The Round Table

This week: Matt Friedman

Barry Bonds is one of the most hated guys in all of sports. His teammates don't like the old man who sits back in his recliner by his lockers. That's not a typo; he gets two of them.  Most baseball fans don't really like him because he isn't a likeable guy.  He does his work and then decides to go home rather than try to give himself a squeaky clean image through advertisements or newspaper quotes.

Suspicions, yet no proof, say Bonds may have used steroids to get ahead and hit a record 73 homers in the 2001 campaign, turning even more people against him and making him into a media magnet. One of the best baseball players of all time has lost his love of the game and is on the brink of retirement, thanks to immense media pressure and scrutiny.

For those who have let it slip their mind, Bonds was already one of the best players in baseball before he and his game expanded to a new level in 2001. Bonds's first three of his unheard-of seven National League MVP awards came before 2001. He hit no fewer than 33 home runs every season between 1992 and 2004. That's right: even in the days when Barry was just a rail-thin outfielder in his twenties, he could pad the stats.

Then, he bulked up and hit 73 home runs, followed by the BALCO investigations involving his personal trainer.  Now, Bonds has taken center stage in the negativity surrounding juiced-up baseball.

Reporters, including ESPN's Pedro Gomez, have followed Bonds everywhere but the bedroom (one would hope) in order to bother him about steroids and his trainer.  He is fed up with it, and in recent television appearances he has appeared to be mentally exhausted and fragile. In Bonds's latest tirade, he said he would retire after this season because the game wasn't fun anymore and sarcastically thanked the media for all the "criticism" and "dogging" he has received.

The media has been unfair to Bonds and taken the joy away from his job.  Yes, baseball has been tarnished by the 'roids rage, but putting the crosshairs solely on Bonds is an injustice. Baseball was lackadaisical when it came to cleaning up the game, and there isn't as much coverage of guys who tested positive, like Rafael Palmeiro.

We will probably never know for sure which of the recent home run kings has taken the needle in order to pump up their stats. Since nobody can be sure about Bonds, it might be smart for baseball to salute one of the best players of his time in what may be his final season.  That is, if the national media is willing to let such crazy things happen.