Bonds' Bombshell Bombshell
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