by Mj Ferruzza

Created on: April 10, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

Barry Bonds had it all. He was a dominant player in a sport troubled by waning stars and fan support. Barry Bonds was a spectacular talent. he could bat, run and occasionally field like any of the best players ever. Barry Bonds was the son of talented Bobby Bonds and the god-son of the great Willy Mays. Both of those players were known for greatness and longevity. Now all Barry Bonds had to do was play a good field, bat consistently and average his normal home run rate and he could have retired with some solid numbers. Then something happened. Barry got a big head. Literally. Barry is a selfish, self-centered man. He thought he was baseball. At least on the West Coast. Maybe across the country. As sportswriters and TV/radio sports talk men stroked his ever growing ego.

The two men appeared on the horizon. Right place/right time! Sammy Sosa and Mark McQuire made baseball interesting again after a lost strike season. They were actually fighting to break one of the greatest records of all time. 61 home runs in a season. Babe Ruth was never able to reach that number. Mickey Mantle was never able to break it. Willy Mays and Hank Aaron never came close. But a lowly Yankee after thought and non-member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Roger Maris was able to do it. It was a great record only dreamed about by the hitters from the 70s/80s and 90s.

Baseball was in a rut after the strike season. The expansion hadn't turned out as well as Major League Baseball thought it would. You see...to expand a major league team you have to feed players not only at the major league level, but every class below. One new team may need 50-75 new pitchers for their franchise. From top to bottom. Add TWO new franchises, like MLB did, and you have to add close to 170 new pitchers into baseball. This is called diluting the pool. And it did.

So baseball had weak pitching. An accusation that they were juicing the tighter wound ball. Fences were coming in at new parks and ball yards. And now a new twist...slim, muscular or wiry players were being replaced by Greek god type body builders. Swatting home runs or striking out and breaking their bat over their mighty thigh as if it was a toothpick. It was a new age..not just drugs...or steroids...or juiced baseballs...or weak pitching. The new age and an asterisk for the record books should be called Dilution! Baseball was deluded into believing we as fans would fall for all this. They let players lie and perjure themselves in front of Congress. And they promote and honor those that cheat in a game that has been stern in punishing those who besmirched the game! (Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe, et al)

When a player takes steroids he is beefing up more than his muscles. It beefs up his numbers. The better the numbers. The more money a player makes. So if Bonds is on Steroids..or McQuire or Sosa were... they were inflating numbers that kept talented players from really going after and making more money themselves. Bonds then cheated others...of stats...money, press, and maybe endorsements.

My final thought: I am over 40 and I weigh more than I did at age 25. I work out more now than I did at age 25. And I lift weights to balance my workouts. I look nothing like Bonds. A good friend of mine is 29 years old and a professional weight lifter and stunt man. He takes...er..supplements... he looks just like Barry Bonds. A man with a growing melon that used to be a formerly normal head.

Now Bonds gets his own TV show to spin his greatness. And he has a website to sell Barry Bonds paraphernalia. He also has cheated himself and baseball fans, the press and the government by not coming clean. And that is more than one man's opinion.

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