Bonds being on Juice vs. Kirby Puckett dying
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=2358771
Hey, I understand the need to use hyperbole when writing. Things are only as interesting as you present them to be. But, let's be honest here: Sportswriters hate Bonds, as do many fans, teammates and people actually know him. To give this book automatic credence is a bit presumptive. And to compare this revelation to the death of a great player/person is just pathetic.
Hey, I understand the need to use hyperbole when writing. Things are only as interesting as you present them to be. But, let's be honest here: Sportswriters hate Bonds, as do many fans, teammates and people actually know him. To give this book automatic credence is a bit presumptive. And to compare this revelation to the death of a great player/person is just pathetic.
posted by Mike at 10:01 AM
2 Comments:
Have you read the excerpt? Pretty damning if any of it's true. If all is true it's even worse. Speculation has been, for some time, that he's been on some sort of chemical enhancers for a while now, and this book by the two San Fran Chronicle journalists seems to come even closer to substantiating it. I have yet to hear a baseball expert think otherwise. We may never know the entire truth, but to use a cliché, where there's smoke, there's fire, and in the case of steroids, it seems each bit of smoke keeps leading us, eventually, to another fire.
As for Kirby, I wouldn't call the comparison pathetic. With both events (events that may end up being the two biggest baseball stories of the year) occurring, basically, within hours of each other, how can you not find a tie between the two? When baseball should be mourning the loss of a hall of famer (who was far from perfect himself, but still beloved), they are forced to deal with even more of the Barry Bonds steroid scandal. I would think it would be hard as a writer not to be thinking about both when it came time to file a story. I know I was.
The ones forcing the issue at this moment and time are the sports writers who are chosing to hype it up. Now, granted, it's a huge story, but I think this article exagerates its impact for several reasons:
1) Bonds didn't do anything against the rules that were in place at the time. That doesn't excuse his or anyone else's use of steroids, but it wasn't officially "cheating" just like its not "cheating" that the Yankees outspend everyone in baseball.
2) Wojciechowski used A-Rod's heartfelt sentiment about Puckett to damn Bonds and to put this revelation on the same level as Puckett's death. Really? So the death of a beloved athlete is only equivalent to the revelation that a narcissistic jackass who many presumed was on steroids was actually steroids? Puh-lease.
3)Puckett was one of those guys who I always remember growing up thinking of as one of the sports' good guys. Sure, I knew nothing about him beyond his playing, but he just seemed like a guy you'd like to meet. I was pretty shocked when i heard he passed. The Bonds' revelation doesn't really matter much to me. I didn't care for him before, I don't now.
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