Barry Talks Balls. His Own
Two weeks after his now infamous press conference, Barry Bonds once again met the press, this time in a half an hour chat with the Oakland Tribune's Andrew Baggerly and ESPN's Barry Bonds beat reporter, Pedro Gomez. The Barrisimo once again expounded on all things Barry, from steroids to cheating to the size of his head and his balls. Yep, his balls. We quote:
"I can tell you my testicles are the same size. They haven't shrunk. They're the same and work just the same as they always have."That thumping sound you hear is Bud Selig banging his head against his deck as he contemplates the fact that the man who strides across his sport like a colossus has just let everyone know that his balls still work. Michael Jordan never talked about his testicles. Wayne Gretzky never talked about his testicles. Joe Montana never talked about his testicles did but did go on TV and talk about masturbating. Seriously, once again, you have to kind of admire the guys', umm, balls. While Michael Jordan wouldn't say anything without clearing it with Nike or A-Rod wouldn't say anything without practicing saying it in front of a mirror, Barry just goes out there and says whatever the hell comes to him. Publicist, schmupblicist. He just might be baseball's pre-eminent loon.
Like most Barry conversations, it was the usual mix of head-scratchers (see comments about his balls) and dead-on perception. The quote that's getting the most play is this one about steroids:
"You're talking about something that wasn't even illegal at the time. All this stuff about supplements, protein shakes, whatever. Man, it's not like this is the Olympics. We don't train four years for, like, a 10-second (event). We go 162 games. You've got to come back day after day after day. We're entertainers. If I can't go out there and somebody pays $60 for a ticket, and I'm not in the lineup, who's getting cheated?… We're entertainers. Let us entertain."And before you say he's just rationalizing it all away, consider the fact that baseball's attendance and ratings have shot up due to the home run explosion of the past years. Consider too that the Giants are one the biggest road draws in baseball and we don't think that's because of Edgardo Alfonzo. We also recommend checking out the letters to the Chron whenever Barry doesn't play to read the Giants fans whining about spending money to attend a baseball game only to see Michael Tucker play left. There's also some good stuff in there on what constitutes cheating, rhetorically asking what the difference is between doing steroids and his being tutored by his dad or people wearing glasses to improve themselves.
We've said it before and we'll say it again, it's going to be one strange season.
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