 Barry Lamar Bonds: Love Him or Hate Him?UPDATE: If you check the comment thread below, you’ll see that El Lefty Malo, has posed the first question of the roundtable: Should there be an asterisk next to the record when Bonds breaks it? My answer: Absolutely not. I now leave it up to my fellow bloggers and all ye commenters to discuss. Just in case you’ve been asleep for the past 18 months or so, Barry Bonds is closing in on the all-time MLB home run record. Hank Aaron’s 33–year run as the home run king is about to come to an end, and Blogs By Fans is going to take a look at the man who will dethrone the Hammer.
Bonds has played his entire career in the National League, and seeing as how I root for the Yankees (and the Yanks have never met a Bonds-led team in the playoffs) his on-the-field achievements have never influenced my team directly. This is important to note because so many people seem to hate this guy, and a great deal of them don’t have a personal reason to do so. Here’s what I mean. I’m one of those fans who hates certain players. I mean I really hate them. I want to spit whenever I hear their names. My blood boils when I see them make All Star teams. I refuse to draft them for my fantasy teams. The criteria for my hatred is pretty clear:
So no, I don’t hate Barry Bonds. He’s a jackass, but nowhere near the level of jackass so many athletes are. As far as Barry the player goes. He’s the best non-pitcher I’ve ever seen. Period. (I still say Mo Rivera is the best baseball player of my lifetime). He’s the best hitter to play the game in the past thirty years, if not more. He was the best before roids, and he’s been the best since roids (I’m just going to drop the alleged from any steroid conversation. The guy juiced, if you disagree, I can’t do anything for you.) The Record:
Personally, what I consider “longevity” records don’t excite me. I find them admirable, but they don’t make me say “wow.” Cal Ripken played in 10,000 consecutive games. That’s an oddity to me. I didn’t get chills as they unfurled that banner when he broke the record. I got chills when David Wells threw a perfect game. I got chills when Mark McGwire hit his 62nd home run. Joe Dimaggio’s hitting streak amazes me, Pete Rose’s 4,000+ hits bores me. I’d much rather have been at either of Roger Clemens’ 20 strike out games than his 300th win. Fleeting moments of greatness have a much greater effect on me than trudging toward history, and usually limping to the finish line. So will I watch when Bonds breaks the record? Absolutely, but it won’t excite me the way his HR off Troy Percival in the ‘02 World Series did. It won’t be nearly as meaningful as Kirk Gibson’s walk-off bomb off of Eckersley in the ‘88 series. I’m not taking anything away from Aaron, Rose, Ripken or any of the other guys who have set these longevity records. They were great, and to do what they did over such an extended period of time should be celebrated. For my money, though, these types of records aren’t what keep me watching baseball. I watch baseball to see Barry Bonds turn on an inside fastball that he has absolutely no business catching up to, and depositing it in the water over the right-field fence. Greatness, true athletic greatness, is achieved in a fleeting moment, or a magical season. Bonds has probably provided us with more of those moments than anyone else playing the game today. That’s what I’ll remember when he retires. Not how long he played. The only feelings I have on Bonds breaking the record have nothing to with asterisks or fairness, they have to do with fans. I hope Bonds breaks the record at home, where people will cheer him, because I think it’d be a shame for his moment to be marred by boos, and I think the San Fran fans have earned the right to witness it. They’ve stuck by Barry through thick and thin (mostly thin in recent years).
 My comrades at Blogs By Fans will share their own thoughts on Barry over the next couple of days while we wait for the inevitable to happen. 
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Let me start this roundtable by saying, emphatically, that I do not hate Barry Bonds. If anything, I admire Barry the player. Barry the person, I could take or leave. I hardly think about him.
Would Barry have broken Aaron’s record had he not taken steroids? Probably not. He wouldn’t have been as productive in his late thirties. Then again, he may have been able to play longer into his forties if not for the added strain of carrying around all the extra muscle on his frame. We’ll never know. Here’s a better question: Do we even care?
Very insightful analysis of Barry Bonds. Thank you for offering a balanced view that doesn't automatically condemn Bonds as a 'cheater' and dismiss his accomplishments.
I have a problem with folks crying 'foul' on the steroid issue and directing all their hatred toward Bonds as a 'cheater.' HGH was a legal acceptable substance to MLB when Bonds took it. And steroids aren't the only substance that can be considered 'performance enhancing.'
Baseball players have been taking speed/amphetamines/ diet pills for over 40 years. Speed improves focus and coordination and could be considered performance enhancing. It was a dirty little secret in baseball for years... does that mean we should order a witch hunt on every player in the '60's through the 2000's that popped pills or had a prescription for 'diet pills?'
And playing devil's advocate, should every player with a prescription for Dexedrine, Ritalin, Concerta, Stratera, Adderall or other ADHD prescribed meds be subject to scrutiny? And what of every asthmatic who is prescribed an oral steroid or steroid inhaler to open his airways? Look what happened to Hollis Thomas, formerly of the Eagles, with his asthma meds... In the humid N.O. climate, his dosage of steroid was increased to control his asthma under the team Doctor's supervision. It earned him an unwarranted four game suspension. Isn't that going a little too far? Where do we draw the line?
Even the baseball players records of the '20's, '30's, '40's and '50s would be subject to scrutiny. It was rumored that Babe Ruth, besides drinking to excess, did a lot of cocaine. Cocaine could be construed as 'performance enhancing.... couldn't that be considered 'cheating?' That almost seems blasphemous to put in writing, doesn't it? No one wants to attack a dead legend...
So when folks are quick to condemn Bonds and call him a 'cheater,' are we so sure that baseball legends of the past would hold up to similar scrutiny? Just something to think about.
JJ,
Great points. I purposely didn't spend a great deal of time dwelling on the steroid issue, because to me it isn't an issue. Bonds wasn't alone in using steroids, and we're never going to know for sure who else was using, including the pitchers he was facing who miraculously gained 8MPH on their fast balls in the height of the roid era.
As far as I'm concerned, it was a level playing field, and the record is just as legit as Aaron's was and Ruth's before him.
Let's get three things out of the way:
*I'm a lifelong diehard supergeeky Giants fan.
* I think Barry Bonds is at best a very weird dude, and at worst a very bad person. I think he's made his bed by being a jerk to a lot of people, and I think the media make things worse by piling on. It's a complicated situation.
* Like Brian, I also think he did a lot of things you can't find at Walgreen's without a prescription. So did a lot of baseball players.
Do I want him to break the record? I won't get chills, as Brian so aptly puts it, when he does. OK, maybe a little, but it's so far down on my list of sports wishes. (The Giants winning a fershlugginer World Series in my lifetime is #1.)
As for the tainted record, I have a standard answer: should we go back and put asterisks on the records of all the guys who played in the "greenie" era? How many more games did Fergie Jenkins win, or how many more bases did Lou Brock steal, or how many more home runs did Johnny Bench hit as a catcher, because a few times a year or maybe more, on a hot summer day their asses were dragging and they needed a couple pills to pep up? The answer: we don't know.
Perhaps that's a good topic to kickstart the roundtable, since this is all about the impending new record. Asterisk or no?
Brian,
Dunno where you found that picture, but one thing's for sure...
Barry makes one F U G L Y
BROAD....
Nice breakdown on hating a player.
It's just a shame that there will be an air of make-believe and digust between Bonds and maybe the greatest record in sports.
Yes, a complicated situation. But, really, aren't we all tired of the negativity going that way? Discussions like this one are ok, but the majority of people out there are BIG TIME BARRY HATERS - really upset and really loud and ugly. The booing, etc.. it is just getting old. I find that most of the BARRY HATERS are regurgitating the hatred from the media and just like to hear themselves talk -- many of them barely baseball fans but indignant about the wrong they feel Barry Bonds has done. Truly, I am fed up with those bashing Barry. Check out my website at www.screweverybody.com and get a great T-Shirt that says "Screw Everybody - I love Bonds" --- who cares about the past, let's get back to watching BASEBALL and let's get excited about the Home Run record getting broken by one of the best hitters of all time!