Winesburg, Ohio/San Fransisco, California

So Barry Bonds signed a one-year contract to play for the San Fransisco Giants next year. Foul Balls has a breakdown of the various clauses written into the contract to protect the Giants if Barry finds himself in jail.

I had this idea about Bonds awhile ago, and that is, he hates baseball. He hates baseball, and everyone involved in it, so much that his one goal is to become the greatest player ever, and in doing so, destroy baseball.

Imagine a kid growing up, like so many growing up in America, he gets baseball shoved down his throat. But unlike every other kid, this kid's dad is a Champion, All-Star caliber professional baseball player. Every time this kids dad misses a birthday, or misses a game the kid is playing in, or just isn't around, it's baseball's fault. So he develops a healthy dislike for the game, the same as any kid dislikes the job that takes a parent away from him.

Not only does baseball rob him of so much time with his father, the media coverage, alot of it negative, creates a suspicion and paranoia in his mind. It seems absurd to him that they should spend so much time on something he disdains, but to attack his father in print with false accusations, unacceptable. What son isn't protective of their father? He grows up considering those critics in the media to be his enemies.

As he gets older, he travels with his dad's team, from city to city. Here, he only encounters more enemies, men and women, fans, thousands of them, packing stadiums to love baseball and hate on his dad. The best only boo, the worst throw batteries and hurl racial slurs at him and his father. Dilettante's, hurting his family, because they are unable to play the game.

It is these enemies that deserve the worst.

But, instead of walking away from the game, he chooses to become the greatest the game has ever seen. He will capture their love through his greatness, all the while, hating them, and their love for the game.

Now, knocking at the door of his goal, he is a grotesque, the game he hates, hates him to. Maybe we all deserve each other, baseball, Barry Bonds and us fans. He won't destroy the game, it will go on after he retires, and he will be remembered for being one of the greatest players.

I doubt he will be loved though, which might have been all that little kid wanted.

Honor Among Thieves and The Truth Will Set You Free.

Barry Bonds has some company.

Up until now he has been easily the most successful and high profile baseball player linked to the current steroid scandal in baseball. Maybe not so much anymore.

Jason Grimsley, a journeymen right-handed reliever who last played for the Arizona Diamondbacks, has named names after being found in possession of HGH (Human Growth Hormone), steroids and amphetamines. Each name kills the kid in me alittle more.

Grimsley getting busted was a fairly big deal. The people he is talking about now make it a much bigger deal. It also continues the destruction of an entire generation of sports heroes.

He named Roger Clemens among others. Without this scandal, Roger Clemens is one of the best players to ever play, as is Barry Bonds. If this sticks to either of them in the form of hard evidence, and Barry might already, they are frauds, liars and phonies.

Driving home from work, ESPN Gameday on the radio, John Seibel said something about Grimsley I found interesting. Without a direct quote, he claimed that if he was in Grimsley's place he would hope he kept quiet about what other people did. That naming others in his confession was a second wrong.

Why does everyone think they are in Goodfella's? Why is there some kind of expectation of honor for these people. They are in this position because they lied, cheated and broke the law for their own gain.

It is this misguided sense of honorable silence that allows crooked cops and corrupt politicians to get away with it just the same as baseball players. What would make you think that they wouldn't sing like a canary?

Why would their silence be reason for respect.

The little kid in me would like to see something. I think it would be cool if Jason Giambi, maybe the only guy to come close to admitting publicly he used steroids, who then came back to perform at a high level even after having a brain tumor, got in front of the camera, admitted he did it and using his current success as an example, tell the kids playing ball they don't need it.

I thought I needed it and I don't.

Maf54: Cool.

Cool is right, Congressman Mark Foley.