Despite the steroid-riddled biceps and a head that would make a bobblehead jealous, watching Barry Bonds step to the plate was always an event.
An event that will forever be tarnished – yes – but an event nonetheless.
Despite never failing a steroid test during his 22-year playing career, Bonds was always seen as a pariah and without a doubt someone who in the second half of his career took steroids like candy.
He was never given the benefit of the doubt, despite his clout over the game and his other-worldly ability, which he held long before any steroid allegations started.
And that’s why the situation with the Milwaukee Brewers’ Ryan Braun rubs me the wrong way.
Braun is a similar player to Bonds. His numbers – a career .312 hitter with 161 homers in 729 games – are other-worldly. In fact, compared with Bonds’ first five years in the league – 117 homers and a sub-par .300 hitter – Braun’s numbers are much more impressive.
Two years older than Bonds at this time in his career, Braun has quickly established himself as one of the game’s best and rising stars – if you could call an MVP award-winner “rising.”
So why, with those impressive numbers, is Braun getting the benefit of the doubt over his failed drug test, a drug test that was taken during the Brewers’ playoff push and leaked to the press on Saturday?
Why is it that someone, who has created a resume that already places him among the sport’s greatest hitters after only five years, gets the collective reaction of “there must be something wrong with the test.”
Maybe, the test is wrong. Maybe, for the first time since baseball has started testing for the drug, the results were somehow ruined. Maybe, Braun is innocent as he proclaims – as he called the reports “B.S.” to the USA Today.
But maybe should be nowhere near this conversation.
Instead of being treated like someone who was wronged, Braun should be treated like Manny Ramirez and Rafael Palmiero, who both failed the drug test.
The union president didn’t come out to support Ramirez and Palmiero – and certainly not Bonds, like he did Braun earlier this week.
So the biggest question is, what’s the difference?
Sadly, it’s youth.
Braun is the first next-generation superstar that has fallen into the trap of steroid testing. While Braun was growing up, playing college ball and even minor league ball, MLB’s steroid era was in full force.
By the time he reached he the pinnacle of his sport, baseball was knee deep in trying to lock down its steroid and PED problem. Braun entered the league, and flourished in it, when the game was supposed to be pure again.
Unlike Bonds, Braun was revered for his bat.
What last week’s announcement does, though, is strips him of those accomplishments. And for MLB, after a summer of great pennant races and a tremendous World Series, the last thing it needed was one of its stars getting hit with the steroid hammer.
Catching an aging Ramirez in the twilight of his career is one thing, but catching a budding superstar, who is just reaching his prime, is devastating.
But none of that means he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
He failed a drug test, for now, that is a fact. So let’s treat it like one until we hear otherwise.
