Jan 12 2007
Barry Bonds, The Saga Continues
Barry Bonds, a name that immediately conjures-up emotions in anyone with baseball knowledge.
Barry Bonds the incredible 5-tool player for the Pittsburgh Pirates who was well on his way to being one of the greatest players to ever play the game.
Barry Bonds, the Giants media-hating superstar who has been know to eat sports writers for lunch.
Barry Bonds, the egomaniac who, according to the book Game of Shadows, became obsessed with McGwire and Sosa and decided that a little chemical enhancement just might get him the attention he deserved.
Barry Bonds, the home run record-holder who averaged 33 home runs a season over 15 seasons until he hit 73 in 2001.
Barry Bonds, the poster child for steroids in baseball and a central figure in the Balco Investigation.
Barry Bonds, the broken-down masher trying desperately to cling to the game long enough to be the all-time home run champ.
And now possibly, Barry Bonds, the unemployed.
On Thursday, news came out about Barry failing another drug test, this time for amphetamines:
Giants outfielder Barry Bonds tested positive for amphetamines in the middle of last season and told several people on the team about it at the time, a major-league source told the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday.
The positive test was first reported by the New York Daily News, which said Bonds initially blamed it on a substance he had taken from the locker of teammate Mark Sweeney. The Chronicle’s source confirmed the accuracy of the report and then stated Bonds’ amphetamine test was known on the team because Bonds himself talked about it.
Many yesterday were wondering just what was Barry doing grabbing drugs out of teammates lockers? Is he just too busy to go to a store or what? Secondly, why is he throwing yet another teammate under the bus? Later yesterday, Barry came to his senses and appoligized to Mark Sweeney:
“He is both my teammate and my friend,” Bonds said in a statement Thursday. “He did not give me anything whatsoever and has nothing to do with this matter, contrary to recent reports.
“I want to express my deepest apologies especially to Mark and his family as well as my other teammates, the San Francisco Giants organization and the fans.”
It turns out that Barry has a verbal agreement with the Giants for 2007, but not a signed contract. Will this latest round of issues be enough to tip the scale and end Barry’s career with the Giants?
If the team somehow wriggles out of its as-yet-unsigned contract with Bonds, the prospect of mayhem, like the heist of Hank Aaron’s home run record, might not come to pass.
Assuming that the deal gets done, though, the Giants’ clubhouse should be a miserable place, filled with denial and forced camaraderie that eventually will become genuine camaraderie built on shared exasperation with the media.
Barry will likely work things out with the Giants and will literally continue limping toward the magical 755. Only 21 more to tie Hank Aaron; then we will have Barry Bonds, the undisputed home run king*.
(* Records established in the late 1900s and early 2000s were potentially influenced by steroids and other performance enhancing substances and should be consider tainted.)
