The start of the 2008 Major League Baseball season has begun and it seems as though everyone is excited but me. Barbecues, beer, and baseball. The beginning of summer, the start of warmer days, of new beginnings.
MLB is enjoying enormous success, with record attendance levels, huge television contracts, and a ridiculous amount of coverage spent on ESPN. (Why have baseball highlights on Sportscenter and then an hour long edition right afterwards on Baseball Tonight. Isn't the NBA being sold short?).
But underneath the happy little smiley face that MLB is fronting to the nation, there is a very dark and sinister side. It's a side of baseball that is threatening to make me disown the sport. I'm a fan; I go to games, watch highlights, keep up with the stats, etc. I played Little League Baseball and fell in love, and it's been a love affair ever since. Now why do I suddenly feel guilty about being passionate for baseball?
It's because what they're doing to Barry Bonds is criminal. Isn't it ironic that the San Francisco Giants had no problem playing Barry last year, collecting money, benefiting from the huge crowds and television exposure, and basking in the glow of Barry knocking ball after ball into McCovey Cove. And now, not so silently, they are removing everything associated with him at the ball park, trying to cut all cords. This would be bad enough under any circumstances, but how about this: Barry has never been convicted of knowingly using performance enhancing steroids.
It's pretty sad when an individual who gave his heart and soul to an organization has that same organization remove all ties with him based on allegations. This is what our country has become? I know this is sports and not a legal forum, but doesn't every person deserve the benefit of having an assumption of innocence unless proven otherwise?
Evidently athletes don't. And especially Black athletes don't. I'm not someone with my head in the sand and a pair of blinders on. It's not lost on me that Barry, who hit 28 home runs last year and hasn't admitted guilt or been proven guilty, can't find a job while Jason Giambi, who admitted guilt, gets cheered every time he walks to the plate. What a joke, but I'm not laughing!
Hasn't the media learned the lesson that you should always give the benefit of the doubt to someone just like they, themselves, would want that benefit of the doubt were they ever accused of something. I thought we all learned that in 4th grade.
Look what happened to Kobe Bryant. If you read the papers or watched TV, you saw immediate speculation of how many years in prison Kobe would do. Never mind that he might not be guilty. He got his name trashed, his image and marketability forever tainted. Even McDonalds, one of his sponsors, dropped him like a bad habit before the case ever even hit trial! It didn't occur to the media that Kobe is rich, and the woman who accused him of rape might be full of hot air? You don't have to be Perry Mason to see the woman had a motive to make such an accusation. It would be cheaper for Kobe to just pay the woman off rather than pay a high powered legal firm to represent him. That's true even when he's innocent! I'm thinking that's what that woman thought. Only she didn't realize Kobe's an ice-cold assassin who would call her bluff during the day at court and go drop 50 on some team later that night. That's gangster.
And yet, Kobe was vilified. And when the situation came full circle, as it always seems to do, where was the media when that woman turned out to be a fraud? Did they apologize to Kobe, or did McDonalds offer to give him his sponsorships back? No, the story which was trumpeted with loud cow bells when it was negative against Kobe suddenly turned quiet when the truth came out. Accusation got front page; acquittal got page 9. What a farce!
And here we go again. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Bonds is innocent. I'm just saying he's innocent until proven guilty. Let's remember, he's a millionaire with access to nutritionists, legal supplements, chefs to cook meals for him, world class training facilities, and has been working out for well over a decade. If you do that, and eat 400 grams a protein a day, I've got news for you. You're going to get bigger. I wish the media would stop showing the before and after photos from 10 years ago. Come on; look at yourself in pictures ten years ago. You didn't change any?
And let me be completely frank. I don't care if Barry Bonds took steroids or not. These are performance-enhancing drugs, which means if you take them your performance will become better. That's bad? I wonder what would happen if we told corporate executives at some Fortune 500 company that if they took a certain type of pill, their money-making would be enhanced. Let me tell you, take the worst crack addict you've ever seen, multiply it be 1000 %, and you'd have some idea what it would look like. It's hypocrisy.
And don't give me the tired line about steroids being drugs and the government is just trying to protect the children. The cigarettes I just bought legally tonight are drugs, and have a label, signed off by the surgeon general, more or less telling me that I am going to die if I smoke. But an 18 year old can go into any gas station any time and pick these up. Are steroids really worse?
Or does Big Tobacco simply buy off the puppets we call our government, and keep cigarettes legal so they can get rich. But can athletes get rich? Oh no, let's have congressional hearings about this. The fact is the media is just jealous of rich, successful athletes, especially rich successful Black athletes.
I hope when people go to sleep at night, after they've finished lying to themselves for the day, that they realize one thing. Barry Bonds is the best baseball player in the history of the game. Period. Even if it comes out that he did steroids, he did them in the steroids era, when everyone else who wasn't using, had the opportunity to use, legally. Remember, it wasn't against baseball's rules to use HGH when Barry was cleaning house. Plus, steroids or not, you still have to hit a baseball, that could be coming in as a 95 mph fastball or a 78 mph changeup, curve, slider, split finger, up, down, inside, outside, and hit it with a small bat. You can use enough steroids to kill 10 horses and you won't be able to put up stats Barry put up.
And one final note for the Hall of Fame. If you want to put an asterisk on Barry Bond's records, fine. Just make certain to put an asterisk on Babe Ruth's as well, because he never played against Latin American or Black players, and therefore never competed against the best baseball had to offer.
This is J.P., signing off.
It is good to know JP you have no morals and think athletes who do crimes (kobe may not have raped her but he didn't cheat on his wife) should be glorified. How twisted are you?
ummmmm Barry Bonds is a criminal JP and Kobe Bryant got off real easy no one even talks about it anymore and last time I check he is doing a lot of commercials and his bank account is not suffering
The fact that you used that pic disgusts me
I think you are a conspiracy theorist. it isn't that serious
The parent of that kid should be smacked in the face
JP I see where you are coming from but you sound like an anchor on fox news you need to lighten up a bit. It is just sports
It looks like you and the kid are my last fans on earth
You are exactly right. Why is Jason Giambi still getting paid and Barry and Sammy Sosa are out of the game? It is pure racism in my opinion
yeah. Why should you get in trouble for dry humping a white woman in the mountains?
Nice glasses JP
If Barry wasn't such an ass he wouldn't have this problem and last time I checked they are going after Roger Clemens and he is white
Look this topic has been beaten to death just get over it Barry not coming back
We are white JP why aren't you talking about me
Roger Clemens got the same treatment as Barry Bonds.
Giambi owned up to his mistakes (obviously late, but still)... this nation is easy to forgive for people who at least seem to be sincere.
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