Bonds on Bonds

[AgustusM]

First let me say I am very disappointed in the entire Bonds thing - the worst part of it all was having to have a very long and uncomfortable conversation with my eight year old son who idolizes Bonds. This was truly a "say it ain't so" moment for me and made me very sad to see the small loss of innocence. So even though I am a life long Giants fan, I am in general not very happy with Barry Bonds.

Now on to my point - I just saw bits and pieces of the Bonds on Bonds show and on the surface it is all a bit shallow and stinks of being a PR move by the Bonds camp.


However two things came to mind when I watched it:

1. Barry truly wants to win, more then he wants records, more then he wants money or anything else. He wants to win ONE championship which he has never done in little league, high school, college, anything - this has been a theme with him LONG before he ever started taking steroids and one that while not an acceptable excuse, is in my opinion the primary motivating factor he took steroids in the first place. No he should not be excused because his motivation was better then someone like say Jose Canseco - but the conventional wisdom by those who have not followed his entire giants career is that he only cares about the HR record and in my opinion that is not true.

2. Damn - did you see the way he is crowded after the game with reporters. Between that and autograph seekers I personally would not be able to deal with the complete lack of just being left the F*** alone. In my "normal" life most people would consider me a "good" guy - husband, father, coach, volunteer, go to church and all that. But if I had to deal with the nonsense he has to deal with (admittedly he is very well compensated) I am sure people would think I was an asshole too - I just couldn't handle that type of constant badgering.

[Buccaneer]

is in my opinion the primary motivating factor he took steroids in the first place

I think there are some extremely different opinions on this manner than yours.

[JS19]

How was the show by the way?? I forgot all about it. Worth watching?

[EagleFan]

He was considered an a-hole long before the steroids thing so it's not being crowded now that is causing it.

[AgustusM]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

I think there are some extremely different opinions on this manner than yours.

I'm sure there are, but that doesn't make them correct.

Most people don't Barry Bonds but a few times a year or on ESPN. I have seen and heard every article about him for over 13 years.

a couple things are very clear:

* he started using steroids around 1999
* he is in total denial about the fact that almost everyone now believes that
* he can be an a-1 asshole, especially to the media
* he is far from the only one to have done so - but yet is getting the brunt of the burden
* regardless if he had steroids IV 24 hours a day for the past 5 years - he is still one of the greatest players to have ever played
* the fact that he did do steroids, has caused most people to forget that.
* MOST teammates like him and say he is not as bad as people think
* he is nice to people in the community, especially kids
* he cheated on his wife, taxes, etc - yeah if we are going to dislike every athlete guilty of these things then we will be left with about 3 players to cheer for.
* winning is his PRIME motivation - those that cannot acknowledge that have either not been paying attention, or are simply blinded by there hatred for the guy.

[AgustusM]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

He was considered an a-hole long before the steroids thing so it's not being crowded now that is causing it.

exactly the point - he had to deal with being crowded like this before the steroid crap. I know for me I couldn't stand it, and I think most "average" people wouldn't either.

[AgustusM]

Originally Posted by JS19

How was the show by the way?? I forgot all about it. Worth watching?

I only half watched it while I was doing other things - it all seemed like a Bonds PR movie.

the one thing that was interesting is it went back to his Pittsburgh days, but also had footage from yesterday.

[Young Drachma]

It's less reality show and more filmed like a documentary in a way. I don't think it's bad, but it's admittely a little over the top. I don't really mind Bonds the way most people do, but I do have to say that he needs to stop the Me v. the World thing, though, it seems with all the old footage they show that he's always been that way, so....what can ya do.

[watravaler]

I'd act the same way around reporters who are, for the most part, on;y interested in painting myself in a negative light. NEvertheless, Bonds did bring most of this upon himself. I love the baseball player that is Barry, and he would have been a first or second ballot HOF without the roids.

[MrBug708]

Such a shame this show couldnt have been done with no input from the Bonds crew. Everything that is shown must be ok by Barry's team of lawyers

[watravaler]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Such a shame this show couldnt have been done with no input from the Bonds crew. Everything that is shown must be ok by Barry's team of lawyers

So, I'm assuming the show is a Bonds propoganda film?

[Neuqua]

Originally Posted by watravaler

So, I'm assuming the show is a Bonds propoganda film?

That's what I took from it.

[Fouts]

I, too, idolize Bonds. We should talk.

[Fouts]

BTW, saw some highlights of the show on ESPN. Some compelling stuff in the highlights.

[Ragone]

yea.. it seemed to me his way of deflecting attention to the extreme people who are harrassing him

"like hey.. see these emails.. people calling me the n word and such"

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by AgustusM

I'm sure there are, but that doesn't make them correct.

Most people don't Barry Bonds but a few times a year or on ESPN. I have seen and heard every article about him for over 13 years.

a couple things are very clear:

* he started using steroids around 1999
[snip]* winning is his PRIME motivation - those that cannot acknowledge that have either not been paying attention, or are simply blinded by there hatred for the guy.

Let's do the math. Giants had won 103 games in 93 (before the strike year); in 97 they won the division and in 98, they finished over .500 in 2nd place. So in 99, he decided then he wanted to win??? Maybe something happened in 98 that made him hit the juice harder?

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by AgustusM

exactly the point - he had to deal with being crowded like this before the steroid crap. I know for me I couldn't stand it, and I think most "average" people wouldn't either.

Not my point. He wasn't crowded anywhere near this until after he started taking steroids and getting the extra publicity with his bogus homerun record and then the press that came out when it became more clear (to those without the ability to use deductive reasoning) that he was on steroids.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Maybe something happened in 98 that made him hit the juice harder?

Hmmmm, I wonder what that could have been??????

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Not my point. He wasn't crowded anywhere near this until after he started taking steroids and getting the extra publicity with his bogus homerun record and then the press that came out when it became more clear (to those without the ability to use deductive reasoning) that he was on steroids.

I remember the Killer B's very well and that he was Bobby's son and Willie's godson. Despite winning the MVP early on, he was a bit underrated (with somewhat of an attitude), I believe. But with the extra publicity, it came to light the he really was a self-centered, racist dickhead and most baseball fans turned on him, thus making good on his self-fulfilling prophesy.

[FBPro]

Originally Posted by watravaler

So, I'm assuming the show is a Bonds propoganda film?

Yeah, pretty much......well timed wouldn't you say.

[MizzouRah]

I actually almost felt sorry for him when I saw him start to cry. Then I thought, he's still an arrogant ass.

[Karlifornia]

I can't believe someone said "They're using the racist hate mail as an angle"

Uhhh hello...when have you ever racist hate mail? That is a pretty sad, and scary thing, I would say. I guess you have never really felt threatened because of your race.

[IwasHere]

Originally Posted by AgustusM

* MOST teammates like him and say he is not as bad as people think

LOL Barry is all about the team?

Just ask Jim Leyland about Barry's team attitude!

[Anthony]

Phil Mushnick of NY Post

March 31, 2006 -- MONDAY was to have been the first of a two-day seminar for approximately 125 frontline ESPN producers, reporters, anchors and analysts, gathered in a hotel near Hartford.
But day one became something else, something weird and potentially wonderful. Day one saw the closest thing to a palace revolt ever conducted against ESPN.

You see, not everyone at ESPN always willingly lines up to drink the latest, stronger blend of Disney Kool-Aid. There are ESPNers, from everywhere within the company, who are mortified by what ESPN has become. But, short of quitting, there's not much they can do about it.

Monday, however, when the topic turned to ESPN's new project with Barry Bonds, the hired help let their bosses know that they're still, minimally, broadcast journalists, with credentials to match.



And then they lined up to let their bosses know they simply can't quietly suffer the fact that ESPN continues to jump into bed with news figures, let alone with Bonds, currently the nation's foremost representative of sports villainy.

Next, after ESPN execs heard, "Please don't do this," from one staffer after another, the surprise guest speaker was introduced - Mike Wallace, of CBS' "60 Minutes" fame.

And Wallace joined in. After learning about the Bonds deal, Wallace told the assembled that the ESPN execs in the room - the folks who invited him - were about to embark on an unholy alliance that guarantees only ridicule and regret, in exchange.

Wallace, 88, first explained his presence by reading aloud from the invite that promised him $15,000 for the gig, then trashed ESPN management for the deal it had made with Bonds.

(Wallace, however, admitted that the two segments devoted to Tiger Woods on "60 Minutes" the previous day was a tank job, with Woods and Co. dictating the ground rules for what correspondent Ed Bradley could and could not ask.)

In ESPN's recent string of appalling decisions, the Bonds deal is the worst. Even in a TV world where good-faith news and sports broadcasting are regularly abandoned in favor of anything-it-takes entertainment and corporate shilling, this is the kind of decision by which a network always will be measured and remembered.

This is the kind of decision that leaves a stain.

ESPN has selected the ultimate 2006 sports bad guy - a bad guy in every way and a bad guy long before he was even suspected of juicing - and placed him on its payroll.

Starting next week and relying on the thin rationalization the project is an ESPN Original Entertainment endeavor, ESPN will weekly slide into the sack with Bonds in exchange for exclusive access as he pursues baseball's hallowed home-run record, a record Bonds is now commonly known to be gaining on as a matter of ill-gotten gain.

ESPN is not only paying $4.5 million to a documentary unit to produce Bonds' diary, it will allow Bonds and his minions editorial control. It's mind-blowing.

As Monday's meeting turned to ESPN's alliance with Bonds, a trickle of stand-up-and-be-counted dissent became a flood. John Skipper, newly named Executive VP of Content, was described as "stunned" by the thumbs-down response to the project.

According to witnesses, Skipper then made some hopeful noises that, given such strong opposition from within, perhaps the Bonds project should be killed. After all, ESPN's execs had made it clear that the Bonds deal would lose money. And if it's about buying access and surrendering control, good grief, why take such a double dive for Barry Bonds?

It can't always only be about ratings, can it? Sometimes, a network's good name - what's left of it, anyway - and the good names of your employees should count at least as much as ratings, no?

By day one's end, there was genuine hope that ESPN management would come to its better senses, that ESPN would not pay to be compromised by Bonds, that ESPN would pull the plug on the Bonds project.

But Tuesday, during the second day of the seminar, Skipper announced that while he respects the thoughts of his top producers, on-air personnel and even other ESPN execs, ESPN would proceed - it would remain in bed with Bonds. Thus, what should have been out of the question is a done deal.

ESPN's bosses could have done the right thing and come out smelling like heroes. They could have said, "You know what? You're right - this doesn't pass even a minimum-standard smell test. Besides, if you folks feel this strongly about the integrity of our network, nothing else matters. The Bonds deal is dead."

But they didn't.