Steroid use does seem to shrivel the truth center of the brain, if you look around baseball.
“I am not a role model.” - Charles Barkley
Believe what you will about Barry, but at least admit that if you could have had him play for your team for the past 5-10 years, you would have done anything to make it happen.
Nope.
As a SF Giants fan since the 70s, I can honestly say that the most exciting games I have attended have all been in the past 10 years. Yeah, Clark and Williams and Mitchell were great too, but when Barry stepped to the plate you felt electricity.
If you wouldn’t want a 40/40 man on your team because you don’t like his personality, then I’m not sure you would be welcoming too many “great” players to your team. They can’t all be Cal Ripken, ya know? Even the staunchest Barry haters I know loved to see him rip one out into McCovey Cove.
Sure, but a jerk or a difficult player is one thing. I don’t care if a player has his own personality and isn’t that friendly. A jerk who’s a fraud and a cheat is another.
This is the part of the quote that insults the intelligence. Fat–not muscle mass–is the hurdle to overcome in becoming a “leaner-type, cardio-type individual who keeps his heart rate up.” Muscle tissue actually helps your cardio health in that it takes more calories to maintain muscle than fat. Would anyone describe Barry as fat? Why in the world would he want to jettison muscle in the interest of cardio health?
Bonds’ comments can be dismissed as setting the stage for a weight loss he will have no good explanation for. Absolutely laughable.
Ah yes, I was wondering when this argument would pop up.
It’s cute comparing Charles Barkley and his hard nosed style and penchant for saying really stupid things to steroid abuse. You do understand the difference right?
You don’t choose whether or not you are a role model. It’s not just some box you get to check off before the put your picture on a poster or your name on a jersey. Barry Bonds does not get to wrap himself in a blanket of not wanting to be a role model and avoid any flack. He’s telling kids, and worse he’s telling his own kids, that it is okay to cheat to succeed and lie about it when you get caught.
Have Barry Bonds on my team, sure. He’s given the sport a black eye. His own record is under scrutiny. He treats the press like crap and whines about how mean they are. Nothing I would love to have more on my team than a juiced up moron with a persecution complex.
I thought it had more to do with the “throwing a guy in a strip club through a plate glass window” thing than his hard-nosed play. I do think you’re right about the rest of it.
:smack:
Sorry, hadn’t remembered that. Still a little sick of that crappy arguement popping up every time an athelete does something stupid.
No no, I’m totally sick of it as an argument. Athletes are role models, period. It’s an unavoidable fact. Some of them like to use the reasoning that, because they shouldn’t be role models, it’s okay for them to act like selfish morons. I think if you accept the money you make from being a famous athlete, you ought to accept your role model status as well. Both things stem from the fact that people are watching you.