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.