Barry Bonds

[pdh3]

Opinions?

Mine is....he should NEVER be allowed to have the record that Hank earned the old fashioned way. And Hank went through hell to earn his place in baseball history. He remains a gracious and dignified man whose accomplishment should not be tainted by the likes of BB.

[Frijole]

Opinions?

Mine is....he should NEVER be allowed to have the record that Hank earned the old fashioned way. And Hank went through hell to earn his place in baseball history. He remains a gracious and dignified man whose accomplishment should not be tainted by the likes of BB.

I agree.  And I think there will be riots when he breaks it.  Ought to be interesting.  Shame on him.

[mrs. red]

I COMPLETELY agree!  IMO that isn't breaking a record, it's being rewarded for bad behavior.

[spooky112483]

I am not a baseball fan for many reasons but I will say that I hope they throw balls at him and walk him. I know I wouldn't want to be remembered as the one that threw him his 756. Walk him and you will have my respect! It doesn't matter cause A rod will break the record in 5 years anyway. My fav player is Ken Griffy Jr. what if he hadn't gotten hurt? He would be breaking this record right about now. Go Jr.!!!!!!

[A's Fever]

I totally agree, pdh3, it is a travesty.  I wish the media would stop all the attention.  I sure would not want to be a player on the Giants right now, it's all about Barry, not the team.  Ugh.   

 

[mrs. red]

Spooky, I agree they should walk him until hell freezes over!

I would...

[Frijole]

Well... he did it so we shall see what the world thinks now I guess.

[Rammstein]

Opinions?

Mine is....he should NEVER be allowed to have the record that Hank earned the old fashioned way. And Hank went through hell to earn his place in baseball history. He remains a gracious and dignified man whose accomplishment should not be tainted by the likes of BB.

I agree, the only true recordholder is Hank Aaron.

[pdh3]

Well... he did it so we shall see what the world thinks now I guess.

Why oh why did that pitcher not WALK him???? It makes me sick. As far as I'm concerned, it's just another blow to baseball's reputation.
Hank was a very good sport about it, and his statement shows what a class act he is. Barry needs to take lessons from him on sportsmanship, and how not to tarnish the great institution of baseball.

[GreatOwl]

Self proclaimed King"s match....

King Bonds and Burger King  vs King Booker and King Lawler and promoted by who else but Don King

They are all fakes.  Yet the public likes to applaud a good entertainment venue.  Do the majority believe things are for real or as good as advertised?   We do have some fanatics, however, that will always believe in deception.
 

[mrs. red]

Hank Aaron is the homerun king... and until his record is broken fairly, he will always be IMO.

For once, I agree with Bob Costas about why should we have to treat Barry Bonds with graciousness... I applaud Hank AAron for his speech, but it's too bad that he felt he had to make one.

[A's Fever]

 I applaud Hank AAron for his speech, but it's too bad that he felt he had to make one.
[/quote]

I agree, Hank Aaron is a class act and his speech was gracious, but it spoke volumes that he was not there in person, and I don't think Bud Selig was there either.  The media may be celebrating, SF may be celebrating, but I don't think baseball is celebrating.

Hopefully we will see the record legitimately broken not too many years down the road.  Go A-Rod!  Go Pujols!  Truly talented individuals, very exciting to watch, with no hint of steroid scandal. 

[cubbeegirl]

The way A-Rod is going ole Barry won't hold that record for very long.....

[pdh3]

Is A-Rod clean?

[cubbeegirl]

My son says he is and I tend to think so, but who really knows anymore?

[pdh3]

I hope he is, because so many kids look up to A-Rod. Better training and better nutrition may have been enough for him to reach the full potential of his talent. Maybe from now on, it will be enough for the new guys coming up in professional baseball. Steroids are so dangerous, in so many ways.
That's why I think Barry Bonds should be shunned. He has disgraced the game, and himself, by being a cheater.

[klaasend]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311878,00.html

Homerun Superstar Barry Bonds Indicted on Perjury, Obstruction of Justice Charges
Thursday , November 15, 2007





 SAN FRANCISCO  —

Baseball superstar Barry Bonds was charged Thursday with perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying when he said he did not use performance-enhancing drugs.

The indictment, unsealed Thursday by federal prosecutors in San Francisco, is the culmination of a four-year federal probe into whether he lied under oath to a grand jury investigating steroid use by elite athletes.

The indictment comes three months after the 43-year-old Bonds, one of the biggest names in professional sports, passed Hank Aaron to become baseball's career home run leader, his sport's most hallowed record. Bonds, who parted ways with the San Francisco Giants at the end of last season and has yet to sign with another team, also holds the game's single-season home run record of 73.

While Bonds was chasing Aaron amid the adulation of San Franciscans and the scorn of baseball fans almost everywhere else, due to his notoriously prickly personality and nagging steroid allegations, a grand jury quietly worked behind closed doors to put the finishing touches on the long-rumored indictment.

"I'm surprised," said John Burris, one of Bonds' attorneys, "but there's been an effort to get Barry for a long time. "I'm curious what evidence they have now they didn't have before."

Burris did not know of the indictment before being alerted by The Associated Press. He said he would immediate call Bonds to notify him.

The indictment charges Bonds with lying when he said that he didn't knowingly take steroids given to him by his personal trainer Greg Anderson. He also denied taking steroids at anytime in 2001 when he was pursuing the single season home-run record.

"During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes," the indictment reads.

He is also charged with lying that Anderson never injected him with steroids.

"Greg wouldn't do that," Bonds testified in December 2003 when asked if Anderson ever gave him any drugs that needed to be injected. "He knows I'm against that stuff."

Bonds is by far the highest-profile figure caught up in the wide-ranging government steroids investigation launched in 2002 with the raid of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative — now infamously known as BALCO — the Burlingame-based supplements lab at the center of a large steroids distribution ring.

Allegations of steroid use long have dogged Bonds, the son of an ex-Major Leaguer who broke into baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986 as a lithe, base-stealing outfielder. By the late 1990s he'd grown to more than 240 pounds, with his head, in particular, becoming noticeably bigger.

Bonds' physical growth was accompanied by a remarkable power surge. During the 2001 season he broke Mark McGwire's single-season home run crown, and by 2006, he'd passed Babe Ruth to move into second-place among the sport's most prolific power hitters. He will soon in all likelihood surpass Aaron's career mark of 755 homers.

Speculation of his impending indictment had mounted for more than a year. In July 2006, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, who led the investigation, took the unusual step of going public with the probe by announcing he was handing it off to a new grand jury when the previous panel's 18-month term expired. Prosecutors are typically secretive about grand jury proceedings.

At the center of the investigation is Bonds' childhood friend and personal trainer, Greg Anderson, who spent most of the past year in a federal detention center for refusing to testify to the grand jury investigating Bonds' alleged perjury.

According to testimony obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, Bonds testified in 2003 that he took two substances given to him by Anderson — which he called "the cream" and "the clear" — to soothe aches and pains and help him better recover from injuries.

The substances fit the description of steroids peddled by BALCO founder Victor Conte. But when questioned under oath by investigators, Bonds famously said he believed Anderson had given him flaxseed oil and an arthritic balm.

Investigators and the public had their doubts.

Aiming to prove Bonds a liar, prosecutors tried to compel Anderson to testify. When he refused, they jailed him for contempt.

Bonds joins a parade of defendants tied to the BALCO investigation, including Anderson, who served three months in prison and three months of home detention after pleading guilty to steroid distribution and money laundering.

Conte also served three months in prison after he pleaded guilty to steroids distribution.

Patrick Arnold, the rogue chemist who created the designer steroid THG, BALCO vice president James Valente and track coach Remi Korchemny also all also pleaded guilty. Korchemny and Valente were sentenced to probation and Arnold sent to prison for four months.

Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse attendant, pleaded guilty April 27 to drug and money laundering charges after federal officials said he became Major League Baseball's biggest steroids dealer after BALCO shut down.

Elite cyclist Tammy Thomas and track coach Trevor Graham have each pleaded not guilty to lying to a grand jury and federal investigators about their involvement with steroids.

Troy Ellerman, a defense attorney who represented two of the BALCO figures, pleaded guilty to leaking confidential grand jury transcripts to the San Francisco Chronicle and then denying he was the leak in court documents filed under penalty of perjury.

Dozens of other prominent athletes have been connected to BALCO, including New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi who told the grand jury he injected steroids purchased at BALCO and Detroit Tigers outfielder Gary Sheffield who testified that Bonds introduced him to BALCO.

[pdh3]

Well well well....now he's entangled himself in his web of deceit, and may end up in a federal prison.
He's a disgrace.

[nonesuche]

yes he is and I agree with you Hank Aaron far exceeds Bonds in word and deed.

I can remember having to argue with son about all the players in high school that were wanting to try every new enhancing substance out there, often I wondered if steriod derivatives were in some of them. Son still has trouble keepiing weight on, he's got the muscle structure built he needs but I never allowed him to use anything. it's those steriods that make other players so explosive - and until someone cleans this up some players will continue to use them so they can compete.

The system is broken in that regard.

[pdh3]

It is broken, and it's people like Barry Bonds who perpetrated the belief that winning was all that mattered, even if you had to cheat to get there.
He should NEVER be considered as having broken Hank's record, because he really didn't...not in the same way Hank earned it.

It's time to start cleaning house. Steroids are dangerous, and those that use them are cheaters and liars, and should not own a record or a championship in anything. It's just gone too far.