i watched half an episode of Bonds on Bonds on ESPN and i was under the impression that he was misunderstood and i saw all of the things he went through and i felt bad for him. i've just begun to read game of shadows and my view is quickly changing. here's why:

 

1) how he complains about his father he complained openly about him to reporters. he said as a boy he hated his dad. he told his friends(which he had few of) that his father beat him and psychologically dominated his mom. he said that in college he discouraged his dad from coming to his games because he feard his dad would show up drunk. he told friends that his dad (who had just become hitting coach for the giants) "he wouldn't have the job if it wasn't from me"

2) most youth coaches wouldn't put Bobby Bonds's son on the bench, but cut him slack and listened to backtalk they wouldn't of taken from other kids.

3) when he played for his school all the players would sprint out to their positions, but barry would saunter out fiddling with his glove or sunglassses.

4)"i'd work half as hard as other kids did and i was better. why work when i had so much ability?"

5) no teammate ever card for Barryu Bonds..he was rude, inconsiderate, and highly self-centered. he bragged about the money he had turned down from professional clubs and he popped off about his dad-Bonds's College Coach

6) the first day bonds showed up on campus he parked his brand new pontiac trans am in the coach's parking space.

7) bonds and some teammates were once caught breaking curfew, the coach confronted them, and bonds mouthed off at him. the coach kicked him off the team. later the coach told the players he'd suspended barry, and asked them to vote on whether to let him return. his teammates voted to kick him off the team.

8)writers said he refused to run out ground balls. fans/teammates said he refused to sign autographs

9) pittsburgh writers award him the MDP award for Most Depised Pirtae--congrats barry! well deserved!

10) i heard about an incident when bonds was first traded to San Fran. he walked into a pitchers meeting and walked down the line of them saying "i've hit one (homerun) off you, off you , and off you."

 

i now officialy hate bonds...he's so full of himself and puts himself before the team.

He plays a game. To tell him 'to go to hell' is so lame. Calm down.

Try to walk a mile in Barry's shoes. I can guarentee you can't even fathom the daily stress he has to endure.

Why hate the best player in the history of baseball? Enjoy him, he's the kind of guy we'll be telling our grandkids about.

Why hate the best player in the history of baseball? Enjoy him, he's the kind of guy we'll be telling our grandkids about.

 

No. No. And No.

LOL on him saying he hit a homer off certain pitchers to their faces, lol! That was funny, but yeah he is full of himself.

Why hate the best player in the history of baseball? Enjoy him, he's the kind of guy we'll be telling our grandkids about.

 

No. No. And No.

 

 

Your loss.

 

Before even being accused of steroids he was the best in the game and after, forget it.

 

I feel very fortunate to be able to say I watched Barry play. I totally agree with your sentiment, TSwift.

Try to walk a mile in Barry's shoes. I can guarentee you can't even fathom the daily stress he has to endure.

 

:thumbup

 

Why hate the best player in the history of baseball? Enjoy him, he's the kind of guy we'll be telling our grandkids about.

 

 

Someone has some common sense! THANK YOU!! TOTALLY AGREE

Try to walk a mile in Barry's shoes. I can guarentee you can't even fathom the daily stress he has to endure.

 

i had felt bad for him......but after all he has deserved all the criticism....i'll be curious to find out whether or not he really did roids

He plays a game. To tell him 'to go to hell' is so lame. Calm down.

 

ya, it is. i just got worked up because i can't stand someone like that. :plain

This one thing tells you everything about Barry Bonds. Back in 2001 when Bonds hit his 500th homer not a single teammate came out of the dugout to congratulate him. NO slaps on the back, nothing... If his teammates can't respect him then who can? Of course I thought he was jerk back in 91 when he pussed about his losing salary arbitration and moped around spring training. Leyland told him to get his crap together or go home. Don't even get me started on the Ron Kittle thing either. For a player who feels he deserves respect he needs reminded that its earned.

Try to walk a mile in Barry's shoes. I can guarentee you can't even fathom the daily stress he has to endure.

 

i had felt bad for him......but after all he has deserved all the criticism....i'll be curious to find out whether or not he really did roids

 

i think you're going to be waiting for a while

He's a jerk, plain and simple. There's a very telling excerpt in the new issue of ESPN the Magazine taken from the upcoming book "Barry Bonds: The Making of an Anti-Hero."

 

Here it is:

 

"A few minutes later, I relay my exchange to Pedro Gomez, the ESPN reporter assigned to shadow Bonds. 'Let me tell you something,' Gomez says. 'A few months ago, I went up to Barry and told him that my neighbor in Arizona is Jose Rodiles. Barry said, 'I don't know that name,' I said, 'Man, you played with him at ASU,' but Barry insisted he had no idea.'

 

A few days later, Gomez called Rodiles and told him about Bonds' apparent amnesia. 'That's funny,' Rodiles said. 'Because the guy was in my freaking wedding!'"

Why hate the best player in the history of baseball? Enjoy him, he's the kind of guy we'll be telling our grandkids about.

 

No. No. And No.

 

 

Your loss.

 

Before even being accused of steroids he was the best in the game and after, forget it.

 

I feel very fortunate to be able to say I watched Barry play. I totally agree with your sentiment, TSwift.

 

Damn straight.....guarantee if Bonds was a Red Sox, JJ would swear up and down to defend him....Bonds is a tremendous player who has to fight everyone in the world who wants him to fail.

I can't say I like him or hate him. He seems like a real a**hole, but I don't personally know him, so I refuse to judge him that way. I don't like that he almost definitely took steriods, but I hate how this witch hunt seems to focus solely on him.

 

The only thing I'm sure about is that I love to watch him hit, regardless of whether or not he injected cattle steriods.

I have no time to bother watching his show on ESPN....just turn the channel. The man is arrogant and full of himself.

 

I'm ready for him to just go away.

Why hate the best player in the history of baseball? Enjoy him, he's the kind of guy we'll be telling our grandkids about.

 

No. No. And No.

 

 

Your loss.

 

Before even being accused of steroids he was the best in the game and after, forget it.

 

I feel very fortunate to be able to say I watched Barry play. I totally agree with your sentiment, TSwift.

 

Damn straight.....guarantee if Bonds was a Red Sox, JJ would swear up and down to defend him....Bonds is a tremendous player who has to fight everyone in the world who wants him to fail.

Nice way to bring something up that has nothing to do with my post.

 

I said No to I don't think he is the best player ever. No to me enjoying him right now. And no to telling my grandkids about him.

 

I'm not allowed to state that because it doesn't jive with your opinion, so you bring up something that has nothing to do with what I stated?

 

Don't act like my opinion is so preverse just because you don't agree with it.

Why hate the best player in the history of baseball? Enjoy him, he's the kind of guy we'll be telling our grandkids about.

 

 

LMAO.

 

He is not the best baseball player ever.

 

He is yet to out-homer most of the teams and change the game like Ruth did.

Why hate the best player in the history of baseball? Enjoy him, he's the kind of guy we'll be telling our grandkids about.

 

 

LMAO.

 

He is not the best baseball player ever.

 

He is yet to out-homer most of the teams and change the game like Ruth did.

 

He turned the intentional walk into an accepted strategy and not an irregularity.

 

He turned the extreme over-shift into a part of the game.

 

If anything, Ruth outhomering teams speaks volumes of the lack of league wide talent and tarnishes his stature as a case can be made that he accomplished all he did against clearly inferior talent.

I put Bonds in the top 5, but not the best ever.

 

But if you do put him at no. 1, you always have to go back to he enhanced his body with an illegal substance. Some of the other greats actually dropped the ball on their bodies.

 

If anything Ruth did a disservice to his body with the cigs, beers, and burgers. Think if he had kept himself in good condition....800 HRs?

 

Same with Mickey Mantle, I wish he had kept himself sober for his career...he would have been even more of a monster then he already was.

 

If Ted Williams didn't serve in WW2 (God bless him for doing that though) in the exact time span of his prime, he'd be held with even higher regard. Probably add another 110+ HRs and 550+ Hits.

Since Passion kind of got on it, here's my top-5.

 

1) Bonds

2) Mays

3) Ruth

4) Williams

5) Aaron

1. Babe Ruth

2. Lou Gehrig

3. Willie Mays

4. Ty Cobb

5. Barry Bonds

6. Ted Williams

7. Hank Aaron

8. Joe DiMaggio

9. Stan Musial

10. Mickey Mantle

Why hate the best player in the history of baseball? Enjoy him, he's the kind of guy we'll be telling our grandkids about.

 

 

LMAO.

 

He is not the best baseball player ever.

 

He is yet to out-homer most of the teams and change the game like Ruth did.

 

He turned the intentional walk into an accepted strategy and not an irregularity.

 

He turned the extreme over-shift into a part of the game.

 

If anything, Ruth outhomering teams speaks volumes of the lack of league wide talent and tarnishes his stature as a case can be made that he accomplished all he did against clearly inferior talent.

 

Ruth was the first guy to be walked out the ass, not Barry (2062 career walks).

 

The guys who managed against Ted Williams turned the shift into a part of the game.

 

No it's not league talent. It's just how the game was played. NEVER has a player changed how the game was played more than Ruth. Lets not forget Ruth was one of the best pitchers in the league at the time too.

 

Doesn't it make more sense to place the players in the era that they were playing when comparing them to players of other generations? I think it does.

Try to walk a mile in Barry's shoes. I can guarentee you can't even fathom the daily stress he has to endure.

 

 

Bond's has had no where near the emotional stress that Roger Maris and Hank Aaron himself had to endure. Both of them got very serious death threats, Aaron from the racist deep south and Maris by fans who thought that a corn-fed kid from one of the Dakotas(or wherever he was from in the great plains) who just came over from Kansas City didn't deserve to talk about Babe's record, let alone break it. Their lives were on the line each and every single game.

 

As for my grandchildren, if I ever mention Bonds, I'll bring it up in a way that discourages being anything like him. Tell them about how worthless of a human being he is, one that is completely without morals, and how he had to cheat to get to a true level of greatness.

 

As for greatest player of the game, in the 90's Bonds was no better than Griffey, and would actually be worse if not for his inhuman and totally un-explainable* jump in the late 90s.

 

 

 

Bonds 90's stats

1434 G, 4894 AB, 1478 H, .302 BA, 361 HR(1 HR/4 AB), 747 K(1 K/6 AB), 343 SB, 94 CS(78% success rate)

 

 

Griffey Jr 90's stats

1408 G, 5377 AB, 1622 H, .302, 382 HR(1 HR/4 AB), 901 K(1 K/6 AB), 151 SB, 60 CS(72 % success rate)

 

*Only un-explainable if you are entirely naieve and believe Bonds didnt really do steroids

I'm gonna tell it like it is...Bonds was a great hitter who may or may not have done drugs when there were no rules against it. I WILL tell him about Sosa and McGwire who baseball worshipped during the HR race despite the fact they found drugs in McGwire's locker....

 

I WILL tell them about a man who lied in congress and did drugs anyway in Rafael Palmeiro.

 

ps....Bonds is goin through a damn lot and it's been said on ESPN that he's had death threats as well there Spike and I don't think anyone has ever thrown things on the field at Aaron like they are at Barry.