Regarding Barry...
I feel like I need to say something on the Barry Bonds issue. Perhaps I'm overestimating my contribution to the blogsphere, but I try to hit the big sports issues whenever I can. So here's my general take...
As as you probably know, Game of Shadows - a book by SF Chronicle writers Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams - supposedly proves, once and for all, that Barry used steroids. I'm familiar with these writers, having read their piece on the BALCO investigation and heard them interviewed on San Francisco sports radio on multiple occasions. My opinion of them is low, to say the least, particularly regarding Fainaru-Wada, who is one of the most self-important jerk-offs I've ever heard speak.
He pretends to be a champion of truth, who is only interested in the story because he believes the public deserves to know what actually happened. That bullshit stance is belied by his self-promotion for the Pulitzer (an award he most certainly did NOT deserve). He claims that money is not a goal. Then why compile years of hearsay into a book and pretend it's fact?
Now, I have not read the book. I have looked at the excerpts (I laugh at the suggestion, in the excerpts, that gaining 15 pounds in muscle over an offseason is impossible without steroids) and I have read a lot of media coverage dealing with the book. To the best of my understanding, the following is a list of information contained in this book that could be considered "new," or "proof" of anything:
Yes, that was the list. As far as I can tell, there is nothing new. It's simply a history of accusations and unsubstantiated claims.
Now, I am no moron. Or at least, I am not the biggest moron on Earth. If you ask my opinion, I believe that Bonds probably used some sort of performance-enhancing drug, whether deliberately or not. And if he did, in fact, take these drugs unknowingly (as he maintains) I believe his lack of knowledge was a direct product of his lack of desire to know. However, I understand that this is simply my opinion. An informed opinion, but an opinion nonetheless.
Fainaru-Wada and Williams would have this opinion taken as fact, simply because enough people share it. They continue to cite "hundreds of sources," none of which are named. They continue to base much of their theory on the statements of an ex-mistress of Bonds who (a) went on Geraldo and said that she had never witnessed Barry doing steroids; and (b) has tried to extort money from Bonds in the past. They continue to attribute much of their knowledge to "sealed and unsealed documents" that nobody except them has ever seen. I'm sorry, but this is simply not proof of anything.
What angers me most about the situation is the preposterous double-standard that is in effect here. For years, everybody stood by as fan and media darlings gained ridiculous amounts of muscle mass and bombed homers like never before: Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Ken Caminiti, Rafael Palmeiro, the list goes on and on and on and on. If you believe Jose Canseco's book (and that's looking more and more like the closest thing to truth that has come out of the recent steroid hullabaloo) a ridiculous percentage of major leaguers were using throughout the 90's.
Then Barry - always an enemy of the media and standoffish towards fans - starts mashing, and suddenly the baseball world is up-in-arms over the "steroid problem." Well, I hate to support Bonds' paranoid ranting, but it sure seems like he's a target. THE target. Because as far as I'm concerned, McGwire and Sosa are the clearest steroid abusers around, and nobody is digging into their past.
Hardly anything was made of Sosa's sudden inability to speak English. People said they felt bad for poor McGwire when he broke down in front of congress. Why? And why go digging to prove Barry guilty when all these other guys get a free pass? The only star to test positive is Rafi Palmeiro, and even he is getting off easier than Bonds.
So that's what I think. This book does nothing to change my opinion on Bonds. Show me a positive test, or leave it alone. And, for the record, if Bud Selig decides to suspend Barry in response to the publication of this book, it is the biggest fraud perpetrated by anyone in baseball since the Black Sox Scandal.
As as you probably know, Game of Shadows - a book by SF Chronicle writers Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams - supposedly proves, once and for all, that Barry used steroids. I'm familiar with these writers, having read their piece on the BALCO investigation and heard them interviewed on San Francisco sports radio on multiple occasions. My opinion of them is low, to say the least, particularly regarding Fainaru-Wada, who is one of the most self-important jerk-offs I've ever heard speak.
He pretends to be a champion of truth, who is only interested in the story because he believes the public deserves to know what actually happened. That bullshit stance is belied by his self-promotion for the Pulitzer (an award he most certainly did NOT deserve). He claims that money is not a goal. Then why compile years of hearsay into a book and pretend it's fact?
Now, I have not read the book. I have looked at the excerpts (I laugh at the suggestion, in the excerpts, that gaining 15 pounds in muscle over an offseason is impossible without steroids) and I have read a lot of media coverage dealing with the book. To the best of my understanding, the following is a list of information contained in this book that could be considered "new," or "proof" of anything:
Yes, that was the list. As far as I can tell, there is nothing new. It's simply a history of accusations and unsubstantiated claims.
Now, I am no moron. Or at least, I am not the biggest moron on Earth. If you ask my opinion, I believe that Bonds probably used some sort of performance-enhancing drug, whether deliberately or not. And if he did, in fact, take these drugs unknowingly (as he maintains) I believe his lack of knowledge was a direct product of his lack of desire to know. However, I understand that this is simply my opinion. An informed opinion, but an opinion nonetheless.
Fainaru-Wada and Williams would have this opinion taken as fact, simply because enough people share it. They continue to cite "hundreds of sources," none of which are named. They continue to base much of their theory on the statements of an ex-mistress of Bonds who (a) went on Geraldo and said that she had never witnessed Barry doing steroids; and (b) has tried to extort money from Bonds in the past. They continue to attribute much of their knowledge to "sealed and unsealed documents" that nobody except them has ever seen. I'm sorry, but this is simply not proof of anything.
What angers me most about the situation is the preposterous double-standard that is in effect here. For years, everybody stood by as fan and media darlings gained ridiculous amounts of muscle mass and bombed homers like never before: Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Ken Caminiti, Rafael Palmeiro, the list goes on and on and on and on. If you believe Jose Canseco's book (and that's looking more and more like the closest thing to truth that has come out of the recent steroid hullabaloo) a ridiculous percentage of major leaguers were using throughout the 90's.
Then Barry - always an enemy of the media and standoffish towards fans - starts mashing, and suddenly the baseball world is up-in-arms over the "steroid problem." Well, I hate to support Bonds' paranoid ranting, but it sure seems like he's a target. THE target. Because as far as I'm concerned, McGwire and Sosa are the clearest steroid abusers around, and nobody is digging into their past.
Hardly anything was made of Sosa's sudden inability to speak English. People said they felt bad for poor McGwire when he broke down in front of congress. Why? And why go digging to prove Barry guilty when all these other guys get a free pass? The only star to test positive is Rafi Palmeiro, and even he is getting off easier than Bonds.
So that's what I think. This book does nothing to change my opinion on Bonds. Show me a positive test, or leave it alone. And, for the record, if Bud Selig decides to suspend Barry in response to the publication of this book, it is the biggest fraud perpetrated by anyone in baseball since the Black Sox Scandal.
posted by Kolsky at 4:40 PM
1 Comments:
I agree that Bonds is a target but thats because he is the best, so you go after the best. Raffy, Sammy, Mark are all pathetic pieces of shit compared to Bonds.
I agree that the coverage is overhyped, but I think its also clear that he was using illegal substances JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN MLB. Now, getting excited about that fact is a personal descision and when MLB gets offended, then the hypocrisy turns it up another notch.
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