Letters to the Editor
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Anonymous...
The elegance of your argument is only surpassed by your extreme intelligence!
I know that Barry Bonds is one of the best baseball players to have ever played the game. He knows: 1)he is one of the best to have ever played baseball; 2)he'll retire with the home run record; and 3)no one can take any of his accomplishments away from him!
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Phoenixtrue
Hey man the days of white guilt are long gone. Barry trashed his reputation and his talent, and only fools would hold him up as a hero.
Fools like you.
Now get back to writing letters insisting that those white boys at Duke were guilty.
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No player hater has answered this
Two reporters followed Bonds around for a couple of years and wrote a book about him. So far he hasn't been proven by law to have illegally used steroids, but let's just say it's pretty suspicious.
Roger Clemons was fingered as a steroid user in that federal case out of Arizona. How many of you want Roger Clemons records thrown out? I haven't heard you yet, maybe you're posting your vitriol against Clemons on another website.
Reasoned estimates have that during the heights of the steroid era 25 to 50% of major leaguers were using steroids. How does anyone know who did or didn't? If you just want to throw out Bonds' records, then why are you stopping there? There are ten thousand Marvin Bernards for every Barry Bonds, whose on-field exploits were worthy of the Hall of Fame before the steroid era. So why just Bonds? If we are talking about the integrity of the game, how about the games that Bobby Estalellea caught?
What about the guys who used steroids and didn't arouse suspicion? And what about the people who had to play against steroid users? Should we round down the ERA of every pitcher who threw to Bonds, and should we round up the batting averages of any player who struck out against Clemons?
And, as I asked earlier, it is well-known that ballplayers have taken amphetamines. That stuff was in the clubhouse for decades. Now that you know, oh Righteous Baseball Fan, are you ready to throw out every baseball record of your lifetime? Didn't think so.
So why Bonds? What makes him so special to you?
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And lest we forget football, does anyone here think that Lyle Alzado is the only guy who ever took steroids in that sport? Are we ready to throw out all football records tainted by steroids? If so, where was your outrage over the Carolina Panthers a couple years ago?
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If someone doesn't want to count Bonds record because of steroids, why not Clemons, why not the entire generation? Why not throw out all records from the era of amphetamines? Why just Bonds?
And are we not counting the last two years of the NBA? Just asking.
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Wow...Anonymous...
It's difficult to keep up with the lightening speed of that brain of yours! From "White Guilt" to "Barry Bonds trashing his career" to "Fools for Bonds" to the "Duke Lacross Players being guilty." I'm exhausted!
Someone as brilliant as you has the right to your opinion about whether I'm foolish or not (and since you have not addressed the substance of what I've written in both of my posts, I'll take your opinion in the same spirit). But this white guilt and Duke lacross stuff--that all came from your very...complicated mind.
The denial of you intellect, notwitstanding, I certainly hope that your profession doesn't involve contact with the public.
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It's Clemens. Roger Clemens.
And throw out his records, too. Who really gives a crap. I love baseball, but lately it's feeling less and less important in the grand scheme of things.
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Anonymous
No actually I'm a native born American citizen who lived a long time there. But thanks for asking if "Anonymous" is really your name.
And, yeah, you're a fucking retard and sad pathetic fool who would rather be hated than ignored. I bet you're most of the comments screaming at people about their taste in comic strips too, because that's like, real important and shit.
Now go away you silly silly angry asshole and please whatever you do, please boycott baseball for the rest of your sad dreary life. Maybe there's an opening for urine tester for the Special Olympics you could do.
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Roid Rage
To the people who say that it hasn't been "proven" that Bonds took steroids, you're right. But from today's SF Chronicle comes this little ditty:
"As they reaped the benefits of having Bonds all these years, the Giants made a trade-off. Bonds demanded uncommon freedom and the Giants largely acquiesced, most notably in allowing him to bring his personal trainers -- including Greg Anderson -- into the clubhouse in violation of Major League Baseball rules.
"Anderson, a regular presence in the players' sanctuary from 2000 until '03, later pleaded guilty to distributing steroids. His access to the ballpark thrust the Giants into the steroids scandal when four former San Francisco players -- outfielders Armando Rios and Marvin Benard and catchers Benito Santiago and Bobby Estalella -- were identified as having received banned drugs from the trainer, according to court documents in the BALCO case."
That is why a high level of suspicion surrounds Bonds. That and the continuing federal perjury investigation.
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Suspicion is one thing...
Declaring him guilty and therefore minimizing and ignoring his accomplishments, and attacking him--that's another.
And, this is, what, the 3rd grand jury? They're fishing, pure and simple. If they had anhything, they'd have indicted him long ago, even if they thought they'd lose in court. Which means that, right now, they have less that bupkus.
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You're right...
...there's no reason to declare Bonds guilty. Of course, I find this interesting (from ESPN the magazine):
On an otherwise ordinary night, over an otherwise ordinary meal, Griffey, Bonds, a rep from an athletic apparel company and two other associates chatted informally about the upcoming season. With Griffey's framed memorabilia as a backdrop, and Mark McGwire's obliteration of the single-season home run record a fresh memory, Bonds spoke up as he never had before. He sounded neither angry nor agitated, simply frustrated. "You know what," he said. "I had a helluva season last year, and nobody gave a crap. Nobody. As much as I've complained about McGwire and Canseco and all of the bull with steroids, I'm tired of fighting it. I turn 35 this year. I've got three or four good seasons left, and I wanna get paid. I'm just gonna start using some hard-core stuff, and hopefully it won't hurt my body. Then I'll get out of the game and be done with it."
Silence.
According to others in the room, Griffey was uncertain how to react. At age 29, he was at the top of his game, fresh off a season in which he compiled 56 home runs and 146 RBIs. As the pressure to indulge in performance-enhancing drugs mounted, the man known as 'The Kid' stayed clean. Sure, he, too, could see the physical differences in many players, including some on his own team. But to him, baseball wasn't important enough to risk his health and reputation. "If I can't do it myself, then I'm not going to do it," Griffey says. "When I'm retired, I want them to at least be able to say, 'There's no question in our minds that he did it the right way.' I have kids. I don't want them to think their dad's a cheater."
And this:
Within the Giants' clubhouse, Bonds' transformation was met with skepticism. His face was bloated. His forehead and jaw were substantially larger. "And the zits," says Jay Canizaro, who played 55 games as a Giants infielder in 1996 and '99. "Hell, he took off his shirt the first day and his back just looked like a mountain of acne. Anybody who had any kind of intelligence or street smarts about them knew Barry was using some serious stuff."
He's as pure as new-fallen snow.