I've written at length about how I feel about Barry Bonds before, here and here. Basically, I'm not a Bonds basher. I think he was the greatest hitter of my generation, and I think he deserves to be in Cooperstown. But I also think that the highly-competitive Bonds camp sought a competitive advantage through means that may or may not have been legal, but which are almost certainly unethical, and I can also distinguish between Bonds the player (who is without peer) and Bonds, a complex and flawed human being.
Here's another example of the latter. Barry and his agent are seemingly baffled that a guy who was in last year's All-Star Game, who hit 28 HR and led the world in on-base percentage, should still be without a job nearly 12 months later. In effect, one wonders, 'why is the Bonds market so poor?' or, in his agent's words, 'bleak' ?
Well, Barry, it's really very simple. Let me explain it for you and your agent, Jeff Borris . . . .
It's because a lot of people just don't like you. This has always been true, but it's more true today than three years ago, even in the Bay area. You've reached the point in your career where that weighs more heavily in people's minds than in what you could do to help their team win. The choices that you've made over the years and the costs associated with them have come home to roost.
You're a proud man, so I know you'll take this in stride. Some day, if you come clean, really humbly acknowledge where things should've been done differently, you may find more acceptance. But right now, you're the most skilled unemployed baseball player in the world.
A few days after I posted this, some nimrod blogger wanna-be baseball 'insider' spread a rumor that the Yankees were about to acquire a certain left-handed slugger . . . which turned out to be Richie Sexson.
Without a doubt, that will be just what the Bronx Bombers needed, a guy released by the Mariners!
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