I am right with you Gary. If Bonds is with the Giants next year, and I really don't care if he is or not, I'll be there in section 309 to watch him do it. I loved the Giants before Bonds and I'll be there when he's gone. Something that hasn't had too much attention is that Bonds was clean , pre 1998, when many in the game were already juiced. He saw what was going on and decided if players not his equal; McGuire, Sosa, Caminiti, et al, were getting all the attention then why not him. The blame for this falls on those who run the game. We knew from the stands what was happening back into the 80's. There was steroid talk in Oakland in the late 80's. Owners, mangement, trainers and players all looked the other way. Bonds takes the most heat because he's still playing as the story reaches its zenith, he or his trainers were the best at taking full advantage of the science and he's an incredible jerk. But, he's our jerk and I've loved watching him for the last 14 years.

BMAC

And if Lance is right, and the "juice" is why Barry Bonds is going to break Aaron's record, then half the league should be 22 HRs away from breaking Aaron's record. But no one else is even close. There is no way to know for sure whether Bonds would have continued being as productive in his later years without steroids. It's very likely it helped, but as you yourself point it doesn't help as much as it does in other sports. Bonds is one of the greatest players to ever pick up a bat. That is waaaay beyond dispute. So why the vituperation? The chest beating?? Why can't you all just get over it already?!

What annoys me about this issue is that if Mr. Bonds had played nice all these years, I seriously doubt he would be coming in for the criticism he's been getting. And the juice? It would be like Gaylord's spitters - wouldn't mean a thing. Cheating is never right, but there is a difference between an average man drinking an elixir that transforms him into something he is fundamentally not, and a great athlete taking a little something extra.

Those are Barry Bond's actual sins. He makes it difficult to like him all the way. Just when you think he's cool, he blows past you like you aren't even occupying the space you're occupying. It's humiliating. You've invested precious adulation.

Then he slugs another bunch of home runs and just when you think he's cool again, he gives you the hand. Shit! He did it again.

Many claim that they hate Mark McGwire, but they can't seem to sustain it. Rumors of his steroid usage popped out everywhere as he laid waste to the home run record. But not enough to get Lance and Mark worked up about it. Book gets written. Not supposed to be about Bonds per se, but baseball in general. Bonds is smack dab on the cover. Lance and Mark not only get to write a popular book, but they get to continue to cover Bonds' Balco case as the reporters of record. They basically get to lie, cheat and steal to do it. No conflict there. Like they wrote a cookbook or something.

In their book they virtually accuse Gail Devers of juicing up by association and do the two step when she fronts them off about their lies. They claim that she was coached by the steroid dispensing Remi Korchemni. She was never coached by him. Can we expect them to see the truth behind rabid foam covering their eyes?

Many here whine about how baseball has lost them, or to express details of how steroids is a societal menace which has allowed Bonds to exhibit super-human baseball feats. Experts all.

If baseball lost you, then you are not a baseball fan. A guy told me today that he stopped following the NBA because of the expansion of the "no charge" zone, which he felt favored Shaquille O’neal. Would he feel the same way if it favored someone else? An entire sport dismissed, because of one rule.

One fan said that he's disgusted about Bond's drug usage. He called steroids drugs. Crack is a drug. Heroin is a drug. Alcohol is a drug. Everyone claims to be sincerely concerned about steroid abuse amongst child athletes. Maybe that’s why we can't get a handle on our murderous real drug infested communities. They’re not dealing steroids. I know not one person addicted to steroids. I know not one child as the unintended victim of a steroids based drive-by shooting. Conclusion. No one cares about steroids’ potential affects on our youth. If they did, steroids would rank around #56. They’d be too busy manning the “anti-violence” tent city in Richmond.

Seems like Gary Kamiya's and every other previously reasonable journalists problem is actually talking to Lance Williams and Mark Fairinu-Wada. They make steroids usage out to be single biggest enemy facing human-kind today. They’re obviously good at that. Fuck Darfur. The SF Chronicle blaze double-truck headlines whenever they have something to shout out about steroids and/or Barry Bonds or their saintly reporters. Barry says that he was unaware that he was taking steroids. Stop the fucking presses. I know that he didn't say what I think he said. Arrogant son of a bitch.

Gary didn't have to write a whole story to show that he was going to enjoy Bond's assault on the big record. It's like he’s trying to prove to everyone that he’s hip to all the angles and that he's not being fooled. He knows steroids is a menace, but he’s choosing to enjoy the festival for festivities sake. Not because the entire issue of steroid usage in baseball is an entire crock of bullshit, trumped up in order to humble and take down rich, arrogant athletes.

Just because the Chronicle, Sports Illustrated and others dismiss Bonds' gifts, it doesn't diminish his gifts. It only reveals their inner hatred for those more fortunate, talented and richer than they are. It justifies their utter resentment while giving them justifiable cover.

The Chronicle and other mean-mouthed media untalenteds don't define reality just because they say so. They never "proved" that Bonds was aware of anything. They lie just like everyone else. But their “serious” reporter masks give them reasonability among the public that Barry Bonds can’t counter. I don’t know if Barry Bonds lied for sure, but I do know Lance and Mark has. They call it a mistake.

The Chronicle’s (et al) goal is to humiliate those that they deem reprehensible. Gwen Knapp wrote this the day after Marion Jones tested positive at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in June. The headline said, “This Time There’s No Running Away From It.”

"Jones put on quite a show two years ago, when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, armed with files from the BALCO investigation, included her among the athletes subject to suspension before the Athens Olympics. She protested her innocence vigorously. She had never tested positive. She had never tested positive. She had never tested positive. With her earnest facial expressions, she raked in believers at a phenomenal rate.

So now, if confronted with a ban and public humiliation, is she going to challenge the validity of the tests?"

A couple of months later the “B-sample” showed that she was not in fact tainted with the substance. Knapp’s next response was to basically question whether the technology existed to detect cheaters. She owes Marion an apology. She could have just reported on it, but she had to infuse it with her doubtful righteous ridicule and anger.

The Chronicle has since endorsed Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor. Another “smile in your face, all the while want to take your place backstabber” which shows that they’ve lost their minds in the collective.

What the hell is happening when media can't just report facts and keep the whining crusading to themselves? Their goal apparently is to drain the fun out of everything that we can possibly draw pleasure from. Like a bunch gossips.