Taking one’s ball and going home… or something like that

Looks like the King of Allegedly (Though Everyone On The Planet Knows They Are) Tainted Homeruns is spouting off again. Douchebag.

Courtesy of today’s Journal-Register Sports Flash page:

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — The clock isn’t ticking yet on his Hall of Fame candidacy, but Barry Bonds already is making waves in Cooperstown.

The former Giants slugger and current major league home run king said Thursday night on MSNBC that he will not participate in any future Hall of Fame events, including his own induction ceremony, if the Hall displays his 756th home run ball — which will be emblazoned with an asterisk by its current owner.

The ball, which Bonds hit for a home run on Aug. 7 to break Hank Aaron’s all-time record, was retrieved by New Yorker Matt Murphy, then put up for auction, where fashion designer Marc Ecko bought it. Ecko held an online vote to ask fans what to do with the ball, and the fans chose to have Ecko put an asterisk on it and then donate it to the Hall of Fame.

The ball has yet to arrive in Cooperstown.

First off, one of the biggest issues I have in general here is simply that the idiot Hall of Fame voters unfortunately will wind up voting this jag-off into the HoF. That, in and of itself, is a tragedy and an affront to the game. But that’s another argument.

I heard a little more about this “story” on ESPN Radio the other night. Seems Mr. Ever-Expanding Hat Size went all third person on whomever was interviewing him, and when he was asked that even if he gets inducted, he won’t show, Roid Boy said “Barry Bonds will not be there”.

So tell me… other than the fact that he will someday be elected to the HoF, what is the negative part of this story? Um, there isn’t one. Tainted or not, I do, oddly enough, agree that his “record-breaking”* ball should be in the Hall. That being said, it absolutely should have the asterisk on it. If that pisses him off enough that he won’t ever go or won’t even attend his own induction, that’s like getting 11 McNuggets in a 10-piece meal, as far as I’m concerned. Oooooh- bonus!!

See, Bonds still just doesn’t get it–or else he’s still in denial. Whether right or wrong (it’s right), he will forever be the poster boy for the Steroid Era of baseball. There were “Mike McGwire and Sammy Sooser” (bonus points to the first person who correctly identifies who butchered their names like that in 1998) who, like Bonds, have never actually been “proven” to have used (yet, also like Bonds), but considering their absolutely pathetic showings on Capitol Hill a couple years back, especially McGwire, it’s pretty obvious they did. There is Rafael Palmeiro, who put such an emphatic and almost convincing “period!” at the end of his claim on Capitol Hill that he never used steroids, and then a year later tests positive and completely disgraces himself into retirement. There are the handful of players who have been suspended since for violating the league’s banned substances policy. First of all, anyone who uses them now is an idiot, especially if they’re stupid enough to get caught. And before you ask, NO, I do not believe it’s okay as long as you don’t get caught. Unlike them, I possess integrity. But I digress… but the fact that the names of those who have been suspended escape me just shows that they are merely extras in the play known as Baseball’s Steroid Era, starring diva extraordinaire Barry Bonds.

The reason Bonds is and forever will be Public Enemy #1 in this regard is because nobody else was chasing THE elite record in all of baseball, and perhaps all of sports, thereby bringing all the media attention on himself (where, in his mind, it belongs, since baseball and life in general are all about Barry, after all).

There will eventually be irrefutable proof that Bonds used/uses steroids. The evidence that is out there now already shows he did/does (in my mind and in the minds of countless others), but eventually there will be something- a positive test, someone coming forward, whatever- that will finally show all the lambs who still think he’s innocent the truth. Of course, even then there will still be those people who don’t find cheating wrong and will still think he’s the greatest ever, but then, every village needs an idiot or two. Hell, it might be sooner than later. Supposedly, the Senate commission that has been investigating all things doping in baseball will be publishing their findings as early as next month, and the buzz is that there will be names named. Lots of names. Over 100, they say. Keep denying, BB… you’ll go down eventually.

Hank Aaron will always be baseball’s Home Run King until a legitimate hitter hits 756. Until then, whatever number Bonds finishes up with will, in my mind, forever be an imaginary number.