Bonds Freak Show Tours Fenway Park
Red Sox Host Giants, Bonds in his Larcenous Assault on HR Record
Jun 15, 2007
The Barry Bonds Traveling Freak Show opens tonight at Fenway Park in Boston, and (in the words of Lennon and McCartney) a good time is guaranteed for all.
All except Boorish Barry, who will receive his usual reception while outside the city of San Francisco.
While Balloon-Boy makes his first-ever visit to Fenway over the weekend the boo-birds will most definitely come out of the woodwork.
Boston fans – not known as the most forgiving fans of Major League Baseball – will no doubt shower Bonds will the same disdain he receives outside the confines of AT&T Park.
And the larcenous lunk deserves exactly the reception he’ll get.
Because his (so-called formerly) steroid-fueled assault upon Hank Aaron’s career homerun record is an utter farce.
It’s unfortunate the MLB Commissioner Bud Selig is too preoccupied with going after Yankee first baseman Jason Giambi that he can’t devote any time to figuring out how to derail Bonds while the Black Michelin Man creeps toward Aaron’s 755 homerun mark. (Giambi actually had the temerity to publicly suggest that MLB should come clean about the steroids problem.)
Bonds told a grand jury that if he did steroids he wasn’t aware of it. That flaxseed oil and arthritic balm made him gain 50 pounds and caused his head to balloon up to the size of a small watermelon. He simply used two substances called the Clear and the Cream.
He had no idea.
Uh-huh.
It’s utterly ironic that Thursday was the anniversary of the then-Boston Braves signing Hammerin’ Hank, a class act and one of the most unassuming men in the annals of Major League Baseball.
It’s a crying shame that ultimately Bonds will be allowed to steal Aaron’s record. MLB will turn its head, just as it did in 1998 when a beefed-up Mark McGwire stole Roger Maris’ single-season homerun record.
Bonds’ surliness and boorish me-first attitude can’t be any more diametrically opposed to Aaron’s demeanor. And that’s perfectly accentuated by his churlish response to baseball’s Hall of Fame when he refused to provide them with mementoes of his 714th and 715th homeruns.
When asked about his refusal to donate anything to the HOF, he responded, “I take care of me.”
The incomparable Babe Ruth held the MLB career homerun record with 714 round-trippers – until Aaron passed him in April 1974. Bonds is at 747.
In Philadelphia last year – when Bonds slammed his 713th homerun – fans strung up a banner reading, "Ruth did it on hot dogs & beer. Aaron did it with class. How did you do it?"
Bonds is doing it with flaxseed oil and arthritic balm.
Yup.
Partly because of his bad attitude, but mostly because the American public recognizes that he’s cheated his way toward the career HR title, Mr. Watermelon Head is universally reviled outside of the San Francisco section of the Left Coast.
While Selig bobs and weaves around the question regarding attending Giants games once Bonds nears the milestone, Aaron was very blunt about the bloated slugger last week.
"I don’t have any thoughts about Barry. I don’t even know how to spell his name," Aaron curtly remarked, then laughed.
He added that he and Selig – a long-time friend and former employer (the ex-owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, the team with which Aaron ended his career) – haven’t talked about attending any of Bonds game in Barry’s quest to steal the homerun title.
"I’ve not spoken to him at all," Aaron said.
Bonds insists that the reason he’s so disliked is the media’s fault.
Yeah, Barry. We collectively sat on your chest and forced that flaxseed oil and arthritic balm upon you.
Think this is much ado about nothing? Read Jeff Pearlman's biography, "Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero," and "Game of Shadows" by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. “Game of Shadows” intricately details the grand jury investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative.
Five individuals were convicted in federal court as the result of the revelations, including BALCO founder Victor Conte Jr., and Bonds’ so-called “personal trainer,” Greg Anderson. And now Anderson is sitting in jail for contempt of court. His crime? Refusing to testify before yet another grand jury investigating whether Bonds perjured himself before the first one.
How much you want to bet ol’ Greggy-Boy is still on Bonds’ payroll?
People don’t simply dislike Bonds – they loathe him.
The maddening underscoring of the situation is how Major League ballplayers are adhering to a code of silence about Bonds. Omerta, if you will.
After outspoken Sox star Curt Schilling blasted Bonds during a radio show last month he was “talked to” by team management – and quickly apologized on his blog for his intemperate comments.
Yet Schilling’s comments weren’t inaccurate.
“He admitted that he used steroids [albeit supposedly unknowingly]," Schilling said. "I mean, there's no gray area. He admitted to cheating on his wife, cheating on his taxes and cheating on the game, so I think the reaction around the league, the game, being what it is, in the case of what people think … It's sad. And I don't care that he's black, or green, or purple, or yellow, or whatever. It's unfortunate … there's good people and bad people. It's unfortunate that it's happening the way it's happening."
Bonds’ teammate, outfielder Dave Roberts – a Red Sox hero in their historic comeback against the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series – acknowledged Bonds will be booed at Fenway, but tempered his remarks with, "Players like him come along once in a generation."
And that’s fortunate for baseball fans.
