There is something deeply appalling and
disturbing about the media's reporting of Bond's 756 homer. Their lack of unbiased recording of this event, in fact their sheer lack at the attempt at disinterest, to me, borders on the pathological.
Look, no one can deny that Bonds took steroids. Same for McGuire, same for Sosa, same for a slew of other major players. But what can be disputed it whether steroids a) gave Bonds and edge in general, and b) gave him an edge when he was hitting against pitchers who were also injecting and swallowing illegal performance enhancing substances. This isn't to say that what he was doing was correct, but when you correlate the above questions with the lack of MLB oversight what you get is a situation that was unaddressed, and endemic to the sport. Hardly an unique situation that Barry instigated.
But rather than talk about this in a rational manner, and point blame at where the blame should be placed, the media has rather thrown, eagerly and carelessly, Bonds under the bus. Taking the man (and yes--no matter how many homers he hits he's still a man) and transformed him into some kind of a demon who's haunting ballparks, jamming syringes in his eye balls while he bets on dogfights with Michael Vick and encourages kids to drop out of school and sell drugs. This is all unwarranted and unfair.
Let's be clear about something. The negative attention Bonds is getting from the media stems simply from their dislike of Bond's character. They don't like him because he's a dick, who has disrespected them for years. But do they just come out and say "hey, we don't like him"? No, instead they deviously distract, deflect and mask their true reasons by hawking on his steroid usage, which once again, hasn't been proven. And in their crusade to destroy Bonds the man, they ignore and exculpate the League of any guilt.
Look, I'm not saying that Bonds shouldn't be held up for criticism. And I'm not saying the individual has to accept the Bonds as the record holder or even a great hitter. You can think about Bonds however you want to think of him. But the media's responsibility is to report, analyze and comment on this event in a reasonable and rational manner. But when all you get out of them are comments and reports like the above headline, you can easily see that they've been taken over by their own wrath, and the sight of these rabid dogs foaming at the mouth is repugnant.
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My buddy Jesse Bueno, on his MySpace blog, had this to say:
"I'm not about to vindicate or condemn Barry Bonds because I, like everyone else, don't know what he did or didn't do. I do know that the book, which accuses him, "Game Of Shadows”, was not written by a trainer, a teammate, a coach, a doctor, or anyone directly related to the day-to-day training, or baseball playing of Barry Bonds. It was written by two "journalists", people with whom Bonds has had a historically rocky relationship with at best. Their information comes from so-called "leaked" Grand Jury testimony given by Bonds in which he is alleged to have admitted to using steroids although unknowingly."
"Now, as a lawyer, I assure you that the biggest concern here should not be whether or not some ballplayer took steroids or not, because that only effects baseball games. The real issue here is the breakdown of the legal system that affects us all, not just ball players. Who is the asshole court employee so fascinated with fame that he has interfered with the legal process that protects everyone's right to sealed grand jury testimony? Testimony that cannot be at all confirmed with legal certainty, given that it was obtained illegally. So we don't really know what was said at the grand jury by Bonds or anyone, because who is going to step forward and confirm testimonial evidence that was illegally obtained?"
"Victor Conte and Greg Anderson both did time in jail over the BALCO scandal, and neither ever said that they gave Barry Bonds steroids. Something that the federal government, being the weasels that they are, would have been more than happy to exonerate them for. Neither one of these guys has any interest in protecting a jerk like Bonds, so why not rat him out if they had actual knowledge that he had done something illegal?"
"It's not for me to say that the record is legitimate or not, but I do know that strength does not help you hit a baseball. Wrist speed and hand-eye coordination is what hits a baseball. If you need proof of that, put the last 9 winners of ESPN's "World's Strongest Man" competition in a batter's box and see if they can hit any balls out of the park. I'm sure they will end up on their asses every time you throw them a change-up."
"Ahh...and then there is Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig.
This is the genius that allowed for a tie in an All-Star Game, was bullied by the MLB Players Union for years into not implementing a comprehensive drug-testing program, and now has the nerve to say, "We have the toughest drug testing program in all of sports." Yeah, after the Union finally signed off on it because the bad publicity was
hurting baseball. Not because of a tough stance by Selig. As an owner, I didn't see Selig complaining about the integrity of the game in 1998 when Mark McGwire was admitting that he was on androstenedione (a performance enhancing drug) while breaking Roger Maris' single season homerun record. Probably because ticket sales were finally rising dramatically, after 4 years, because of the chase. I think it's fair to note that while I'm no McGwire fan, "andro" was not a banned substance in baseball in 1998. But neither was anything else. Selig might have other reasons to be low key during his acknowledgement of Bonds' record. They might be on opposite sides of a hearing by the joke of a committee investigating steroids in baseball led by George Mitchell."
"Maybe in a few years when A-Rod breaks Bonds' record (and he will), we will all be in a better mood about this. Until then this is a record with an unofficial asterisk* solely because of the controversy, and that does suck…but I do love the game of baseball. This is our game. The American game, and when I say America, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela, and The Dominican Republic also know who I'm talking about."
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