I hate Barry Bonds. There, I said it. You all feel the same way, or most of you do, anyway. What’s not to hate? The guy uses steroids while chasing down one of the most sacred records in professional sports, denies ever using anything illegal, then tries to convince us that his steroid use was unintentional after his grand jury testimony was leaked to the press, bashes the media for reporting the story (“You all have dirt in your closets. Clean out your own closet before cleaning out someone else’s.”), and plays the victim in front of cameras while rehabbing his knee (“You guys [the media] wanted to hurt me bad enough, you finally got there. You wanted me to jump off a bridge, I finally have jumped. You wanted to bring me down, you’ve finally brought me and my family down.”).
And now, there’s this quote from Bonds in a recent USA Today article:
“I’m not playing baseball anymore after this. The game [isn’t] fun anymore. I’m tired of all of the [stuff] going on. I want to play this year out, hopefully win, and once the season is over, go home and be with my family. Maybe then everybody can just forget about me.”
I would love nothing better than to forget about Barry Bonds, but that ain’t happening. In fact, it looks like Bonds may not even retire after this season, despite the above quote. Bonds later “clarified” his statement to USA Today in a phone interview with MLB.com:
“If I can play [in 2007], I’m going to play; if I can’t I won’t. If my knee holds up, I’ll keep on going. I’m playing psychological games with myself right now. I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment if things don’t work out this season. So I go back and forth. Back and forth every day. These are the things that are going through my mind. This is what I’m struggling with.”
Do us all a favor, Barry: next time you go back, don’t bother coming forth. Just go away. I’d love to see him walk away before getting the seven homers he needs to pass Babe Ruth, but that’s a pipe dream. So let’s compromise: Get your 715 home runs, and then go away. Forever. Nobody wants to hear from you anymore. Nobody wants to see you whining to a bunch of reporters that they’re the reason you’re unhappy. Nobody wants to be subjected to these kinds of quotes anymore:
“Baseball is a fun sport. But I’m not having fun. I love the game of baseball itself, but I don’t like what it’s turned out to be. I’m not mad at anybody. It’s just that right now I am not proud to be a baseball player.”
If you’re not proud of being a baseball player, maybe you should look at some of the decision you’ve made throughout your career instead of blaming the sport, the media and the fans.
Baseball is what it is today because guys like Barry Bonds think they are bigger than the game. The only way to cure that is for guys like Barry Bonds to just walk away.
