You’re not seeing my point. I just find the outrage over Bonds to be a bit over the top.
Yeah, he cheated. I have no doubts he used steroids. I further roll my eyes when he said he thought he was taking flax seed oil. And yes, steroid usage is illegal in MLB.
My issue is more with the outrage over Bonds when this has been going on for ages and the general ignorance of steroid usage(all of the times they are ridiculously attributed to someone’s death (see Ken Caminiti above and Mark McGwire and Andro)).
Again, why these moronic Congressional hearings (what do they have to do with baseball?) now? And why not in the NFL, where usage is far more rampant? And why no accusations brought against Jamal Lewis, for instance (granted, no BALCO incident with him)?
I’m not defending Bonds. I just think the reaction to him is more visceral than I think is justified given the general usage of steroids in professional atheletes these days—well, these decades.
Screw Bonds, AND McGwire AND Sosa AND Palmiero AND Giambi AND Caminiti (a mediocre player at best) -- wipe their ''achievements'' from the books.
Save your straw man arguments about the NFL and NBA. I don't care, nor do any baseball fans.
The only relevant argument here is that Mr. Aaron's accomplishments are his own, and unaided, whereas Mr. Bonds' ''accomplishments'' aren't.
Oh, for the days of Kennesaw Mountain Landis! Bonds would have been barred for life (and McGwire, Sosa, Palmiero, etc), and we wouldn't be wasting time on this discussion!
Cheyenne, the visceral reaction to Barry Bonds would be justified based solely on the fact that he's a complete a-hole. Putting his steroid cheating on top of that makes the visceral reaction mandatory.
As a lifelong Giants fan, I feel exactly the same way.
There is little doubt in my mind that he took and abused steroids. It wouldn't bother me a whit if he was suspended for it, if he was proven to have cheated (the book, based on grand jury testimony illegally leaked by a BALCO lawyer, ISN'T proof). But the pigpile on Bonds has been going on for years before the allegations because of his personality, which apparently isn't sportswriter-friendly.
If you have ever used the term "scapegoat" but didn't know exactly what it meant, Bonds is the ultimate definition of a scapegoat. Everyone who feels cheated and shamed by the intrusion of steroids into baseball sees Bonds as the representation of it, and want to pile all of it on his shoulders and send him off never to return. Bonds refuses to be sent off, matching every underhanded tactic of MLB and the Feds with his own (ask Greg Anderson).
What disgusts me most of all is the way Bud Selig talks out of both sides of his trap, saying that he's not prejudging Bonds, but speaking his name as little as possible, even to direct questions. He put on a disgraceful display in San Diego. Even Padres fans who were booing Bonds cheered when he hit #755. Selig didn't move out of his seat until virtually forced to by the fans surrounding him, and even then he stuck his hands in his pockets. If I didn't know better, I would have thought he was Ebenezer Scrooge. He's the freaking commissioner and he didn't even act like he was a fan.
Of course, Selig the coward didn't show up in AT&T Park tonight, probably aware he would get the treatment Bonds gets everywhere else. Hank Aaron at least created a video message played after the homer was hit, something he didn't have to do. However Hank really feels, that was classy. Selig, on the other hand, issued a throwaway statement saying that he called Bonds to congratulate him, and then made a veiled reference to the Mitchell so-called investigation. What a PRICK.
Selig -- the man who in 1994 cancelled a season and thus the World Series for the first time since it was first played -- seems to sense that if he doesn't squash Bonds like a bug, it will effect history's judgment of him as Commissioner. But Selig wasn't getting out in front of performance-enhancing drugs when it was putting money in his wallet. Now that it might be taking some money out, he's going after Bonds with a vengeance. I can take or leave Bonds, but I would hate to see Selig coming out on top.
Baseball's anti-trust exemption for one. Congress has wide latitude in oversight of what goes on in baseball. Unprescribed steroid use is also illegal.
And why not in the NFL, where usage is far more rampant?
You need to pay attention:
Could it be that most people grew up when baseball was, "America's sport?" The home run record was a very important milestone then and, now it is sullied.