Barry Bonds is not a sympathetic character. Very few people inside or outside of baseball will dispute this.
But as Bonds, one of the five greatest players in the long history of Major League Baseball, faces a federal prison sentence for allegedly lying to federal grand jury about taking steroids, I can’t help but think how this nation, and particularly the American press corps, helped to create the monster they are now trying to convict.
As the product of a baseball dynasty, Bonds watched as his father, the late, great Bobby Bonds, caved in to the unfair and relentless pressures of not being the next Willie Mays, which he was compared to coming into baseball (for non-baseball fans, it’s like being criticized for not being as good as Michael Jordan). The press was merciless in its attacks on the senior Bonds’ deficiencies, and they tightened the vise grips around Bobby Bonds as he spiraled into alcoholism to cope. It doubtlessly formulated Barry Bonds’ perspective and tumultuous relationship with the press throughout his Hall of Fame-worthy career.
By the early 1990s, a skinny Barry Bonds — widely hated but universally respected for his skill set — was already a first-ballot Hall of Fame candidate-to-be as the only player in history to win three Most Valuable Player Awards (and he won the three in a four-year span, which is even more impressive), yet most of the sports media chose the less accomplished yet ultra-talented Ken Griffey Jr., who was much more likeable, as the game’s best player and the face of the league. The volcano within Bonds was simmering over the slight.
Then, in the late 1990s, the press salivated like groupies over the historic home run exploits of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, both one-dimensional players who nevertheless transcended their sport and captured the imagination of the entire country. Bonds, a superior player than both McGwire and Sosa put together, quietly seethed as America, the press, the baseball clubs and the commissioner’s office turned a blind eye to McGwire’s and Sosa’s obvious steroid use.
The volcano finally erupted.
So Barry Bonds’ hubris and jealousy of the overwhelming attention showered upon inferior talents like McGwire and Sosa inspired Bonds to do what he knew most of baseball was doing: cheat via performance-enhancing drugs to get ahead. And it worked.
But Barry Bonds’ arrogance, selfishness and aloofness made him an easy target for overzealous feds who have wasted millions and many years setting a trap that Bonds blindly walked into.
Now America wants the greatest symbol of the steroid era to go down. But America helped create the monster it’s now trying to kill. –terry shropshire
