Will Baseball Blackball Bonds?
The San Francisco Giants, Bud Selig, Hall of Fame Signal "Stay Away"
Barry Bonds needs but 23 homers to tie Hank Aaron's all-time records- yet the game, the times and his body are all telling him his day is past.
With reporters and others jailed for not revealing their BALCO story sources, Bud Selig mum on the subject, and the San Francisco Giants citing contractual loopholes, there are as many barriers to Barry Bonds returning in 2007 as were his injuries of 2006. Sitting on 734 big flies, Bonds may have lot most of his last few non-Bay Area defenders when news leaked (no pun intended) of his amphetamine use. In a classless first reaction typical of the spoiled player's son, Bonds first blamed the upper use on a teammate. Yeah, as if Bonds' "locker" and private relaxation area, complete with an aptly-named Lay-Z-Boy and a private trainer he likely stole from Gary Sheffield or Marion Jones, could me mistaken for that of journeyman Mark Sweeney. First of all, MLB players don't have lockers, in the junior high school sense, and never did. They keep their belongings, legal and otherwise, in open mesh alcoves distinguished by the player's name and uniform number pasted atop each one. Last year, MLB was blessed with feelgood story's such as the Detroit Tigers' come-from-nowhere, and the comebacks of Jim Thome, Frank Thomas, and during the season, Albert Pujols. More recently, good guys Cal Ripken, Jr. and Tony Gwynn were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Mark McGwire was not. First clue to Bonds.
A chase of Aaron, given these circumstances, would be a joke, a negative distraction, a cause for booing and speculation. Even if the Giants and the swell-headed (pun intended) slugger do agree to a deal, more harm than good will be done by his sening a 756th into Willie McCovey's beloved cove. Such an act would put Commissioner Bud Selig, Hammerin' Hank, and the baseball media in an awkward position.
Bonds is now as disgraced as the men whose home run race he envied when he decided to bulk up more by cheating than eating- McGwire and Sammy Sosa. There are plenty of ostensibly clean young bombers to bring fans to the park- the Phillies' Ryan Howard, Pujols, the Marlins' Miguel Cabrera and the Cubs' Alfonso Soriano among them. Unlike the '98 chase of Roger Maris by McGwire and Sosa, when baseball was still struggling to recover fan support after the 1994 strike, the game is Bigger Than Barry, and doesn't need his fraudulent numbers, lies, or frequent days off to win our hearts. If he plays and passes Aaron, bad for us, if he doesn't, bad for him.
