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BALCO Investigations Heats Up, Summonees Concerned
By Tony Hayes November 21, 2003 |
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The biggest-name player whose name has been brought up in the ongoing BALCO controversy is none other than Barry Bonds so naturally the attention will gravitate towards the Giants' superstar. At this point theres no evidence that Bonds took the designer steroid THG. Circumstances are he was linked with trainer Greg Anderson but at this point, it's a little premature to pass judgement on Bonds. Unless something comes out that Barry was taking a designer steroid of some sort I think that everybody knows that Bonds works very hard, he trains very hard to do the best he can. This will not have any effect on Giants ticket sales or how other fans judge Bonds. There should be no problem at all. There is no doubt that Babo looks bigger, that's maybe where a lot of the suspicion is centered, but as we get older Barry is relatively the same age as myself and 10 years ago I was much skinnier and slimmer. You get bigger as you get older. Bonds has put on muscle, and that's not what the Tiger puts on. There has been suspicion and that's nothing new. Bonds has said he hasn't done anything illegal or suspicious and I believe him. He's always been a great baseball player. Bonds isn't doing anything differently than what he has done in his whole career, except the one super season when he hit 73 home runs. Maybe he would have hit 100 if (pitchers) actually pitched to him. I don't think there will be suspensions. Hopefully things will come out that he has not taken any steroids. Bonds has stated that he wants to be tested. There is confidence that the tests will come back negative. Also Barry has been sucessful. Bonds has not handled his success as gracefully as people would like. he could be abrasive at times and arrogant but that's what makes Bonds what he is. People are salivating at a chance to get him but there is confidence that everything will come out fine for Bonds. There is concern, however, that Bonds' trainer, Greg Anderson, had his door knocked down by the drug squad but it seems to have much more to do with the money end of it. I'm sure there are some weird things going on and I'm sure people will be talking about a conspiracy for years to come. In 40 years there will be a special on ABC News where people will look into Barry Bonds' home runs and look at his before and after pictures. The buffed up Barry will be compared to slimmed down Barry and they'll say "he had ties to Victor Conte," and his trainer with the suspicious character, but what it really all comes down to is Bonds' great bat speed. He hits the ball with the bat and he makes it go very far. Bonds has been doing that for a lot of years. He comes from along line of home run hitters and his late father, Bobby Bonds, was a very sucessful hitter. Bonds grew up at Candlestick Park hitting the ball. The Giants drafted him when he was 17 years old. Barry Bonds learned to play baseball. He's undoubtedly one of the greatest of all time and I look forward to seeing Bonds perform for many many years without this shadow of doubt. I don't think that will happen. People will always be saying Barry was aided in some sort of way. I don't believe it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Tony the Tiger, also known as AJ Hayes, writes for Giants Today in the Chronicle. |
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