In the hallowed company of Ruth and Aaron, Bonds is treated as the punchline to a joke, like the sign in left field that read, "For Sale: Life-Sized Bobblehead. See Leftfield." Or the one in the upper deck with an enormous asterisk-marked head drawn over a small body that read, "Life Size. Shrink This." Or the faux Giants jerseys that say "Cheater" on the front and "Juiced" arched over a No. 25 on the back. Or the people dressed in giant cardboard juice boxes marked "100% Roids." Or the "Got Juice?'' signs. Or the skinny guy with the T-shirt that said "Barry With Pirates" while his buddy, dressed in an inflatable sumo costume, wore one that said "Barry With San Fran." Or the sign that simply said, "Fraud*.' On and on it goes, the majesty of history trumped by lowbrow humor.
Cheater.
That simple sign may be the worst of it. An athlete being labeled a cheater is worse than being called soft or a loser or even a jerk. And yet that is the verdict on Bonds, a player once gifted with as great a package of all-around baseball skills the game had ever seen. And that, really, is why this tour toward history is so sad.
madmatt said:There is no proof or evidence that he has ever used steroids... only speculation and hearsay. Innocent until proven guilty.
Give the guy a break. He is one of the best players to ever play the game of baseball.
kcnychief said:If you even have a small miniscule of fan-age for Baseball, you have to respect what Bonds has done. He has SMASHED records, such as Babe Ruth's previously unapproachable slugging percentage, and he actually slugged .809% over a 5-year period. Babe was the only person to do it once, let alone 5 years.
When he was REALLY on his game, he was intentionally walked so much. For him to maintain the concentration required to still hit home runs at the pace he did, was simply amazing. He is in the 700 HR and 500 SB club, while no one else is even in 400/400.
The stats go on, and on, and on. From a historical standpoint, he, quite simply put, will be the best statistical player whenever he decides to hang it up. Regardless if he has KNOWINGLY used them, which has still not been proven either way, he's still been the BEST at doing it. Other players, hitters, pitchers, etc, have used them knowingly or not, and he was still BETTER than them.