Can Barry Bonds ever be liked by main stream fans?

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

You know, all the steriod talk on radio here in NY seems to have one

singular underlying theme, its how much people want, not think that he is,

Barry Bonds to come out testing positive for steriods.

 

That, and something I heard Brandon Steiner, the guy who runs Steiner Sports

the memorabillia giant, said in a recent radio interview, that Bonds

memoribillia is hot almost begrudingly as opposed to other like stars.

Almost like you'd collect if you were a completist of whatever group Bonds

belongs to (500 HR, 60 HR single season, ex-Pirates, guys who wore 24 or 25,

ect) but you wouldn't single Bonds out as a "favorite" leads me to wonder if

Bonds will EVER be accepted in the main stream culture as a popular player

the way Griffey Jr, Sosa and McGwire have been (i.e. the causal or non fan

likes that particular ballplayer without really knowing the whole deal about

them) despite the best efforts of a select, very few in the media (I think

Dan LeBetard of the Miami Herald/ESPN The Magazine is the only national guy

of note to be really "pro-Bonds" in terms of opinion makers, guys like Neyer

and Stark don't count as they are more fact and info driven reporters than

columnists like LeBetard)

 

When you think about it, ever since the early 90's that causal/non fan has

been trained to hate Bonds because of his aloofness and selfishness in the

locker room when that seems to be the ONLY thing you can pin on him, well

that and he WAS taken to court for child support!

 

Has he been a "hired gun" ballplayer out for just the almighty dollar as

depecited in the 92-93 offseason? Well SF sure filled his coiffers, but he

would have been gone years ago if that was the case.

 

So what if he is an isolationist in the clubhouse, I could name scores of

such players who stuck to themselves but still gave the effort needed on the

field of play to be a teammate.

 

And whos to say its his regime that keeps him getting better each year as he

got older? Why hasn't anyone looked at Roger Clemens as a steriod abuser?

He got better with age, or Nolan Ryan? Both of their workout regimes were

well documented and applauded, with Bonds its given whispers here and there

than its not all natural, of course it looks very bad when he is now being

supeonaed as part of a messy trial, but wouldn't someone who has the

advantage of a "benefit of the doubt" that Bonds doesn't have like Jason

Giambi get all "well maybe that was a scene or section of the company that

he wasn't involved with" (I don't know how much nationally the Giambi part

got, but it was mostly blown over here in NYC after the first day of the

news cycle, no pun intended BTW)

 

But since the main stream opinion of Bonds has allways been "This guy is a

bad guy" he doesn't get the benefit of doubts, he doesn't get the glowing

stories about how he keeps himself in shape, he doesn't get put on that

McGwire/Sosa/Griffey pedestal where articles are written describing how

great it is to have this "all time legend" at this point in the games

history. Instead its all, "well he MUST be on the juice, look how small his

head was in 1990!" Or, "Oh, I can't root for him, he's moody, a bad

teammate, we don't need him on my team and if he was I wouldn't root for

him, he's a bad guy!"

 

To me, I never quite understood rooting against a single person, especially

in the day and age where anyone could be on your team the next year, unless

they did an unspeakable act, or just said something so utterly offensive

that the team/league comes down hard on them (Rocker) I have always "booed

the uniform" (opposite of cheering for the uniform) but many people nation

wide seem to have this built in hatred for Barry Bonds. While somehow that

minority of press has tried to "cool things down a bit" (i.e. when the ASG

was in Milwaukee Bonds got "polite applause" for some reason rather than his

usual "only NL guy booed except for chief local arch rival" though that

crowd did seem very, VERY passive towards everyone, even the Yankees) it

doesn't seem to have any effect.

 

Which leads me to believe that even if he gets to be the "Grand Old Man of

The Game" the way Williams and DiMaggio were at the end (and ironic

considering they both share some of Bonds' personality traits) I don't think

he will ever get much more than a begrudinal respect from main stream

society.

 

I don't know, maybe I'll be wrong, but it does seem that if Bonds is proven

to have been on steroids (and come on, do you think that will EVER come out?

The only way that will be proven if God Forbid Bonds drops dead of heart

failure, some form of cancer, or something at an early age) that 99% of

baseball fans and media will be going "YEAH! I KNEW THAT BASTARD WAS ON THE

ROIDS AND HE IS GOING DOWN! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NO HALL OF FAME FOR

YOU YOU PRICKISH, SELF CENTERED EGOTISTICAL PIECE OF CRAP! WHOO HOOOOOOOO!"

 

Steve

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I personally I've never seen anything wrong with Bonds. Here's how I see it. I have never seen Bonds in trouble with the law. He might be an asshole and a prick, but I wouldn't know because I've never met the guy. All I see with Bonds is a guy who pays baseball, and does it well. Anything else he does shouldn't bother me.

[Guest Choken One]

Well, Kobe may or not raped a 19 year old girl but as long as he's a nice guy, The media and I guess Mainstream america will still like the guy...

 

Barry Bonds simply doesn't like to talk to people and he is FOREVER hated and dispised by America.

 

Fuck that.

 

Greatest Player of his Generation is all that matters.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

There's one problem with comparing Bonds to HHH.

 

HHH wins -- he makes sure of it...

[Guest MikeSC]

Bonds is actually more likable than DiMaggio, Williams, etc.

 

Heck, if we had THIS media around in the old days, there wouldn't be ANY "stars".

 

Babe Ruth would be viewed similarly to David Wells, etc.

-=Mike

[Slayer 0]

Well, Kobe may or not raped a 19 year old girl but as long as he's a nice guy, The media and I guess Mainstream america will still like the guy...

 

Barry Bonds simply doesn't like to talk to people and he is FOREVER hated and dispised by America.

 

Fuck that.

 

Greatest Player of his Generation is all that matters.

That's the wonder of entertainment media

 

You can be a nice guy to most people you know, but give the media the coldshoulder, it's OMGBABYRAPER!

 

And that's not even accounting for if you actively berate the media (see: Bobby Knight at his antagonistic peak)

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

There's one problem with comparing Bonds to HHH.

 

HHH wins -- he makes sure of it...

 

ROTFLMAO!

 

Well that does show you that baseball is played "on the level"

 

Steve

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Bonds is actually more likable than DiMaggio, Williams, etc.

 

Heck, if we had THIS media around in the old days, there wouldn't be ANY "stars".

 

Babe Ruth would be viewed similarly to David Wells, etc.

-=Mike

Don't forget Ty Cobb.

 

He'd make John Rocker look like an alter boy.

 

Can't even imagine what Linda Cohn would do in describing the anti's- when talking about good ol' Ty...

[starvenger 0]

Barry Bonds simply doesn't like to talk to people and he is FOREVER hated and dispised by America.

 

Fuck that.

 

Greatest Player of his Generation is all that matters.

He'll be viewed in a much more favourable light 10 years after he retires.

 

But, take off that fucking ridiculous armour and maybe, MAYBE he'll get some more respect in the here and now...

[iamsherm 0]

I don't despise Barry Bonds for ignoring the media. In fact, I don't blame him. However, I DO despise Barry Bonds for dogging it and showing off for the better part of his career. I will ALWAYS remember Bonds technique for catching fly balls, in which he would flap his glove 2 or 3 times before the ball even got to him like people actually gave a shit about some lazy fly to left. I can't stand how he watches his home runs either. You would think a guy who has hit almost 700 home runs would know what they look like.

 

I'll admit that I'm a little biased when it comes to Bonds, because I was, and always will be, a huge fan of McGwire, but at least he earned fans respect by being a geniune, humble human being as well as one of the greatest people to ever play baseball. I can't say the same for Bonds.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I don't like Bonds for the post-WS tirade last season. Way to teach your kid about sportsmanship there.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I don't like Bonds for the post-WS tirade last season. Way to teach your kid about sportsmanship there.

Ohhh, I missed that one. What did he say exactly? I was too busy laughing at Racist Dusty's kid crying...

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I don't like Bonds for the post-WS tirade last season. Way to teach your kid about sportsmanship there.

 

More like way to display responsible journalism. Many writers conveniently left out parts of the story to portray Bonds in a negative light. Reporters were crowding Bonds' son, and he wanted them to back up.

[Big McLargeHuge 0]

So are we voting someone into office here or what? He's a baseball player. He's paid to play ball, not kiss babies and be humble just so people can like him. Get over it.

 

"He knows he's good, I don't like that."

 

BML: 100% pure bias.