Barry Bonds: Anatomy of a Cheater

Just an excerpt of the contraversial book titled “Game of Shadows” by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams has been published in the latest issue of Sport Illustrated, and just that small sample is sending shockwaves throughout MLB. I can only imagine how bad it’s going to hit the fan when the entire book releases at the end of the month. Pre-sales for this book are through the roof and people are eager to get the dirt on how badly Barry cheated to steal the spotlight that he arrogantly felt he deserved. Take my word for it, this scandal is going to hit the fan hard, and I hate to be in the line of fire when it does. There’s a lot of big people in the line of fire, and if the big wigs in baseball don’t take care of this Bonds situation promptly, then you know the people are going to to back to congress and ask them to step in again. I don’t Selig and the players union doesn’t want to see that happen a secong time.

I read the excerpt online, and I have to tell you… this is going to scorch the game and Barry Bonds will not recover from this. Even if he does manage to pass Aaron’s record for homeruns, this will pretty much guarentee he’ll never make a hall of fame ballot. Some people are trying to compare what Bond’s had done to what Pete Rose did. I think the comparison is unfair… to Pete Rose. What Bonds did is much, much worse. Rose was just trying to make a quick buck and was just gambling on the sport. What bonds did was knowingly cheat for the expressed purpose of getting ahead of others by using substances without obtaining a legal prescription. After reading the article in question, I’ll be honest and when by honest I mean brutally: if Barry Bonds knows what’s good for him, he would walk away from the game while the getting out is still good. I’m serious. He should seriously consider retirement and just walk away. If he stays and attempts to break Hank Aaron’s homerun record, he’s have to endure what could be one of the worst years of his career.

Forget his stats, it he attempts to play this year out, Barry will be booed during every game away from San Fran whole way and pretty much harassed throughout all of 2006. You should have heard the booing that came from Toronto fans when Raphael Palmerio tried to take an at bad after his steriod suspension. I can’t remember the last time fans in Toronto booed that badly. The sound was deafening and they pretty much booed him out of the game cause it was distracting the team, and situations like that is why Raphael wasn’t allowed to finish the season. His presence was too much of a distraction to the team and was hurting their performance. The same thing is going to happen to Bonds, only this time it will get worse as he closes in on Hank Aaron’s record.

There are also a lot of pitchers who also don’t want to be that guy who tosses the record breaking HR. Hell, there are a lot who don’t want to be the guy who gives up the one that let’s him pass the Babe for #2 on the list. This means not only is Barry going to walk a lot, he’s going to get a lot of hard inside pitches and a good few of them are going to hit him. There are going to be signs in the stands that read “Cheater”, “Loser” and pretty much whatever creative fans can come up with. Not exactly the kind of run for the record Barry was hoping for, eh?

I’m not making this up, and will provide an example. One of the more vocal pitchers who has been bashing Bonds for his alledged juicing has been Red Sox lefty David Wells. Known for being a long time Babe Ruth fan, Wells has publically slammed Bonds for his alledged Steroid use and called him out to be a man and just fess up. “If you’re guilty and you get caught, come clean. I think you can get a lot more respect from people than by lying.” I think David has a point here, but unfortunately it’s a lot more complicated than that. If Bonds comes clean with baseball and fess up to what pretty much everyone has suspected and now knows… he could land himself in some legal hot water outside of baseball.

Does anyone remember the BALCO investigation? (It’s mentioned big time in the SI Excerpt) It wasn’t that long ago, and it was the same trail where a lot of athletes, including Jason Giambi came out and exposed themselves as big time steroid users. Since them Giambi has been clean and has since gone on to win the hearts of Yankee fans by fighting to get back into the game without the aide of performance enhancing drugs. Yet Barry Bonds also testified during this investigation, under oathe infront of a grand jury. During this testimony, he swore that he never willing took any steriods and that if he did… it was without his knowledge. Yet as this book alledges to prove, he did take these drugs but he willingly did so with the expressed intent to cheat. Lying under oath before the Grand Jury could result in a perjury charge against Barry which could land the multi-time NL MVP in jail. And this isn’t the only legal problem Mr. Bonds has. He’s still in hot water with the IRS for a problem with card show appearances. As Richard Hatch just learned a short while ago, you don’t fuck with the taxman. This could be the charge that eventually lands Barry behind bars. And the biggest reason why Barry will likely not ‘fess up’ is because to do so will also open himself up to criminal charges of illegally obtaining steroids without a doctor’s prescription. And chances are these legal problems are just the tip of the iceberg.

So according to the book that is about to release, co-authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams claim that following the 1998 season, Bonds turned himself into a chemistry experiment. They allege that he ingested and/or shot up Winstrol, Deca-Durabolin, Insulin, Testosterone Decanoate, Human Growth Hormones, Norbolethone, Trembolone and Clomid… and a partrige in a pair tree. Yet here is the $60,000 dollar question: Why would one of the greatest hitters of all-time, who already had a hall of fame carreer in the books, would turn to cheating and ultimately tarnish his legacy forever? If we are to believe the book, Bonds started down this path because he was greedy and jealous. He was envious of all the attention and riches that McGwire and Sosa were getting as they tried to track down Roger Maris’ home run record. He watched two men who he ignorantly thought were below him steal his headlines and take all the glory. He thought that the only way to complete with them was to juice up and do the same thing, but unlike McGwuire and Sosa… Bonds took things to the ultimate extreme. One reason why people are jumping on Bonds more than McGwuire and Sosa is because Bonds took things too far and make a mockery of the game.

I truely find it ironic that it was another juicer who exposed the cheaters, changed the game and in the end likely saved it. Former AL MVP, Jose Canseco is the one who had the stones to call out all those who were disgracing the game, himself included. In his book, he didn’t hold anything back, naming everyone he saw and knew took the juice to cheat and get ahead in the game. Despite their numerous attempts to discredit Canseco failed because in the end, he was really the only one telling the truth. Had he not been telling the truth, he’d be in court being slapped with libel suits right, left and center. Yet almost a year after the book came out, not a single suit. None. He’s only been in court for beating people in in a bar, so I guess that tells us about his book. That book lead to the Congressional hearing that lead to baseball having one of the toughest steriod policies in all pro-sports. It was this book that lead to the tough guidelines that will prevent people from doing what Bonds has been doing since 1998.

Yet I know what some of you are thinking. If Bonds did this before the rules came out, why do people want him to be punished for it now? The reason is simple: evidence. The only reason why McGwire and Sosa didn’t get branded and flogged by the media/public for their alledged cheating is cause we couldn’t prove it. Thanks to the testimony of people from the BALCO scandal as well as other sources, there is undeniable proof that Bonds did indeed cheat his way to the records he has and is still going after. It’s this evidence that would have landed anyone in the hot seat had it been made available. The only reason why Rapheal Palmerio isn’t banned for life is cause we can’t prove that he did this on purpose to cheat. There is no evidence.

With Bonds, the evidience is in the book, collected by two credited San-Francisco journalists who did the research to find the proof of what Bonds did. Now that there is concrete evidence to prove what has happened, something needs to be done by baseball. The book appears to remove all doubt… he cheated and if something isn’t done by baseball to correct it, it’s going to be a dark cloud that hangs over the league all year long and possibly longer. Fans will boo till their hoarse during every visiting game and harass him for what he is, a cheataer. It will be brutal, fierce and overwhelming. It will be the mother of all heckeling, and yet Bonds seems willing to take it. It’s because Barry is keeping his eyes on the prize: Hank Aaron’s Homerun Record.

A friend of mine said when we were talking about this that kids can learn from bad examples just as much as they can learn from good examples. I responded by saying that he was right, but only to an extent. If Bonds is allowed to overtake Aaron’s record and be the all time homerun king, what lesson will the kids learn? It’s okay to cheat as long as you’re #1… or as long as it’s not a rule, you can do it? I told him that the only way kids can learn from a bad example, is to make an example of him. That’s what baseball has to do. Bonds has been caught, and while he’s still not willing to fess up… Selig knows what he has to do and he better do it soon before the scandal goes back to congress. Bonds should be banned from baseball.

I’m not talking about a short Steve Howe, five chances to come back kind of ban. I’m talking about a full blown lifetime ‘never come back, don’t let the door hit you on the way out’ ban. Do not pass go, do not pass the Babe or Hank Aaron. Go directly to baseball banishment and take a seat next to Pete Rose. No hall of fame, records wiped from the books, everything! Unless Selig goes this far, the example will be a bad one for the kids and that is not what we want to see. The only way for baseball to save face is to take away the one thing that Bonds wants, his record. Bonds is a disgrace to the game, and should be treated as nothing more. He shouldn’t be allowed to get near the Babe’s record, much less Aaron’s. He’s not good enough to share in their company, and to let him chase their record is to condone cheating. A lifetime ban for the biggest cheater caught since Pete Rose is the only way to go, and Selig knows it. Whether or not he has the stones to do it is another matter all together…

Peter