E-Mail This Article to a Friend Putting stock in Bonds: MLB’s worst act BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

This past year was the first in many moons that I actually got to see all five best-picture nominees. At Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby rightfully won top honors, even though I (along with several others) had a real problem with how the movie conveniently ignored certain aspects of boxing (i.e., a disqualification not being called when a blatantly late punch was delivered at a key point in the story).

Nonetheless, quality acting was the hallmark of Eastwood’s masterpiece. If not for the amazing turn put forth by Jamie Foxx in Ray, Dirty Harry himself might have joined stars Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman in carrying off hardware for their performances in Baby, which at its heart was not a sports movie at all.

On the fields of athletics, we often encounter performances that take our breath away. Unfortunately, one of the most distressing hack jobs of acting like a professional baseball player and decent human being is about to open again at a National League ball field near you. That performer, of course, is the odious Barry Bonds — soon (?) to be baseball’s all-time home-run champ. Oh, we know that even the hometown Red Sox players perhaps put on acts for their fans when in reality they too may be spoiled-rotten ingrates. But no one’s act is as tiresome and obnoxious as that of Bonds, who faced the press last week upon his arrival at the Giants’ spring-training facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. I wasn’t present at Bonds’s tirade against the assembled sportswriters, but I do have the transcript, so the most I can be accused of is taking his statements out of context.

Most followers of modern-day baseball history know about the cloud hanging over Bonds as he enters his 20th pro season. After spending his first seven seasons with the Pirates, Bonds signed a lucrative free-agent contract with the Giants in 1993. In his first 14 seasons, he hit over 40 home runs only twice. Beginning in the year 2000, however, his totals have been 49-73-46-45-45. Steroids? Not according to him, unless you believe the released grand-jury testimony that was leaked in the BALCO drug scandal — in which he stated that he may have unknowingly used steroids in a cream provided by his trainer. Bonds is now third in all-time home runs, and his total of 703 is just 11 shy of the Bambino’s mark of 714 and 52 short of Hank Aaron’s all-time record. The reported BALCO testimony given by Bonds and others, along with new doubts raised by Jose Canseco’s new book, has forced many to question how seriously Bonds’s inevitable record-breakers should be viewed in a sport that deifies its long-standing record-holders.

In his sneering press conference on February 22, Bonds had this to say.

Asked about his "tremendous growth in muscle strength ... as [he] got older":

A: Hard work, that’s about it.

Analysis: Baloney. He reportedly admitted in the leaked testimony that he may have "unwittingly" taken steroids.

On the whole subject of the swirling steroids rumors:

A: This is old stuff. I mean, it’s like watching Sanford and Son, you know, just rerun after rerun after rerun.

Analysis: Ask the families of Roger Maris, the Babe, and Hammerin’ Hank if such annual suspicions are so comical. It’s the big one! You hear that, Elizabeth? I’m comin’ to join ya, honey!

He then misses the point of steroids in baseball by going off on a different tangent:

A: We’ve got alcohol that’s the number-one killer in America [really?], and we legalize that to buy in the store. You’ve got ... tobacco number-two, -three killer in America, we legalize that.... You know, pick one side or the other. Are y’all [sportswriters] going to be good people or are you all going to be who you are and make the game or sports what it is? It’s become Hard Copy all day long. Are you guys jealous? Upset? Disappointed? What?

Analysis: Spare me. The question was how existing records are getting tainted by the use of illegal supplements — not the bigger problems of addiction in society.

Q: What would you say to fans who question your accomplishments?

A: ... I have probably gotten the best relationship with fans through all of this, than I ever have in my entire career. From all the places I’ve ever gone, and I’ve traveled all over the place and gone places: "Barry, keep your head up, we’re behind you."... The things that I’ve always wanted, to come over to me and just shake my hand and say, "You know what? Who cares? You’re a good ballplayer. You proved it.... We’re all supporting you." And I’ve never heard that before.

Analysis: He talks to fans? Right. If so, then they all must be getting screened before they ever get close enough to offer compliments. This is the guy, after all, who last spring roared to the assembled spring-training crowds clamoring for an autograph, "Don’t you all have lives?" The man is obviously oblivious to what traditional fans think of him.

BB: You’ve got to have some serious talent to have 53,000 people [in Dodger Stadium] saying you suck. And I’m proud of that.

Analysis: Pretty much speaks for itself.

BB: We [ballplayers are] just trying to go out there as human beings and do our job.

Analysis: "Human" is debatable in his case, and most players don’t feel the need to cheat to "do their jobs."

And on that note:

Q: Do you view the use of steroids as cheating?

A: I don’t know what cheating is. I don’t know cheating, if steroids [are] going to help you in baseball. I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe steroids can help you, eye-hand coordination, technically hit a baseball ...

Analysis: Most people know damn well what cheating is. And it’s not necessarily using something that improves the eye-hand coordination, but something that perhaps makes the ball go farther once it’s hit.

And, of course, why not play the race card?

Q: Why do you think so much scrutiny comes?

A: Because Babe Ruth is one of the greatest baseball players ever, and Babe Ruth ain’t black, either. I’m black. Blacks, we go through a little bit more. Unfortunately, I said it. I’m not a racist, though, but I live in the real world.

Analysis: People will be just as disappointed — probably more so — when Aaron (who is black) sees his all-time record broken as when Ruth’s goes by the wayside. And while many black players have endured a lot more difficulties than white players, Bonds grew up in luxury, spending his childhood in his dad’s big-league clubhouse, and has subsequently become obscenely rich playing baseball. That is hardly "the real world" in any sense, much less the one in which the likes of Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby lived.

And now the big finish ...

Q: You talked about protecting your family when your kids come home and they tell you stories of your reputation under attack; what do you say to them?

A: None of your business, because I wouldn’t let you in my house.

Analysis: A glass house it ain’t.

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com