Barry Sad

"If I could, then I would
I'll go wherever you will go
Way up high or down low
I'll go wherever you will go"
Wherever You Will Go, The Calling

Pedro Gomez is nothing without Barry Bonds. Way up in San Francisco, or down low in the depths of steroid-induced depression, Pedro goes wherever Barry goes. Frankly, I kinda feel sorry for the guy, because his entire career has been made by one guy, and once Bonds goes away, ESPN probably won't have use for poor Pedro anymore. Maybe he can start the Delmon Young watch or something.
In regards to this Bonds thing, I just watched the Giants highlight from yesterday, and there's about a hundred things that come to mind, but I'll just touch on a precious few:
- If I'm Barry's teammate, I'm about as tired of all this as possible, and I'd be about a thousand times happier if he just retired. He's obviously a huge focal point of the baseball world because of the home run chase, the steroids and the perjury investigation, among other things, but he's an absolute jerk to the media, so more often than not, he just refuses to speak with them after games, leaving teammates to answer questions in his stead. After yesterday's highlight, Pedro got a sound bite from Ray Durham, who looked about as happy answering a question about Bonds' 0-for-3 performance as Mike D'Antoni looked after Raja's idiotic clothesline in Game 5 last week...
- Is there anything sadder in the history of sports than a record chase--one that should inspire all kinds of excitement and joy--steeped in ridicule and apathy? Though it's since been tainted somewhat, the summer of '98 was a source of great excitement for sports fans everywhere, turning on the television every day to see Sammy and Big Mac teeing off on NL pitchers. The race was unbelievable, and people wanted to see both of them succeed. Granted, Sammy's almost reached Barry status as a villain in all this steroid madness and Mac isn't far behind, but that's all years after the fact. Barry's at the bottom of the nation's sentiment right in the middle of everything he's trying to do. In fact, people didn't really enjoy Bonds' 73 season that much either...
- I really, really hope that Albert Pujols hits 74 home runs this season, as ridiculous as it may be...
- And I really, really hope A-Rod hits more career home runs than Bonds too, so no matter where he finishes, he won't have to be anywhere in baseball's record books. Pujols could do it too...
- Finally, I honestly don't know what everybody in San Francisco (and anyone who still roots for Bonds outside SF) is thinking if they don't think he took steroids for a significant length of time, starting in 1998. I suppose it would be possible for a guy like that--one who supposedly takes better care of his body than anyone on the planet, but whose best friend is a known steroid dealer, whose former trainer and advisor is a known steroid user and supplier, and whose body has expanded faster than Jon Favreau's in that time--to be clean, but come on now.