It’s looking like the pre-season favorite for MVP of the 2005 Giants season might not be trainer Stan Conte after all, but Barry Bonds’ publicist. Because today a story is breaking that can’t be any good as it involves two things that give any publicist nightmares: mistresses and Geraldo Rivera. Yep, the mustached-one scored a hot news story as he interviewed some woman claiming to be Bonds’ alleged mistress. In the interview, she not only discussed their affair, but also said that Barry was using steroids as far back as 1999. The alleged mistress, Kimberly Bell, was on Geraldo because she’s been trying to peddle a book for years about the affair which supposedly lasted for nine years and ended with Barry offering a mere $20,000 in hush money. Thus, the book and interview. We’re sure there’ll be a Playboy spread after all of this is done too.
In the interview, which begins with her offering proof of their relationship, she said that Bonds started taking the drugs around 1999 as a way to recover faster from injuries and because, well, everyone was doing it. She also claimed that he was worried about the changes to his appearance and was victim to such minor things as back acne and the occasional bout of ‘roid rage. This, however, is a bit of a contradiction from recent 60 Minutes interviewee Jose Canseco that Bonds started juicing in 2000 after asking Jose how he got so buff. Jose’s book, by the way, is out today and in reading more details about it, we are sure he’s not going to be invited to any old timers game sometime soon. It also contradicts Bonds leaked testimony to the Grand Jury that he only took steroids in 2003, but by accident.
We think it goes without saying that somebody going onto Geraldo show to try and sell a book nobody wants to publish makes Jose Canseco look like a veritable George Washington in the credibility department but it’s just yet another story in what’s looking like the Mother of All Sports Scandals. In other words, this is all going to get way worse before it’s going to get better. Just in time for pitchers and catchers to report too.
For a different perspective on all this hyperventilating going on about ‘roids (can we really be that upset about ball players using drugs to enhance their performance in an age of botoxed fake breasted starlets, lip-synching pop stars, and gay porn hustlers posing as White House Reporters?), we recommend, this site, Only Baseball Matters. The writer of the blog has been trying for months to bring some sense of perspective to all of this.
Image from Fox News
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Barry + Drugs + Adultery + Gerlado = Mmmmmmbestest.
"Brings some perspective," and by "brings" you must mean "condones," and by "some" you must mean "steroid," and by "perspective," you must mean "abuse."
Ah, yes, you could look at it that way. But when some guy goes on ESPN and starts screaming that this whole thing is "the Watergate of the 21st Century" and, wait for it, "won't somebody think of the children?" it's nice to hear somebody not in full Mrs. Broslofski-mode about all this. Cause really, our entire culture these days is a celebration of fakeness- fake movie stars, fake pop stars, fake presidential campaigns. Why are baseball players the only one's to get nailed for it?
Because baseball is a game, and steroids are cheating.
right on.
One, keep in mind I'm playing devil's advocate here. Two, remember it's always good somebody does. Three, here comes the sports are a mirror of society card but, sports are a mirror of society. Everyone else is taking a short cut and being rewarded, why should we expect baseball players not to?
From a story on the Canseco book on Salon:
Canseco has a very good chapter called "Baseball Economics 101" in which he explains why it makes a lot of sense for someone like Tejada, who grew up in abject poverty, to become very interested in steroids.
He asks you to picture yourself as a talented young player from a poor area of an impoverished country, "and let's say you realize that, if you can put together back-to-back good seasons with strong home-run totals, you can realistically set up your family and yourself for the rest of your life with a $40 or $50 million contract."
"There's only one catch: To score that big paycheck ... you're going to need to guarantee that performance -- and the only way to ensure that is to make the most of the opportunity presented by steroids and growth hormone. Put it that way, and I don't see any young kid turning it down. Would you? Would you really?"
You make a valid argument about why players would TRY to cheat, which is of course correct; people have always tried to cheat in every sport. The point is that the sport still has a responsibility to catch and punish cheaters.
One could also make arguments as to why the owners or players have neglected this duty in the past, or point out that they used "greenies" in the 60s or threw spitballs--but the fact is that baseball is facing a serious credibility crisis that can only be corrected by a serious effort to catch the cheaters and punish them.