Re: Barry Lamar

Since we're on the subject... Barry Bonds is fairly unlikeable. He's a bad team mate, for one thing. He's not quite the "cancer in the locker room" that Andy York was for our Intramural Basketball team, but he's not exactly full of team spirit either. He's had media issues, you could say, but Tariq's right. You can't quite blacklist a guy who hasn't even had a positive drug test.

Here's my point. The dude can play. Let's make the totally unamerican assumption that he is indeed guilty of steroid use. Did steroids get the guy a career fielding percentage of .984? Does steroids give you 9 gold gloves? Combine that with some moderate .280-.300 hitting, and you're a fairly big time dude in the bigs anyway.

In 2005 he came back from whatever. He couldn't exactly move too well, but he was still hitting. At the end of that season he came back and hit 5 HR in 42 AB, and you know he wasn't on them then. It was like every night on Sportscenter, and no steroids.

In 2003 Giambi announces steroid use during his 41 HR season that year. In 2004 he gets off the juice and hits a dinky 12, sluggin .370. A year later, he's back up to 32 HR, and sluggin .535. These aren't monumental numbers, but you see similar stories in the steroid saga. Seems like it takes a year; About a year down the line, you remember how to hit without the needle. Interesting.

If you're a guilty Barry Bonds with projections of 756, when the scandal, new policy, and hard testing come down, maybe you take a year off. Maybe it turns out that your knee's not healing like it should. Who knows? But maybe then you can show up at the end of 2005, hit clean for a bit and actually HIT. It's a bold theory, but I don't think it's out of the question.

Go on Barry. Hit 'em hard. I don't like you that much, but hey it's not like you'll stay number one forever. I think a couple young fellows and a dude in the Bronx have a line on some big numbers.

I should add

that Congress held hearings on steroid use in baseball because steroid use is potentially devastating for the human body, and Congress was worried about the example being set for young kids. The hearings had nothing to do with cheating at baseball. If steroids were good for you. If steroids made you healthier, there would have been no hearings.

p.s. Those that took steroids before Baseball's rules banning steroids did not cheat in the first place.

Bonds, steroids and the home run record

I want Barry Lamar Bonds to break Henry Louis Aaron's home run record.

And I want us all to take a long hard look in the mirror when he does.

Bonds is not the villain here, although MLB wants him to be. What he is is a symptom of the willingness of MLB, fans, managers and the media to turn a blind eye to the growing use of steroids in the 1990s. We are the villains, you, me, all of us. We ignored the growing evidence of steroid use in the quest for thrills and home runs. We welcomed Maguire and Sosa into our hearts in 1998. We loved and cherished every moment of their epic (yes, still epic) duel. Like a spouse who doesn't want to believe he or she is being cheated on, we chose to look the other way and pretend that God was in heaven and all was well on Earth.

But now the ugly truth is out in the open and those of us who are culpable have no desire to point the finger at ourselves. We feel cheated, even though we were cheating ourselves. We'd rather make Bonds, someone almost universally disliked, the scapegoat. Especially if he is about to break one of baseball's most cherished records. Perhaps if we shout loud enough, we will drown out the voices in our heads.

Isn't it strange that Bonds, who has yet to fail a drug test, is condemned while someone like Shawn Merriman (yes, he is an NFL player but the example still stands), who actually tested positive for steroids, is welcomed back into the fold with open arms? Stranger still, is the refusal to acknowledge that pitchers could well have been taking steroids too. Besides, if taking steroids is such a travesty, shouldn't one positive test end a career?

So when Bonds passes Aaron sometimes in the summer of 2007, I will celebrate. I will celebrate because this is what we wanted all those years ago, when we made our Faustian bargain. I will celebrate because maybe, just maybe, Bonds eclipsing Aaron will force us to take stock of what really happened. And then, maybe, we can all begin to move on.