A tainted record for tainted fans

So, Barry Bonds is the new home run king.



*YAWN*



In all seriousness, does anyone really care? I am a die hard baseball fan, analyst, and avowed baseball purist. I am known to do some occasional sports writing on my blog. So, let me repeat:


*YAWN*


I encapsulated my yawn in asterisks for a reason. I have always had a very low opinion of Barry Bonds, even before the whole steroids thing. The man is such a shame. He could have been a hall of famer on his own merit; he did not need to use steroids.

And yet he did.

Some fans who defend him are saying nothing has been proven. Yeah, nothing but common sense. As I have said before on this blog, Barry Bonds hit a monstrous 73 home runs in 2001, having never hit more than 49 in any other season before or since. This might have seemed reasonable when he was, say, 29 or so, but Bonds was in his late 30's at the time. Just look at pictures of Bonds when he first came into the majors and then later. His muscle mass almost triples, again as he got older. Even with modern physical exercise routines, your physical skills begin to decrease as you get closer to 40, not increase. That's just common sense that he had help.

There are so many question marks and shady things about Bonds that I can't believe anyone outside of San Francisco (which is notorious for being completely outside of reality anyway) would believe that Bonds has not taken steroids.

All that having been said, I do believe Bonds is the perfect home run king for the 21st Century sports fan. These fans foster parents' abusive language and fisticuffs of umpires and coaches at their child's little league ballgame. Fans that encourage trash talking and cheating, even rioting after a game. Fans that will sell out any integrity they have to win, even if it means the putting up with the foul stench of the decaying body of sportsmanship, dead so long the original form can no longer be discerned.

Congrats to those folks. You have slain the virtuous King Henry and enthroned a classless pretender, crowned not with jewels but the asterisks. Since you are blinded by your greed to win at any cost, I suspect you will not notice. I guess the old saying is true: in the valley of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

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