Everyone forgets that it was Bud Selig who allowed the steroid
culture to fester
Let’s get it out in the open, right from the beginning
– I am a Los Angeles Dodgers fan.
Before you judge me, let me say this: I was born in Long Beach,
as was my dad, and I grew up watching the Dodgers. I have favorite
players past and present (Ron Cey, Mike Scoisca and Orel Hershiser
in the past; Nomar Garciaparra, Russell Martin and Andre Either in
the present). I have hats, T-shirts, key chains, autographs and
memories.
And I even like Tommy Lasorda.
Everyone forgets that it was Bud Selig who allowed the steroid culture to fester
Let’s get it out in the open, right from the beginning – I am a Los Angeles Dodgers fan.
Before you judge me, let me say this: I was born in Long Beach, as was my dad, and I grew up watching the Dodgers. I have favorite players past and present (Ron Cey, Mike Scoisca and Orel Hershiser in the past; Nomar Garciaparra, Russell Martin and Andre Either in the present). I have hats, T-shirts, key chains, autographs and memories.
And I even like Tommy Lasorda.
Given my love for, and loyalty to, pretty much all things Dodger Blue, what I have to say next may surprise you.
It’s time to leave Barry Bonds alone.
Just let him play. He’ll retire soon, despite recent news reports indicating Bonds plans to keep playing a few more years. But until there is solid proof to back up all of the accusations being hurled at him, leave Bonds alone.
Don’t get me wrong – I am no fan of Bonds. Never have been, never will be. I didn’t care for him much when he was with Pittsburgh, liked him even less when he moved to San Francisco. I was outraged when, during the 1994 players’ strike, a news story appeared about Bonds’ wanting to reduce his child support payments while he was out of work. As a fan of baseball, I respected Bonds’ talents on the field. It was Bonds the man I didn’t care for.
When he was poised to break Mark McGwire’s single season home run record, I was sad. I liked McGwire. I didn’t like Bonds. I didn’t want him to break it, period. I don’t want him to break Hank Aaron’s career home run record. Anyone else, OK, if it has to be done. But not Barry.
Yes, baseball is enmeshed in its steroid scandal (or, as we refer to it in my house, everyone finally waking up to what a lousy commissioner Bud Selig is for allowing steroid use to go unchecked for so long and who cares if his daughter is technically the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers you know he still reaps the benefits). But plastered so prominently in today news, Bonds has become the scapegoat for everything wrong with baseball. He has been accused of cheating everyone and everything from his wife to baseball to the federal government.
But while I have heard and read plenty of accusations, the one thing I haven’t seen or heard is this: evidence.
Show me evidence that he knowingly took steroids, and I’ll jump on the eliminate-Barry’s-records bandwagon along with the rest of America. Prove he “forgot” to pay taxes on side earnings and I’ll support the inevitable slap on the wrist and hefty fine. Let he and his wife handle the adultery issues. The rest of us should just let him play ball.
Why? Because in this country, we are considered innocent until we are proved guilty. Not guilty because we’ve been accused. Or guilty because we act like an arrogant jerk. Until proven guilty.
Second, third- and even fourth-hand stories are being taken as fact by many people. Books telling all about Barry’s supposed drug use are seemingly everywhere. Ex-girlfriends and now, a former best friend (and best man at Bonds’ second wedding) are poised to testify against him.
But for me, this is not enough to condemn what he has accomplished on the field. Not yet.
Give me a positive drug test. If that’s not possible, how about someone, say, Greg Anderson, coming forward to say, “I supplied Barry with steroids, with human growth hormone, and I taught him how to use it.” Give me something other than stories and guesses. Give me someone without an axe to grind against Barry. Without that, let him be innocent until proved otherwise.
We would want that right if we were accused of doing something wrong. Just because we don’t like Barry is not a reason to take that right away from him.
There is so much to the steroid scandal, and Barry is just a small part of it. Before passing judgment, we should look at the culture that was allowed to form in locker rooms and baseball-owner boardrooms throughout the country, the culture that turned a blind eye and deaf ear to the many players using illegal steroids and other performance enhancements.
We need to look at what, as owners, managers and even fans, we did that made players think they had to resort to drugs to keep their jobs and keep us entertained.
Most Americans love to forgive our celebrities and athletes when they make mistakes. I’ve long felt that if Pete Rose had come forward years ago and said, “Yes, I did it, I bet on baseball while playing/managing,” we would have taken him into our collective arms and said, “It’s okay, Pete, we all make mistakes,” and he’d been in the Hall of Fame today. When he finally did come forward, in a tell-all book, it wasn’t the same. He was making money off his mistakes, not asking for redemption.
And, based on everything I’ve ever read or heard about Barry Bonds, he won’t ask for redemption either. Even if he did take steroids (which personally, I believe he did), I don’t think he believes he did anything wrong. Barry seems believe he can do what he wants, when he wants, simply because he is Barry Bonds, and he’s better than the rest of us.
We don’t want to believe Mark McGwire took steroids because we liked Mark. We cheered for him in 1998 when he was the first to break Roger Maris’ single season home run record. Yet, few people outside of San Francisco cheered for Barry.
Many of us are poised to asterisk Bonds’ entire career because we don’t like him. But if we asterisk Bonds, wouldn’t it only be fair to asterisk every baseball season from 1970 through 2005 and return the single season home run record to Roger Maris? Will ostracizing Bonds salvage my tarnished image of baseball and return it to the simple yet glorious pastime of my youth? Will brandishing Bonds a traitor to the game save the game itself?
See, I love baseball. I love everything about it – the smells, the sounds, the strategies, the players, the coaches, the stories, the legends. I want my game back.
So let’s leave Bonds alone until we have real, hard evidence of illegal substance abuse, or tax evasion, and then let his punishment be comparable to others in the past. Let’s play ball.
Because the only thing Barry seems to be truly guilty of is being an arrogant jerk. And if that was a crime, a whole lot of us are guilty, as well.
