What I Know
| 15
|
by J Cunningham
I wasn't watching the Giants-Nationals game when Barry Bonds hit career home run No. 756 to become the all-time home run leader, surpassing Hank Aaron. It wasn't a protest of Bonds' pursuit, nor was it some statement against the steroid era of baseball.
To put it simply, I was working. These high school football previews aren't gonna write themselves, after all.
But now that I've heard about it, and read about it, and seen a few articles and even a poem on this very site about it -- and finally seen the blast itself thanks to Yahoo! and ESPN.com -- I've come up with some thoughts I feel need sharing.
Do I think Bonds took performance-enhancing drugs? Yes. Do I know Bonds took performance-enhancing drugs? No.
Is Bonds the only player to find himself under suspicion of steroid use? No -- just ask anyone who's tested positive under Major League Baseball's tough -- if not late -- policy. I'm sure a Mr. Rafael Palmeiro would be quite forthcoming.
Is Bonds the face of the so-called "Steroid Era?" Yes. Is it unfair? You bet your lucky glove it is. What about the suspicion for other players? Why aren't we suspecting, say, Albert Pujols or Hideki Matsui? Why don't we suspect Roger Clemens, despite the changes in his physique, his performance in recent years and the fact that he was named in a federal steroids affidavit?
Make no mistake -- I am no Barry Bonds apologist. I think he's an unsavory person and he often lashes out at the media -- colleagues of mine, in a sense -- when all they're doing is their job. Ask a question, get your head torn off ... I don't remember learning that one in college.
But here's one thing I do know amid all this uncertainty: Barry Lamar Bonds has never -- I repeat, NEVER -- tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
Everything we know -- or, perhaps more accurately, everything we think we know -- is circumstantial at best. Everything revealed in the bestseller Book of Shadows is based on grand jury testimony we should've never been privy to in the first place ... so that right there hits a notch or two on my Skepto-Meter.
The body changes, while suspicious, do not indict or convict Bonds. Nor do the rumors or the innuendo or the former mistress who's suddenly decided bearing all for Playboy will better her life -- or at least her bank account.
The only thing we know for 100 percent sure right now is that Bonds has hit 756 home runs in his career, one more than the legendary Hank Aaron. Let commissioner Bud Selig and everyone else think and do what they want; unless and until I have solid, irrefutable proof that Bonds took illegal drugs (like, say, a drug test), I will -- albeit begrudgingly -- acknowledge this record and give Bonds his congratulations.
Innocent until proven guilty. Everyone --regardless of occupation or personality -- deserves that much. The record is what it is ... no amount of griping or moaning or pontificating is going to change that.
756 is 756. And Barry Bonds, for better or for worse, is forever attached to that number.
