Barry Bonds has been officially hired to a full-time position with the San Francisco Giants as a Special Advisor to Giants CEO and President Larry Baer. There was a time when Bonds was practically ostracized from the baseball club following the BALCO steroids in baseball scandal. Ten years later, he has been welcomed back with open arms. And best of all, Bonds didn’t have to apologize for a damn thing regarding his past steroid use.
So what if Bonds didn’t follow Mark McGwire’s example. Barry did it his way and never succumbed to the demands of the hysterical anti-steroid crusaders. McGwire may have tearfully apologized during a self-deprecating press conference and regretted making the “stupid” decision to use steroids in order to appease the anti-steroid crowd before he returned to Major League Baseball as a hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals (and later as the bench coach for the San Diego Padres). But Bonds took a different approach. Bonds smiled a smile that might as well have told them told them to all go fuck themselves.
The unrepentant Bonds has never backed down in his resistance to the steroid hysteria surrounding the BALCO scandal. Bonds never admitted knowingly using steroids or human growth hormone (hGH). And he was never “convicted of [using] steroids” in a court of law. He has never apologized. And he has never expressed regrets for any of his actions as a baseball player.
This never stopped the government from doing its best to make an example of Bonds. He became the government’s number one enemy in the war on steroids as the primary target of the BALCO criminal prosecutions.
The U.S. government spent over a decade and over $75 million prosecuting Bonds on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. Bonds was effectively cleared him of all perjury charges after a jury mistrial. The jury convicted him of a single obstruction of justice charge but it was overturned by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court rebuked the government’s obsession with Bonds as a dangerous example of prosecutorial abuse.
Barry is just being Barry. And a big part of that involves winning. Bonds is considered one of the greatest baseball players in the history of the sport. He kicked the ass of the all-powerful United States government when they tried to make an example of him for using steroids. And now Bonds is back with the San Francisco Giants.
“This is my home. I want to help our community, the team, the younger players and keep the tradition alive,” said Bonds. “Same thing my godfather did, my father’s done. It’s the right thing to do.
“I’m from San Francisco, raised there. I want to help our community kids become Giants and good ones and keep the tradition alive.”
Before you know it, Barry Bonds will reach that magic 75% threshold of votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). And then, he will be inducted in the Hall of Fame. No tears. No apologies. No regrets. Only steroids and winning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjvRk2sM3k4
Wow.. That is deep; definitely makes Bonds a “real” man and ball player.
Especially because he didnt have to lie; just with-hold the truth.
The American way right, apple pie, baseball and if didnt confess; he is not guilty.
Great article.