines test and admitted to taking steriods to a grand jury.

If you repeat an incorrect statement enough times it becomes true, right?

[edrooney]

Originally Posted by darkhorse

If you repeat an incorrect statement enough times it becomes true, right?

It's a misleading way to put it, but I think it's effectively true, isn't it? He admitted taking the substances called the clear and the cream. It was established (or was it? I forget) that these substances contained roids.

So effectively he did admit taking steroids, but denied knowing what they were. Negligent, perhaps stupid, but not the same as knowingly taking roids. Perhaps the Mitchell investigation are going to use their special truth-scope to look into his over-sized heart to determine the truth. Not that the actual truth is of much importance to all of the blowhards who 'know' the 'truth'.

[darkhorse]

Originally Posted by edrooney

It's a misleading way to put it, but I think it's effectively true, isn't it? He admitted taking the substances called the clear and the cream. It was established (or was it? I forget) that these substances contained roids.

So effectively he did admit taking steroids, but denied knowing what they were.

It's never been established that anything Bonds has taken contains steroids and Bonds has never admitted to taking steroids. Seems clear enough to me.

[edrooney]

Originally Posted by darkhorse

It's never been established that anything Bonds has taken contains steroids and Bonds has never admitted to taking steroids. Seems clear enough to me.

Thanks for addressing my post. San Francisco Chronicle says the following:

Originally Posted by Chronicle

Bonds testified that he had received and used clear and cream substances from his personal strength trainer, Greg Anderson, during the 2003 baseball season but was told they were the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis, according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by The Chronicle.

and

Originally Posted by Chronicle

To the prosecutors, the substances Bonds said he was using sounded like "the cream" and "the clear," two steroids designed to be undetectable in laboratory testing that Victor Conte, founder of BALCO, is accused of marketing to elite athletes, sometimes with Anderson as middleman.

Bonds said that as far as he knew, Anderson had given him only legal products to treat the arthritis and fatigue that afflicted him, especially when playing a day game after a night game. The trainer brought the products into the Giants' clubhouse at Pac Bell Park "once a homestand," Bonds said, and that's where he used them.

"I never asked Greg" about what the products contained, Bonds testified. "When he said it was flaxseed oil, I just said, 'Whatever.'

So you're probably right - just based on this article and these snippets. Bonds never admitted to specifically taking the clear and the cream, which were steroid based.

[mikev]

I totally believe him. World Class athletes just randomly take whatever they're given *all the time*

[mikev]

Originally Posted by darkhorse

It's never been established that anything Bonds has taken contains steroids and Bonds has never admitted to taking steroids. Seems clear enough to me.

If you repeat an incorrect statement enough it becomes true, right?