I take pride in the fact that I hate Barry Bonds far less than does the average baseball media member. I can't stand the moralistic finger-wagging that occurs when people make Bonds the scapegoat for an entire era's worth of mistakes.
Yet that being said, if Rays executive vice president Andrew Friedman dropped by the blog to ask my advice on bringing Bonds aboard for 2008, I'd say to him: "Andrew _ can I call you Andrew? _ don't do it."
I spent enough times around Bonds last year, as he pursued and passed Hank Aaron, to confirm these admittedly not profound beliefs:
1) His presence takes a psychic cost on a team. Bonds was easily the best offensive player on last year's Giants, yet if you had polled the club on whether they'd rather have Bonds there or not, it would have been 24-0 against. Having Bonds around meant having a slew of media, all there for the not entirely positive story of everything that is Bonds.
Perhaps it would have been different if Bonds were a cheerful guy who apologized for generating such attention and gracefully dealt with the media pack _ like Hideki Matsui does with the Yankees. Instead, Bonds, as always, exhibited wild mood swings with both his teammates and the media.
Remember last year, when Barry Zito kicked off that gigantic contract and vowed to be Bonds' buddy? When camp opened this year, Zito could barely hide his delight over his fellow Barry's departure.
2) Bonds is on the decline. Look at his splits from last year: Admittedly, he posted awesome OBPs the first five months. But his slugging percentage varied wildly, and there were times last year when Bonds looked like a shot player. Figure that he'd get pitched to more in the Rays' lineup, considerably deeper than the 2007 Giants' group, and those walks would go down.
3) The whole indictment thing. The trial may very well not be until after the season. But would it really be worth Bonds' positives to sign an indicted player?
Friedman called this St. Petersburg Times report a "non-story," putting Friedman in a bit of a box. He can't go right out and sign Bonds after saying that. With the Cardinals out, too, despite Tony La Russa's interest, it's hard to see who will take a flyer on the home run king. His negatives are that considerable.
Comments (15)
My family went to many HOF Games in the 70s and early 80s - when the game was played on the same day as the HOF induction ceremonies.
I understand that baseball can't be bothered trying to figure out how to get two teams into a relatively remote spot in upstate NY for the pleasure of 10,000 people, many of them living near Cooperstown.
Before ESPN, before Cooperstown turned into one big souvenier shop, before players couldn't be approached with a ten foot pole, before the CBA days of "you can't play 19 days in a row" (or whatever it is) it was a lot of fun for a 10 year old to sneak into the Met dugout and shake hands with Bobby Valentine or run onto the field past Leon Brown after the game was over or swipe Hubie Brooks' helmet and watch him laugh as we ran away. I still remember Carlton Fisk's home run that cleared the LF fence, the church past the fence and a huge tree beyond the church.
The HOF game is a relic that unfortunately doesn't have a place anymore. For goodness sakes, ballplayers don't want to show for the ALL STAR GAME half the time...!!!!
ken:
ps: GREAT line on Eckstein in the previous post.
ps2: how about some balanced Davidoff commentary on the Jeter is/isn't a good fielder? If you did some, I must have missed it.
JoeNunz, great to hear from you! Been a while.
I wrote a column on Jeter in Sunday's Newsday. It wasn't just about his defense, but I made my opinion on that pretty clear:
http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/ny-spdavidoff245590060feb24,0,3094092.column
JoeNunz, I respectfully have to disagree. The Hall of Fame Game has never had more of a place than it does right now. There's not a more intimate and pure setting in all of baseball as you find at Doubleday Field, and a day to celebrate Major League Baseball in the home of the sport is exactly what baseball needs every year. Ask any big leaguer who has been a part of the festivities, and they'll probably tell you how much they enjoyed it once they had a chance to experience it. Not just the game, but the Hall of Fame as well.
Cooperstown and Doubleday Field have a longer history with MLB than nearly half of the cities that currently host a Major League team today. And this isn't just a baseball issue: a small, rural, tourism-based economy has depended on the Hall of Fame Game for almost 70 years.
savethefamegame.com
I agree with Kristian, to wit: The HOF game has to be saved. Cooperstown is a very special place for our sport and with 30 teams the least we should expect is one MLB game a year there. Teams can go halfway around the world to play a game but can't find time to go to Upstate NY? Doubleday Field harkens back to a simpler time when our pastime first captured the hearts, minds and imaginations of this country. Cooperstown is small-town America. Baseball owes it to Cooperstown to play one game there a year. I was really disappointed when I read the game was being discontinued. I have walked over to Doubleday Field when it was empty, sat in the wooden bleachers behind home plate and imagined what it was like to watch a game in 1910. The experience is hard to duplicate.
Mr. McMahon left a message saying that "The Hitman" has already been used by other pro wrestlers. Bonds will need to be more creative.
The only uniform color that Bonds should be wearing this season is...bright orange.
other than the indictment, Ken could be describing Mike Lupica- not BB!.
Perhaps Lil Lup's indictment is still sealed. Saunders deserves better than Lupica and Albom every week.
Not sure I agree that "Cooperstown is small town America"...
It's more like a small town, run by a rich family that lucked into getting the Baseball Hall of Fame due to some clever marketing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperstown,_New_York#The_Clark_Family
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Baseball_Hall_of_Fame_and_Museum#History
I don't have a problem with that...I LOVE Cooperstown and took my kids there for their first trip to THE PLAQUE (that would be Tom Seaver's plaque) last summer. And we spent some time watching a semi-pro game at Doubleday which was a ton of fun.
But as far as the HOF game...does Baseball owe Cooperstown - or is it the other way around?
Ken -
I DID read your Sunday column (in print, on Sunday with a cup of coffee) and for some reason didn't recall it.
That will never happen again ! ;)
No worries, JoeNunz. I forget what I write half of the time ;)
I didn't get Zito's hatred of Bonds or the fact that he's thrilled he's gone. I'm not saying he's not but from what he said, you're reading an awful lot into it. It almost sounded like a Messier/Rangers type thing. No one could step up to a leadership role with such a big precense. He certainly didn't say Bonds was a poor leader.
Richie, perhaps I stretched that story, but I have heard from other contacts _ and I ain't exactly breaking the Watergate story here _ that Zito and the other Giants are thrilled that Bonds is not back.
Ken, I'm not surprised by that. But I really am so sick of all things steroids, that I normally stay clear of Bonds/Clemens talk. So I'm a little out of the loop. That's why I wanted to know about Berkman and Clemens. Personally, I dont care how good you are, you travel with the team.