Testy Copy Editors

Our new website is up and running at testycopyeditors.org. This board will be maintained as an archive. Please visit the new site and register. Direct questions to the proprietor, blanp@testycopyeditors.org
It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 1:04 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours




Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 16 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Bonds book
PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:54 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 2266
Location: New Jersey
Dare I hope that this will drive Barry Bonds into retirement before Opening Day and keep the home run crown in the hands of the man who earned it?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 5:26 pm 
Offline

Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 8342
Location: Bethesda, Md.
Dare I hope that the moderator of this forum will stop Barry Bonds talk before it gets far?


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 12:00 am 
Offline

Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 2266
Location: New Jersey
Well, it's one of the two or three biggest stories in baseball, and this is one of the two or three biggest moments in the development of that story. Far from there being too much Bonds talk, there isn't enough. We've all been culpable in letting him get this far by acting like his side of the story can be taken seriously. It can't. Journalistic objectivity carried to absurdity is a substantial cause of the current mess.

I'm not some rabid player hater for bringing this up. It's a mainstream position. I think it's even a majority position at this point. There are few things more important in baseball than rejecting Barry Bonds and everything he stands for.

Gene Wojciechowski wrote:
Bonds is finished. He might play again, but there is only a chalk outline left around his integrity and home run totals. And the only way he gets into Cooperstown is if he spends the $14.50 for a Hall of Fame admission ticket.


I agree.

And as Wojciechowski also points out, the saddest part is that Bonds would easily have been a Hall of Famer without illegal substances. No, he wouldn't have hit 73 home runs in a season, and probably would not have challenged Hank Aaron's record, but he still had a legitimate shot at being considered one of the dozen or so best players ever to play the game. That wasn't sufficient for him, and for cheating he should forfeit even that to which he would otherwise have been entitled.

But I say all of that only by way of defending the proposition that discussing Bonds is important. I posed a bona fide question to start this thread, and it's still on the table: Do people think Barry Bonds will play in a Major League Baseball game this season, now that this book has been released? If so, do you think he'll play the whole season?

My money is on him retiring by the All-Star Break at the latest.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 1:32 am 
Offline

Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 741
Location: The Empire State
I know JJ is going to lock this thread soon, and I'm tired of the Bonds subject myself. (For the record, I think he's a disgrace.) But here are some general thoughts on what will happen this summer:

1) Bonds will skate prosecution by the feds and baseball, because that is what happens almost without exception with celebrities in this culture, and especially with celebrities in California (see Simpson, Orenthal James, and Blake, Robert). If those two can get away with allegedly murdering their spouses, Bonds can certainly get away with ingesting a drugstore.

2) Bonds will play this summer until he breaks his leg, ruptures his knee cartilage or breaks his ankle. Only severe physical impairment will keep him off the field in pursuit of Ruth's and Aaron's records. The man truly doesn't care what anyone thinks. Never has. Never will.

3) Bonds will break Ruth's and Aaron's records at home, and the Giants fans will jump up and down in ecstasy. Bud Selig will go through the motions of presenting Bonds with some kind of tangible trophy or certificate in each case, even though Selig's heart won't be in it.

4) Giants fans won't care what any book says. Jason "the Giambalco" Giambi reportedly ingested many of the same steroids Bonds is said to have, and look at how many silly fools cheered him last summer in the Bronx. Too many fans just don't give a fig.

5) As much as I hate to admit it, Bonds was Hall-worthy even before 1998, as a three-time MVP (1990, 1992, 1993). He will get in, maybe not on the first ballot, but he will get in.

Locksmith?


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 2:05 am 
Offline

Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 12:01 am
Posts: 1112
Location: An undisclosed alpine meadow
Matthew Grieco wrote:
We've all been culpable in letting him get this far by acting like his side of the story can be taken seriously.

Not quite all of us.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 7:40 am 
Offline

Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 3135
Location: Albuquerque, N.M. USA
Mike Greenberg on ESPN Radio this morning was being more than just a Devil's Advocate when he suggested that, even if the stories are true, Bonds did nothing illegal, and Greenberg provocatively compared his drug use to the enhancements used by Kirk Gibson and Brett Favre to come back from injuries.

We can discuss this a bit, but let's keep our roid rages in check, please.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 7:57 am 
Offline

Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 3135
Location: Albuquerque, N.M. USA
To clarify: I'm not sure whether he was talking about whether Bonds' actions were illegal or in violation of baseball's rules.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 8:38 am 
Offline

Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 2266
Location: New Jersey
We should certainly afford Bonds the presumption of innocence when it comes to criminal liability. As Americans, we should assume he broke no criminal law unless it's proven that he did. As sports fans, however, we have no obligation -- or reason -- to withhold judgment. In juicing to transform from 1991 Barry into 2001 Barry -- just look at pictures of him from those two years; it doesn't happen -- he forfeited his honor as an athlete even if no statute proscribed his actions and even if baseball was lax in imposing official penalties for steroid use.

Wordygurdy, I can probably agree that Bonds was Hall-bound even before the time when he was clearly juicing, but for his sins against the game, I think he should be denied entry as penalty. Nobody argues that Pete Rose and Joe Jackson were unworthy of induction stat-wise, but they tarnished the game so badly they had to be kept out of the Hall as punishment, and each man deserved what he got (despite what Rose or, in Jackson's case, Kevin Costner, would have you believe).

I can accept that Bonds violated a principle of a lesser order than did Rose and Jackson. Those two broke the gambling rule, which is paramount because gambling undermines the fundamental expectation that everyone is playing to win. Bonds certainly has always played to win. But in terms of the actual damage done to the sport, Bonds has created more harm. Jackson contributed to the perversion of a single World Series. Rose broke the rules but there remains no evidence that his actions affected the outcome of a single baseball game. Bonds, on the other hand, has permanently soiled the stat books with his impossible numbers and sent the compass of baseball greatness spinning wildly. On balance, he deserves to share the fate of Jackson and Rose.

As for all of the others, including Giambi, who've been similarly exposed, a pox on all their houses. Bonds is at the vanguard, and as the greatest player among them even without cheating he has the farthest to fall, but as I mentioned in another thread, I believe that any player should be denied Hall admittance if a voter thinks it is more likely than not that he used steroids to inflate his numbers.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 5:33 pm 
Offline

Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 741
Location: The Empire State
This is a nice column on the subject from Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record.

I will be very curious to see what, if anything, Selig says or does about the book's revelations. It would be nice to see him suspend Bonds indefinitely until the truth, whatever that is, comes out, but I wouldn't expect that to happen.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:20 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1286
Location: Saranac Lake, N.Y.
If Bonds is anything like his former self, he should surpass Ruth in May. It will be an awkward moment indeed. I hope he does it just to see how it's handled, by Selig and by the rest of the world.

Selig shares a big part of the blame for this mess. He presided over the Steroid Era and did nothing until forced to, and by then the damage was done. So here we are.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 4:23 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 3135
Location: Albuquerque, N.M. USA
From the Onion:

Barry Bonds Took Steroids, Reports Everyone Who Has Ever Watched Baseball
March 9, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO—With the publication of a book detailing steroid use by San Francisco Giants superstar Barry Bonds, two San Francisco Chronicle reporters have corroborated the claims of Bonds' steroid abuse made by every single person who has watched or even loosely followed the game of baseball over the past five years.


The Onion also reports that MLB has decided that obesity will now be called Kirby Puckett's Disease.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 5:54 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1286
Location: Saranac Lake, N.Y.
Here is something as laughable as the Onion.

Especially the disclaimer:

Quote:
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:06 am 
Offline

Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 6:47 pm
Posts: 1734
Location: Washington
Let's keep in mind that whether Bonds did anything illegal has nothing to do with whether Bud Selig can kick him out of baseball in the next 10 minutes. Selig can do whatever he deems necessary "in the best interests of the game" ... even though he has taken a perverse view of just what that means.

Immediately after Bud Selig kicks out Barry Bonds, he should kick himself out.

Of course, he won't do either.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:53 am 
Offline

Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 2266
Location: New Jersey
ESPN.com wrote:
SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds plans to sue the authors and publisher of a book that alleges the San Francisco Giants' slugger used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

Bonds' attorneys sent a letter Thursday to an agent for the authors of "Game of Shadows," alerting them of plans to sue the writers, publisher Gotham Books, the San Francisco Chronicle and Sports Illustrated, which published excerpts this month.

"Our client, Barry Bonds, will seek an ex parte application for a temporary restraining order against them, as well as Gotham Books/Penguin USA, Sports Illustrated Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle," Alison Berry Wilkinson, an associate of Bonds' lead attorney, Michael Rains, wrote in the letter. "This injunctive action will be brought pursuant to California's Unfair Competition Law ... to obtain, in summary, disgorgement of any profits related to or derived from the publication and distribution of the book."

The letter, signed by Wilkinson, was posted on the Chronicle's Web site. A hearing was tentatively scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday in San Francisco Superior Court.

"The reason we filed in the lawsuit in the simplest terms possible is to prevent the authors from promoting themselves and profiting from illegal conduct," Rains told The Associated Press on Thursday.

He said laws prohibit people from possessing grand jury materials unless they are unsealed and said authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, both also reporters for the Chronicle, "have made a complete farce of the criminal justice system."


Notice what this isn't: a libel suit. I wonder why that could be?

By filing an action but not in libel, Bonds makes himself look even worse.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 1:42 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 12:46 am
Posts: 302
Location: Conn. -- hence the name
Even if the suit is successful -- and most of the talking heads I've seen on TV say it has no shot -- it does absolutely nothing to clear Bonds' name. Seems like a totally useless exercise to take the focus off of the "did he or didn't he" talk.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:34 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 2266
Location: New Jersey
From AP's Opening Day story:

The AP wrote:
But for a game whose beauty rests in its certainty — clean lines, clear rules, ball or strike, out or safe — the steroids controversy has raised an awful lot of questions with murky answers, or no answers at all.

Example: How can Bonds, who was booed roundly in spring training appearances, alone be the object of such intense rage by fans when so many other players blew up like Macy's parade floats beginning in the 1990s, era of the baseball power surge?


Um. There's nothing "murky" about that at all, AP. Bonds is the one challenging Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 16 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group

What They're Saying




Useful Links