Big Head Bonds and the Monsters

The most annoying part of any media circus is the part where some members of the media, deciding they need a different angle, start talking about whether the media - of which they are a part - is treating the public figure caught in that circus fairly. It's needlessly self-referential and frequently is insultingly underthought.

Take Barry Bonds. No one has liked Barry Bonds outside of San Francisco for a decade or so. Yet with the perjury allegations and everything else, some members of the media have begun to suggest that perhaps Bonds is being persecuted, especially by their peers.

Let's get something straight. Yes, a lot of members of the press don't like Barry Bonds. That's because he has been, by and large, a jerk to them over the years. Sports journalists can be creeps themselves, but Bonds had the option to play the game like every other guy, and he chose the "unaccomodating prick" route instead. And then he violated the sanctity of the game (in all likelihood, at least) and proceeded to lie about it.

Compare this to Pete Rose. Rose was chasing (and broke) a long-held record. He also violated the sanctity of the game and lied about it. Rose's violation didn't even have anything to do with the record he broke - if gambling affected his play at all, you'd have to assume it was in the form of getting fewer hits than he could have. Yet Rose, who unless I'm mistaken was a fairly popular player, has also been fried to a crisp in the press over the years. He's had his defenders, but so has Bonds.

Is Bonds being singled out? Maybe. But on the other hand, no other potential steroids user is even in the 600-home run club, let alone the 700-HR club. Sure, Sosa and McGwire were more popular than Bonds - but they also never seriously knocked on the door of true immortality. Bonds has brought the scrutiny on himself by doing something two other men have ever done but doing it in incredibly suspicious circumstances (at best). What else is someone supposed to say? Bonds is still active (unlike the other two), he's just six shy of Ruth, and he's doing it under a huge cloud. That's a story, like it or not. There's really no positive angle to take.