The Lunatic Fringe

Yes, I think Barry Bonds should absolutely be in the Hall of Fame.

And, Yes, he did steroids.

Don’t think I’m one for letting off drug users.  Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll tell you I’m the most irrationally anti-drug person on the planet.  Seriously.  Don’t engage me in a marijuana legalization debate, because I’ll become very unpopular in San Francisco and among my peers.

But there’s a few things I like even worse than drugs; sanctimonious bullsh*t.

And frankly, that’s all I hear about the media members who are deadset against any possible steroid users getting into the Hall of Fame.

Bonds is guilty of a lot of things, but it’s clear he wasn’t the only steroid user.  Hell, we know that over 100 players were using steroids in 2003, and that’s just those that were caught…and doesn’t include HGH or amphetamine users.  Bonds wasn’t the first, he certainly hasn’t been the last, but he was undoubtedly the best.

But it’s not just the players who are guilty.  We were all a little home run mad in the 1990’s and 2000’s.  All of us.  Fans and media.  Hell, screw that.  We’ve been home run mad since Babe Ruth.  Why do you think he’s still the biggest name in baseball?  Why isn’t it the pitchers who literally did things that we will never see again, despite pitching in an era without the science we have today?  Nope, it’s Ruth.  And his home runs.

Who got the most media attention over the years?  The sluggers.  Who had songs written about them?  The sluggers.  Who did fans come out to see, and still cheer the loudest for?  The sluggers.

Even the journalists and storytellers admit that it was watching the ’98 home run chase from the sidelines, and all the media coverage, that made an already-great Bonds jealous.  I’m not sure that I believe that entirely, but if nothing else, it’s an admission of complicity by the media.

The media helped make this beast.  They fed this beast.  And they loved it.  Every second.  Why else did Bonds, who supposedly all these writers say they hated or had suspicions about back then, get voted to four straight MVP awards (or, more than any single player had won in a career)?  The same voting pool had no problems back then.

And the media has been no less admirable in the reversal of feelings about steroids.  We’ve seen leaks of supposedly anonymous tests, and illegal leaks of grand jury information in ongoing trials.  They didn’t even bother trying to look like champions of the truth…the writers and editors at the San Francisco Chronicle split up the Grand Jury transcripts over five days to sell papers.  If this was about the truth, it would’ve been reprinted in its entirety.

So, yea, Bonds was guilty.  And at the end of the day, media pressure or jealousy or whatever, no one made the choice to do steroids but him.

But the tone of the preaching from the media pulpit is sickening.  I’d rather support Bonds.

I’ll go deeper into the reasons why I think Bonds should be a Hall of Famer this week…unless Brian Wilson goes and does something stupid (please, Brian, don’t do something stupid).  But for now, that’s the end of my preaching to the media.

Except shut the **** up and concentrate on the game again, not that paparazzi.

Okay, NOW I’m done.