R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find Out What It Takes For Me
Find out what it takes for me to respect Barry Bonds. I think our blog is really unique to the topic in such that Ming is such a huge Bonds fan and I am quite the strong opposite. I've taken my fair share of scruff for being so anti-Bonds on TSF. So, I got thinking about what it would take for Bonds to earn my respect. I'm going to share....
This is going to sound crazy but for Bonds to earn my respect he would need to lay down the bat. Now, I am much opposed to quitters and I am a huge fan of hard workers with set goals. However, Bonds cheated and that makes it different. He knows he did and basically everyone in the sports world knows he cheated. Therefore, I think it would be most noble for him to stop chasing the record.
Bonds is a HOFer. He was a hall-of-famer before the steroid talk and way before he started really chasing Aaron. He should let the real record stand and take his place as the 2nd bets HR-hitter in MLB history and a member of the MLB HOF. He is doing more harm than good to the team, his body, his legacy, his family, and the game. He is getting old and crabby (as recent quotes prove). He seems like he is playing - and claims to want to play next season- purely for the purpose of personal records.
Lay down the bat, quit yelling at reporters, become more of a family man, and graciously accept the asterisk that should (and maybe someday will) be displayed next to his name on the HR-list.
Lay down the bat, quit yelling at reporters, become more of a family man, and graciously accept the asterisk that should (and maybe someday will) be displayed next to his name on the HR-list.
Whether you like Bonds or not most fans don't respect the man and the player who is Barry Bonds. What would it take for Bonds to earn your respect as a player and as a person?
3 comments:
He's already got my respect as a player... as a person, well, I have no thoughts either way. I don't know the guy.
How is this not a Bonds bash?
Agreed Jon he has my respect as a baseball player. Can't say much else though.
I heard about a similar column on ESPN radio that someone had written, maybe in the Washington Post? Anyway, it basically said the same thing, that Bonds could save face by just walking away from the game now.
For me to respect him, he would have to do more than just that. He'd have to come out and admit that he was quitting because he'd used performance enhancers and because of that he didn't deserve to be ahead of Hank Aaron.
We're speaking purely in hypothetical terms because neither situation would ever happen.
Honestly, the only way the public will ever truly embrace him is if he suffers a hard fall. If say, his health goes south at an early age and it's because of the steroids, and he at that point says 'I was wrong. I'd give it all back, it's not worth dying over. I want to do whatever I can to keep this from happening to others...". That type of thing. Of course, I would never wish that on anybody, I'm just saying that for a guy like Bonds, who is so loathed, that's the kind of thing it might take.
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