Good Riddance Barry Bonds

Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 6:51 PM

I'm so tired. The Barry Bonds' of the world just don't have a clue. Never will. Barry, I don't dislike you because you may or may not pass a white player in career home runs. I don't dislike you because you did steroids. I don't dislike you because your black. I don't dislike you because of your immense God given talents, even without steroids. I dislike you because you're a miserable human being.

Barry, if you want our respect you have to earn it. Why do you believe that hitting a ball with a stick should garner you any more personal respect than a guy who hits .220? Respect comes when you respect us, the Fans. We pay, oh how we pay. We pay through the nose to watch you play the game. And what do we ask in return? A wave of the hand. An autograph for our children. A little Integrity, a dash of humility. And yet you act as though we are a pain in the ass, as though the wave, autograph, integrity and humility are a burden beyond belief.

You seem angry that we feel your records are tarnished, even though you DID take the steroids. Do I believe you didn't know? No one can look in the mirror daily, see the changes in so short a time and not know. You just didn't ask. It's called "plausible deniability." But with you it's neither plausible nor deniable.

The problem is not whether steroids should be allowed, the problem is that they are illegal. Period. You can drag that argument through an acre of gray area and it's always going to come out of the wash in black and white. What you were using was illegal. Nothing changes that. Own up to it, be a man, be somebody.

Mark McGuire, Bonds, Sosa, Palmero and a host of others are weak and selfish human beings. Not one of them had the integrity, the dignity nor the courage to stand up and admit to us, the fan, what we already knew, you were all cheaters. But what makes Bonds stand out from the crowd is his utter outrage that we just won't let it lie. How dare we question him! Don't we know who he is? Again, yes, we do know who he is. He's a miserable human being.

My Nephew plays in a band. I once told him, "You know when you're in trouble when you stand on the stage and stop thinking 'This is soooo cool!' and start thinking 'I"M so cool!" That attitude gets you in trouble every time. Bonds has never thought anything but, "I'M so cool!" And when the rest of us don't respond in kind, his arrogance shows up, his pompousness forges forward and his ugliness shows through.

No Barry, I could forgive it all if you just once showed some repentance, some spark of humility, a scintilla of dignity. But you can't can you. And why?

Because you're a miserable human being.