FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Barry Bonds.

No two words come together to form a more polarizing name in sports in recent memory.  And I intend to show that much of this hate is unfair.

Yes, you read that right.  First, let me admit that I am, and have been, an unapologetic Barry Bonds fan.  I liked him when he played for the Pirates, and I still like him today.  Why?  For two reasons.  One, I don't really like baseball all that much.  Outside of the Braves, I have no team loyalty.  And my loyalty to the Braves is based on my Uncle's love for them, which grew into my own, albeit small, affinity for the Braves. 

Two, I'm the type of person who is a very casual baseball fan.  To me, nothing is more exciting than a home run.  And for every baseball "purist" out there who thinks the game has been ruined (and buddy, all those player strikes ruined the game long before BALCO and Barry did), there is a reason why the Home Run record is, to quote Bud Selig, "the most hallowed number in the sport."

Home runs put fans in the stands.  And that is what it is all about.

An athlete's job, at the professional level, is not foremost to win games.  No matter what any of you may think or say, nothing can change my mind as to this fact.  Their job is to put fans in the stands.  Now winning, obviously, is a great way to put fans in the stands.  Just ask the New England Patriots.  But a bona fide star can also put butts in the seats, even if the team isn't that great.  Barry Bonds was answering that call.

Cheating?  Please.  He isn't even close to the first, and he isn't even close to the last.  Anybody remember Brady Anderson?  I sure do.  15 home runs per year, than all of a sudden he hits fifty.  And this was before Barry started the BALCO craze.  Cheating?  Come on.  What did this guy do if not give the fans what they wanted, which was to see home runs get blasted out of the park.  We didn't have a problem when it was big, friendly Mark McGuire doing it.  Barry Bonds put some excitement into a game that severely lacks excitement.  Oh, I know, I just don't understand the intricacies of the game, right?  Yeah, I've heard that one before, too.  I guess you need a Ph.D to understand a game like baseball.  Barry Bonds did nothing less than the bidding of his corporate masters; sell, sell, sell.  And how do you sell?  You generate a captive audience to sell too.  And that audience needs a reason to go watch.  Barry provides that need.

Think about it for a sec, before I offer a retort to my own argument.  Wherever he goes, people are interested.  People go to games just to BOO the guy, let alone cheer him.  For as many people who claim that he has ruined the integrity of baseball and they'll never support him, I can show you 100 people who say the same thing while watching him go up to bat.

Home runs put people in the stands.  People in the stands generate money for the franchise and the advertisers.  Making money is the goal of any business. And people, pro sports teams are BIG business.  Baseball, in particular, is a huge business.  So much so that it is one of the few that is allowed by the government to be a monopoly.  Oh, didn't know that?  Yeah, there can't be an "XLB" like there was an XFL.  Government protects "America's Game" from such unproductive things as good, old-fashioned, American competition.  Maybe I'm letting my disgust for the game of baseball show through, but the fact remains: Barry Bonds made for good business, and good business over looks a lot of shady dealings.

Now, to offer a counterpoint to what I've said, cheating is, at it's base, wrong.  Gaining an unfair advantage is by definition unfair.  But I don't believe half the people who condemn Bonds and claim that they "despise steroids because of WHAT IT REPRESENTS (cheating)" are telling the truth.  I think they despise the man, not the ideal.  And I don't think that Barry had the fans interests or wants in mind when he ingested hippo hormone or shark paralyzer or whatever it was.  He was thinking about the greater glory of Barry Bonds, which is all he ever thinks about.  That's why people hate him.  He's selfish.  But if cheating is cheating, you should hate even a team player who takes 'roids so he can become a better player to help his team win.  Selfish or selfless intentions should not matter. 

I know many of you are puffing with indignation as you plan to reply to me how you, to prove my theory wrong, are fundamentally opposed to cheating.  If that's the case, don't ever speed, roll through a stop sign, lift an answer on a meaningless quiz off your friend, tell a white lie, etc.  If you are opposed to cheating, you cannot differentiate between degrees of cheating.  Cheating is cheating, and you're either against it, or you're not, or you're willing to view it on a relative scale.  I think most people fall into the "relative scale" category.  If you think most people hate cheating so much, why is it the NFL isn't cracked down on as hard as baseball?  The answer is because it's hidden better.  Out of sight, out of mind, as the old saying goes.  What about Vinny Castillo and Larry Walker, or the whole Colorado Rockies orgainization and stadium, for that matter?  These guys benefitted from the "air up there," and had huge numbers while in Colorado.  Does it make it okay because that's a natural occurance that we can't change?  Should we make the Rockies build their stadium in a lower altitude?  No.  That's an unfair advantage we can't do anything about (and totally different from the steroid thing).  People don't hate the Rockies and are willing to overlook their advantage; that's my point.  And they don't hate Mark McGwire; they do hate Barry Bonds, though.  It's very easy to point out the flaws of someone who is reviled.  Mays admitted to using steroids, nobody cared.  Some even said he was lying to cover for Barry.  Now that's despicable.

I have a friend who hates Barry because, according to him, Barry's a cheater.  I called my friend a liar.  I said he hated Barry because Barry is a jerk.  I pointed out that this same friend loves Shawn Merriman, and was willing to overlook his steroid case because, and I quote, "He went to UMD, and I loved him there, so I love him now.  I'm WILLING TO GIVE HIM THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT."  There's the key phrase, people.  We're not willing to give Barry the benefit of the doubt.  I'm not, because as I write this, I'm looking at my 1990 Topps Barry Bonds baseball card, and the picture on that card is proof enough to me that his body changed in some unnatural way.  But that's not real proof, it's conjecture.  Mark McGwire and Raphael Palmeiro were swell guys; people didn't want to go after them.  Sammy Sosa used to be a swell guy, now he's not, so it's okay to go after him.

Barry Bonds is a complete jacka**.  Maybe if he had been nicer, people would have given him the benefit of the doubt.  But for all those holier than thou, cheating is totally wrong, cheating is not relative, black-and-white, everything is absolute, no gray area or middle ground, baseball "purists" out there: when it comes out that so many of your heroes have cheated like Barry has, what will you say then?