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Monday, 13 March 2006 |
By D. W. O’Dell
 The time has come to speak of many things, of Cream and Clear and HGH, of Winstrol and Deca-Durabolin. These are all substances that Barry Bonds allegedly either smeared on or shot into his body in order to enhance his performance on the baseball field. While suspicions about Bonds have been rampant for years, a new book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, Game of Shadows, now documents Bonds’ supposed involvement with performance enhancing drugs in excruciating detail.
From a purely common sense perspective, evidence that Bonds was taking steroids could be found in the box score of any Giants game since 1998. Baseball players’ careers normally peak in their late 20’s or early 30’s; after the age of 35 there is a steady decline, which some players (notably pitchers, because they have 4 days off to recover) can postpone for a few years. But no baseball player suddenly increases his production after the age of 35. Believing that a steroid-free Barry Bonds was able to hit more home runs between the ages of 35-39 (258) than he hit between the ages of 26 to 32 (257) would qualify as one of the six impossible things everyone should try to believe before breakfast.
Bonds’ attorney has been quoted as saying that the authors of the book wrote it in order to become wealthy. If what they said was a lie, then Bonds’ legal team would sue them for defamation and take them to the cleaners; so if Bonds’ attorney thinks they will end up wealthy, is that an admission that the contents of the book are accurate?
I’ve personally heard several people criticize the authors because they wrote the book for the same reason as mentioned above: money. This attitude overlooks a couple of facts. First, however much the authors make, it is a pittance compared to what Barry Bonds earned after his alleged decision to take steroids (Bonds earned $22 million for playing in 14 games in 2005). Second, people who think the authors of a best selling non-fiction book will become wealthy clearly don’t understand the publishing industry - they will get a nice bonus to their salaries at the Chronicle, but they won’t earn enough to quit their jobs and retire to Bora Bora. And third - again, if what’s in the book is all lies, then Bonds’ lawyers will feast on the reporters’ bones.
So people seem to be mad at the reporters for telling the truth. They didn’t want to know about the steroids (and the mistress, and the violent temper, and the bouts of megalomania). They just wanted to believe that a middle-aged man could suddenly become the greatest hitter of all time because of will power and a diet of granola bars.
Bonds has said he wants to pass Ruth and supplant him as the greatest left-handed baseball player of all time. Is Bonds a better baseball player than Ruth? Please. Babe Ruth has a record of 94-46 and a lifetime ERA of 2.28 as a pitcher - let’s see Bonds pitch for five years in the majors and top that. Plus Ruth hit his 714 home runs in about 10% fewer at bats than Bonds hit his 708 in. Oh, and the only performance enhancing drug Ruth used was beer.
But Babe Ruth never played against black players, which is what sticks in Bonds’ craw. According to the Chronicle reporters, Bonds decision to use steroids was motivated by his jealously over Mark McGuire, whom Bonds thought was allowed to play while juiced because he was white (I’m not sure how he explains the fact that the ‘White Establishment’ also allowed Sammy Sosa to break Maris’ home run record). In Bonds’ mind, he had to use steroids in order to break Ruth and McGuire’s records because they had an unfair advantage because they were white, or so the authors claim.
Frankly, this is what bothers me the most of all the disclosures in this book – the portrayal of Bonds’ unrepentant racism. The man has earned $153 million in his career (not counting card show money, which Bonds supposedly forgot to tell the IRS because he used the money to support his mistress) and yet he believes he is a victim of ‘The Man?’ Imagine how angry he’d be if he had only made $120 million. I guess Bonds feels what Harry Shearer said about working on The Simpsons is true: it is possible to make a nice living and still get totally screwed.
Barry Bonds’ future will be speculated on until his career ends, and then the debate over his Hall of Fame credentials will begin. He had a lock on the Hall of Fame before he allegedly began taking steroids; but some reporters have now said they won’t vote for him. Baseball is in uncharted territory, and only time will tell if the Hall will welcome players like Bonds, Sosa, and Raphael Palmeiro.
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