Baseball Chat

[DewDiligence]

Purdy: Bonds should make quick exit and leave home run record alone

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/baseball/mlb/san_francisco_giants/14045828.htm

>>
By Mark Purdy
Mercury News

There is no question what Barry Bonds should do this morning.

He should wake up and look at himself in the mirror -- something he likes to do, according to excerpts from a new book -- and decide that he is done. Done, done, done.

• Done chasing Hank Aaron. Bonds simply cannot break Aaron's all-time home run record. It must not happen. It wouldn't be right.

• Done lying. If Bonds continues to deny that he used performance-enhancing drugs in spite of the evidence that has surfaced before and after Tuesday's revelations, he is going to look sillier than he did while wearing a dress last week.

• Done trying to portray himself as an innocent victim. The phone messages that Bonds reportedly left for his girlfriend, threatening her life, make him permanently ineligible for that role.

• And done as a player. If he doesn't retire immediately, he needs to do it soon after he passes Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list this year.

What are the odds of Bonds following this advice?

Roughly, the same odds as Philip Seymour Hoffman playing the lead in ``The Willie Mays Story.''

So. Where does that leave us? What are we to make of the hubbub surrounding the release of excerpts from ``Game of Shadows,'' the upcoming book about Bonds and his dance with performance-enhancing drugs?

Well, we should not be shocked by the information. Much of it isn't new. We have long known, for instance, about the calendars used by Greg Anderson, Bonds' trainer. In the log, Anderson wrote in code to keep track of Bonds' drug intake. We have also known that Bonds had an affair with a woman named Kimberly Bell, who previously spoke about his steroid use.

But that doesn't mean the book is a rehash, judging by the excerpts released Tuesday. Authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams have fleshed out the gory details in admirable fashion.

For example, those of us who are paid to hang around the Giants' clubhouse had heard the scuttlebutt that Bonds entered his bodybuilding phase when he became insanely jealous of the attention Mark McGwire received for hitting 70 home runs in 1998. The new book confirms this, with Bonds pitching a hissy fit about the special accommodations that the Giants provided McGwire when he visited Candlestick Park during his home run exploits. At another point, Bonds mentions that baseball wants McGwire to succeed ``because he's a white boy.''

The new information, especially about Bonds' pre-2002 steroid use, comes from two sources. One is Bell. The other is a previously unreported memo stash of law-enforcement types who interviewed the Balco laboratory people and Anderson. Bonds and Anderson have been doggedly loyal to each other through this whole adventure. That may change after Bonds sees some information Anderson evidently gave up to the IRS and other authorities.

It's also possible nothing much will change -- about anything. The people who believed Bonds was a cheater now have more ammunition. The people who think Bonds is innocent will continue to rationalize that these reports are the product of a bitter woman and convicted drug meddlers. In terms of endorsement deals, Bonds was radioactive before Tuesday and still is today. Before Tuesday, baseball seemed helpless to deal with its juiced-up past, and it still does.

But there's a chance, a small chance, that the landscape has been altered. Former A's star Jose Canseco, in his new role as the Benjamin Franklin of steroid diplomacy, has it right. In several radio interviews Tuesday, Canseco said that Bonds simply needs to step up and be honest. He can say that he needed to use steroids and human growth hormone to keep up with everybody else when baseball had no policy on those drugs. Bonds can say he is sorry, apologize to everyone and tell people he was wrong to cheat the way he did.

Of course, as mentioned above, that will never happen. So what's Plan B? The following suggestion was made in this column some 15 months ago. But it still applies:

Bonds respects no one in baseball more than Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Frank Robinson and other great black players from the 1950s and '60s who persevered through a rugged time in our civil rights history and earned Hall of Fame plaques.

Those former players need to sit with Bonds and explain something to him. They need to explain that Hank Aaron is a gentleman of dignity who earned the all-time home run record and deserves to keep it. For the sake of Aaron, those former players must tell Bonds he must announce his retirement after he passes Ruth on the all-time list. That would leave Aaron as the worthy home run king. People can then decide where Bonds fits into the picture, using their own judgment.

If Bonds follows that advice, he might still exit baseball with a shred of respect. He might also earn a little applause. But if he continues to selfishly deny the truth, he will keep hearing boos, maybe even at his own ballpark for the first time. When that happens, he really will be done. He should think about that when he looks in the mirror.
<<