Posted on 11/02/2007 8:04:47 AM PDT by dead
NEW YORK - Barry Bonds would boycott Cooperstown if the Hall of Fame displays his record-breaking home run ball with an asterisk. That includes skipping his potential induction ceremony.
"I won't go. I won't be part of it," Bonds said in an interview with MSNBC that aired Thursday night. "You can call me, but I won't be there."
The ball Bonds hit for home run No. 756 this season will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Hall. Fashion designer Marc Ecko bought the ball in an online auction and set up a Web site for fans to vote on its fate. In late September, he announced fans voted to send the ball to Cooperstown with an asterisk.
Of course, the asterisk suggests Bonds' record is tainted by alleged steroid use. The slugger has denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs. Fans brought signs with asterisks to ballparks this season as he neared Hank Aaron's career home run mark.
Bonds has called Ecko "an idiot."
"I don't think you can put an asterisk in the game of baseball, and I don't think that the Hall of Fame can accept an asterisk," Bonds said. "You cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history. You can't do it. There's no such thing as an asterisk in baseball."
Hall of Fame vice president Jeff Idelson declined to comment Thursday night.
Hall president Dale Petroskey has said accepting the ball doesn't mean the museum endorses the viewpoint that Bonds used illegal substances. He said the museum would be "delighted" to have the ball.
"It's a historic piece of baseball history," Petroskey said in September.
So, if the Hall goes through with the asterisk display?
"I will never be in the Hall of Fame. Never," Bonds said. "Barry Bonds will not be there.
"That's my emotions now. That's how I feel now. When I decide to retire five years from now, we'll see where they are at that moment," he added. "We'll see where they are at that time, and maybe I'll reconsider. But it's their position and where their position will be will be the determination of what my decision will be at that time."
Giants general manager Brian Sabean reiterated Thursday that the team won't bring back Bonds next season. The seven-time NL MVP, who has spent 15 of his 22 major league seasons in San Francisco, was asked whether he will retire as a Giant.
"Yeah, it's my house. No matter what that's my house, no one's going to take that away, no one ever," Bonds answered. "No one's going to take the love of that city of me away, ever."
Bonds, who has 762 homers, broke Aaron's record with a shot into the right-center seats off Washington Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik at San Francisco on Aug. 7.
Matt Murphy, a 21-year-old student and construction supervisor from New York, emerged from a scuffle holding the ball. He said he decided to sell it because he couldn't afford to pay the taxes required to keep it.
Bonds told MSNBC he hoped to reach 764 homers because he was born in July 1964. He said he's been working out and still is considering whether to play next season.
"I may hit two home runs so I can go home. I just think that I have a lot of game left. I think that I can help a team with a championship," Bonds said. "I'm a hell of a part-time player, too."
Bonds said he won't talk to George Mitchell's staff looking into steroids use in baseball while he is under investigation in the BALCO case. A grand jury has been investigating whether Bonds committed perjury when he testified he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs.
"I know it ends in January, so a couple more months. But I haven't been keeping up with it. Not at all," Bonds said. "I have nothing to hide. I have said that before and I will say it now and I will look you in the face. I have nothing to hide, nothing. So look all you want to."
(Even happier that I voted for the asterisk now.)
Now more than ever I think Mark Ecko is a marketing genius. He is the only person who figured out a way for true die-hard baseball fans to vent their anger at this phony. He did it brilliantly and stained the "roid" user's bogus record for life. When kids visit Cooperstown and see an asterisk on the ball they will ask their Dad's "Why is there an astericks on the ball?" For eternity fathers will be explaining to their sons and daughters that Bonds was a cheater. Cool.
Barry Bonds would boycott Cooperstown if the Hall of Fame displays his record-breaking home run ball with an asterisk. That includes skipping his potential induction ceremony.
Sounds fine to me....
Better yet, let's not put him in an awkward position. Keep him out of the Hall entirely.
Easy way to take care of this. 26% of the voting members of the Baseball Writers sign a written statement that they will not vote for Bonds for the 15 years he’s on their ballot (it takes 75% to elect). By the 2nd year, Barry would be kissing their feet, begging for election.
Boycotting Cooperstown? Fine by me, ya fraud.
bonds does NOT belong in the hall...
his record does....
and it must have an seterisk next to it!!!!
Cooperstown didn’t exactly go under by not including Pete Rose. Adios, Barry.
He can talk, but nobody takes him seriously.
Exactly.
He’s a walking punchline for late night tv, and a walking example of how baseball failed itself, and its fans.
guess I’ll be the contrarian but ........
the man is a human being with a family and I’ll be damned if I diss him here or anywhere..........my life is not effected by his ...I wish him Godspeed in all that fixes his life
and BTW.......thanks Barry, simply cause I love baseball
Wow, I LOVE public celebrity tantrums!!!
Makes me feel like a real adult . . . . sometimes.
I'll bet 5 bucks right now that Barry Bonds consulted a voice coach just to make sure how to pronounce "asterisk"...
That petulant little s**t should just walk away quietly.
"Loving baseball" is the best reason I can think of to dislike Bonds. It's certainly why I do.
BAROID such a diva LOL!
I fantasize of catching that ball myself then writing "Juiced" on it with a black marker then throwing it back onto the field........
I could have probably made some bucks off it by charging for interviews.........
And this years Gary Hart Stupidity Award goes to...
nothing but respect but I said all I’m gonna about it.................baseball milked Barry for results til they didn’t need him anymore
Wow.
Poor, abused Barry? They done him wrong?
That's absurd.
Another Barry, Marion Barry, used to look people in the eye and spout the same crap.
I think all records from the entire Bug Selig era ought to be separated with an icon of a syringe.
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