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For New York Yankees,
Boston Red Sox, St. Louis
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Philadelphia Phillies,
Chicago Cubs, Oakland A's
or any other MLB TEAM.
By: Keith Dobkowski, MLB News Writer
December 3, 2004
For the third straight morning America has awoken to find
another great athlete plastered in the newspaper over steroid
use. On Wednesday morning we found out that Tyler Hamilton’s
team had dismissed him. A gold medallist and America’s second
best cyclist behind Lance Armstrong, Hamilton had been fired
over blood doping allegations.
On Thursday, Jason Giambi’s confidential grand jury testimony in
the BALCO case was leaked to the press describing Giambi’s
steroid use through the years. And this morning it was Barry
Bonds.
Bonds is the best player of a generation and arguably the
greatest ballplayer of all-time. Bonds has an unprecedented
seven most valuable player awards, including the last four.
Bonds is third on the all-time homerun list and will most likely be
first by May of 2006.
Bonds has been winning batting championships, homerun crowns
and most impressively, breaking Babe Ruth’s records that have
stood since the 1920s. Bonds’ domination of baseball is best
understood when compared to his contemporaries. Not Michael
Jordan, Jerry Rice or Wayne Gretzky have dominated their
contemporaries in the way Bonds dominates his.
But we are obviously concerned with Bonds’ stature and not his
numbers today. We are debating how Bonds at age 37, 38, 39
and 40 seems to be getting better. His bat speed and power
have maintained, if not increased.
However, there are several factors that the major media is not
reporting today. Those factors are Michael Jordan, Jason Giambi,
Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Jerry Rice, Curt
Schilling, Karl Malone, Rick Reilly, and the asterisk.
Michael Jordan and Barry Bonds share several characteristics.
Immediately one thinks of MVPs, work ethic, and domination of
sport. But it is their weight that should be focused upon. Both
entered their respective leagues weighing less than 190 pounds.
They were skinny 21 year olds. 15 years later both players
weighed over 220 pounds.
The natural growth in all our bodies leads to such a weight gain.
It is seen in the NFL, the NBA, MLB and in life. The argument that
Bonds was a skinny kid lends no merit to the 220-pound player
he is today.
The national media has assumed that Bonds’ weight gain is the
result of years of illegal steroid use. However, this is
irresponsible reporting. Bonds has never had a gigantic weight
gain in his career. Radio host Ralph Barbieri and Tom Tolbert
were discussing as much yesterday by stating that Bonds never
increased his weight more than 12 pounds over an off-season.
This fact immediately detracts from those who point at this
substantial, yet nonexistent, weight gain. The spotlight should
be focused on those who came back from the off-season with 20
pounds of added muscle. Furthermore, the spotlight should be
placed on those who lost the muscle this past season with the
new steroid rules in affect.
Two players who immediately come to mind are Jason Giambi and
Sammy Sosa. Both bulked up and had monster years when there
was no drug testing. And both lost tremendous weight and
statistics once drug testing was in place. Bonds, however,
played at the same weight during both periods.
Many are quick to point at Bonds age as a clear factor of his
cheating. Yet the many must ignore the accomplishments of Karl
Malone, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and Jerry
Rice. Malone still dominated as a 40 year old in the NBA.
Clemens and Johnson, both who are older than Bonds, finished 1-
2 in the Cy Young voting. Schilling, in his late 30s, had his best
year yet. And Rice, who is currently 42, became the first NFL
receiver to play into his.
Bonds’ accomplishments at this age are a testament to his work
ethic. In 2001, Esquire Magazine named Bonds the hardest
working athlete in all of sports. That included Rice and Jordan
who were both playing at the same time.
By all reports, it appears that Bonds is not a nice guy, at least not
nice to the media. Several years ago when Bonds was a
Pittsburgh Pirate, Sports Illustrated arranged an interview
between writer Rick Reilly and Bonds. Bonds stood up Reilly for
three days. For the past dozen years, Reilly has tried to get even
by blasting Bonds at every opportunity.
Most famous was Reilly’s article entitled “24 and 1.” Reilly was
describing the Giants team and Bonds. Reilly has no regard that
the 1 should have been Jeff Kent and that Bonds’ teammates
always rallied around Bonds. This was proven true when Kent
left, yet Reilly never offered an apology. Instead, he bashed
Bonds again this year.
What Reilly is missing, as is every other sports writer who has
bashed Bonds, is that the fans don’t care how nice he is. We
care about how great of a player Bonds is.
And then there is the asterisk issue. Many have immediately
jumped on the bandwagon that Bonds’ records should have an
asterisk placed next to them due to the steroids issue. This is
absurd. If Bonds was the only player using and was therefore
receiving an unfair advantage, an asterisk may be warranted.
However, most of the players, if not all of the players, use some
sort of performance enhancers.
To switch leagues, we just celebrated Brett Favre’s 200th
consecutive start. That streak would not exist if it were not for
pain injections and pain killer medication. It was a performance
enhancer that allowed Favre to start 200 straight. The same
pain killers that allow Steve McNair and dozens of other NFL
players to play every Sunday.
When the Red Sox beat the curse after 86 years, it was pain
injections and performance enhancers that allowed Curt Schilling
to return to the mound with a torn tendon in his ankle. Should
we place an asterisk on the Red Sox World Series victory because
of this?
Or should we place an asterisk on every record set before Jackie
Robinson entered the league, for Major League Ballplayers were
not playing against the greatest in the world. Or should
asterisks be placed on every record before Latin American or
Japanese players entered the league? Babe Ruth only played
against white players and was known to use a corked bat.
Should we hold that against him? Willie Mays and Hank Aaron
were known to use a type of amphetamine juice before games to
increase energy and concentration. Should we hold that against
them?
So as the nation worries about Bonds, the real fan should focus
on his accomplishments. In a league full of steroid users and
abusers, performance enhancers and painkillers, and players
from every corner of the world, Bonds dominates them all in a
manner never seen before in Major League Baseball history.
Bonds remains the greatest player of a generation, if not the
greatest of all-time.
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