Bonds may miss entire season

[Fairwrning]

Updated: Mar. 22, 2005, 5:18 PM ET
Bonds on missing the season: 'Maybe'
ESPN.com news services

A dejected Barry Bonds said Tuesday there's a chance he might not return this season because of multiple knee surgeries.

Barry Bonds
Bonds

"Right now I'm just going to try to rehab myself to get back to, I don't know, hopefully next season, hopefully the middle of the season. I don't know. Right now I'm just going to take things slow. I feel bad for the guys [Giants teammates] because I want to be out there for them," he said Tuesday after meeting with San Francisco Giants trainer Stan Conte for 1½ hours.

"I'm 40 years old, not 20, 30."

When asked directly if he said he might not be back until midseason or next season, Bonds answered, "Maybe. I told you that before I left, remember? You thought I was joking."

Conte said Bonds went through a "normal rehab six days out of surgery" on Tuesday and that his knee looked as expected.

"I expect he'll progress as knee patients go," the trainer said, offering no prediction of when Bonds might be able to play again.

The seven-time NL MVP, who returned to spring camp on crutches Tuesday following last week's surgery, made his remarks while sitting at a picnic table outside the Giants' clubhouse with his 15-year-old son, Nikolai, at his side.

While Bonds was defiant and confrontational during his first press conference of the spring on Feb. 22, he was despondent Tuesday, using the word "tired" 14 times during his approximate 10-minute session.

“ You wanted me to jump off the bridge, I finally have jumped. You wanted to bring me down, you've finally brought me and my family down. Finally done it. From everybody, all of you. So now go pick a different person. ”
— Barry Bonds

"I really don't have much to say anymore," Bonds said. "My son and I just going to enjoy life. My family's tired. You guys [the media] wanted to hurt me bad enough, you finally got there.

"You wanted me to jump off the bridge, I finally have jumped. You wanted to bring me down, you've finally brought me and my family down. Finally done it. From everybody, all of you. So now go pick a different person. I'm done. Do the best I can, that's about it."

When asked if there was something specific he was talking about, Bonds said, "Inner hurt, physical, mentally. Done. I'm mentally drained. I'm tired of my kids crying. Tired."

Bonds had his latest surgery last Thursday in the Bay Area. Though the Giants have not set a timetable for his return, Conte has said it's unlikely he'll be ready for Opening Day.

Teammate Moises Alou, who has had five surgeries, said Bonds probably was just having a bad day.

"Maybe today he was not very optimistic. I think it was one of those rehab days where you just caught him on one of the bad days," Alou said. "It's not fun when you come to the ballpark, then have to go to the training room to get taped and get treatment.

"It's not as fun as when you are young and wild and doing things, especially when you are the man."

Bonds begins the season third on the career homers list with 703, trailing Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755)

[Fairwrning]

hmmm..i know he had surgery but do ya think the steroid investigation has anything to do with this??

[blueturk]

HELL YES!!!!


"Bonds always has maintained a tough veneer in the face of criticism, wrenching personal loss, even the 18-month-old federal steroids investigation, in which he is a central figure. That veneer disappeared Tuesday, two days after The Chronicle reported that a former girlfriend was called before the grand jury to testify about what Bonds allegedly told her about steroid use and money she said he had given her to buy a house."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/22/bonds22.TMP

[Bill Lumbergh]

All the Bonds haters are touching themselves right now.........I can just see turk at the store right now buying some lube, a San Francisco Chronicle Balco article, and a giants sized dildo. Have a good time , dude!

[Sammy Who??]

i hope barry bonds gets hit by a car!

[blueturk]

Originally posted by Bill Lumbergh
All the Bonds haters are touching themselves right now.........I can just see turk at the store right now buying some lube, a San Francisco Chronicle Balco article, and a giants sized dildo. Have a good time , dude!

Damn, you whine almost as much as your hero. Don't panic, asshole.I'd be willing to lay money that this is a prima donna crock of shit and Bonds plays at least part of the season. As for giant-sized dildos, I'd say your ass must be pretty loose after all these years of defending this fucking asshole and getting fucked over by him again and again.

[Joe Mannix]

Fuck him, and his bad attitude
that shit he said today he can sit & spin all year for all i care i hope hank keeps the record & this fucker gets exposed finally in balco.

[Warham]

Originally posted by Bill Lumbergh
All the Bonds haters are touching themselves right now.........I can just see turk at the store right now buying some lube, a San Francisco Chronicle Balco article, and a giants sized dildo. Have a good time , dude!

All the greats broke down after or near the age of 40. He'll be no different, especially since steroids usually speed up the process. That is, if he took them.

He's still human.

[Sarge]

He won't miss the entire season.. the guy is too much of a egomaniac to do that..

[DlocRoth]

Originally posted by Sarge
He won't miss the entire season.. the guy is too much of a egomaniac to do that..

Yup, he'll play.

He'll play 115 games.

[academic punk]

But he's TIRED. Of you, and you, and you, and you, and especially YOU.

(if you saw this "interview", you might find this hysterical.)

If he had nothing to hide, maybe he wouldn't feel so tired.

[Carmine]

Originally posted by academic punk
But he's TIRED. Of you, and you, and you, and you, and especially YOU.

(if you saw this "interview", you might find this hysterical.)

If he had nothing to hide, maybe he wouldn't feel so tired.


I saw that on Sportcenter this am....was kinda funny.

Take that, Pedro Gomez!! LOL

[vanzilla]

I've had the misfortune of dealing with this guy 3 years ago. I was in Cali becaue the Titans were playing the Raiders on a Sunday in Oaktown. Just so happened the Giants were playing that Saturday. My co-worker and I were able to score some press passes for the game. We decided to do a quick story on Bonds since we were able to get credentials - keep in mind this was the year he ended up breaking the record.

During the game - he hits a homer. Afterwards, we're in the locker room and of course - that's all anyone wants to talk about.

Listen - If I were in his shoes - I could see where he'd get tired of all of the attention from it. But c'mon man - you're making history. As Mezro would say - don't dance around the fire bitch - embrace it.

We end up waiting an hour on this d-bag. When he finally decides to field some questions - you would've thought we were asking him to fucking do our laundry. Completely put off by it. Acted like everyone was retarded for asking very legit questions. Called one guy out, then stormed out of the locker room after the guy apologized to him.

Man - this guy is a total dick. What's more amazing - I asked a couple of the local sports dudes, and even the Giants media relations guy if he's always like this. They told me this was a good day. Usually he doesn't talk, and if he does it's two hours after a game.

Fuck Bonds and his steroid infested ass.

Earth to Barry - you get paid millions of dollars to play a child's game. You made history for breaking the single season home run record. You never have to worry about money again.
What's so wrong with your life? If you're that bothered by the big bad media beating up on you why don't you get some counseling - or here's a thought - STOP TREATING THEM LIKE ASSHOLES SO THEY DON'T HAVE A REASON TO TALK SHIT ABOUT YOU.

I've talked to a million pro atheletes. Even when I run into one that's not the best interview, I don't make a practice of making him out to be an asshole. You don't want to talk to me - fine - no problem. But don't say I'm picking on you JUST BECAUSE I'M DOING MY JOB.

Barry is the prime example of prima donna. Shit - he needs to be the next singer of VH. I think he and Ed have the same personality.

SORRY - DIDN'T MEAN TO GO OFF ON A RANT!

[academic punk]

Wait, you mean someone allegedly on steroids has a short temper and displays hostility?

Never!

[vanzilla]

Originally posted by academic punk
Wait, you mean someone allegedly on steroids has a short temper and displays hostility?

Never!


I know - It's hard to believe.;)

Don't know if any of you caught The Daily Show on Wednesday. Lewis Black did a great bit on the congressional steroid hearings. At the end he says something to the extent of"

"You know, growing up my heroes were Mickey Mantel, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron. You know what they had in common - they were all drunks! - The took performance hindering substances and still made the game great!!!"

- Anyway - I'm not doing Lew's set justice - but catch tonight's repeat at 10:30 CT on Comedy Central - some funny shit!:D

[academic punk]

Originally posted by vanzilla
I know - It's hard to believe.;)

Don't know if any of you caught The Daily Show on Wednesday. Lewis Black did a great bit on the congressional steroid hearings. At the end he says something to the extent of"

"You know, growing up my heroes were Mickey Mantel, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron. You know what they had in common - they were all drunks! - The took performance hindering substances and still made the game great!!!"

- Anyway - I'm not doing Lew's set justice - but catch tonight's repeat at 10:30 CT on Comedy Central - some funny shit!:D

I caught that! Not usually a big fan of his segments, but that was a great!

[Va Beach VH Fan]

BOO-FUCKING-HOO....

You reap what you sow, Barry Lamar Bonds....

He treats everyone around him like dog shit, including fans, teammates, and the media.... Vanzilla's post hit it right on the head as a prime example....

He reportedly tells the Grand Jury that he used the clear/cream, but he [wink, wink] didn't know they were steroids....

At a time when he's getting ready to break one of the most hallowed records in not only baseball, but all of sports history....

And NOW we're supposed to feel sorry for this guy ??

"I've finally jumped off of the bridge"...

BOO-FUCKING-HOO.....

[Bill Lumbergh]

I love all the hate...........keep it coming bitches! It doesnt take away the joy of watching Barry perform for the last 12 years in SF.

[Warham]

As long as he retires before he breaks Aaron's record, I'll be happy.

[Matt White]

Bonds was an ASSHOLE in Pitts, and continued his ways in SF. Fuck 'EM. He dosen't even register any more. Old news. His day in the sun has passed.

[vanzilla]

Originally posted by Bill Lumbergh
I love all the hate...........keep it coming bitches! It doesnt take away the joy of watching Barry perform for the last 12 years in SF.

I agree totally Bill. He's fun as hell to watch, I don't care if he's juiced or not. I just wish he didn't have this me against the world mentality. He's a great player that's a shoe in for the hall, but unfortunately his attitude will tarnish his legacy.

It's kind of like listening to Eddie in the old days. Sure he's an asshole now, but his CVH catalog is still fine ear candy.

[academic punk]

Originally posted by vanzilla
I know - It's hard to believe.;)

Don't know if any of you caught The Daily Show on Wednesday. Lewis Black did a great bit on the congressional steroid hearings. At the end he says something to the extent of"

"You know, growing up my heroes were Mickey Mantel, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron. You know what they had in common - they were all drunks! - The took performance hindering substances and still made the game great!!!"

- Anyway - I'm not doing Lew's set justice - but catch tonight's repeat at 10:30 CT on Comedy Central - some funny shit!:D

Van -

did you catch the daily show last night? they actaulyl showed the bonds press conference! It was funny...Jon Stewart "apologized" for "making" Bonds do steroids and have an extra-marital affair. It was great (then again, the segment, thanks to Barry, basically wrote itself!)!

[vanzilla]

No AP I didn't get to catch it last night. I was in Memphis watching Vandy get their ass kicked by the Tigers in the NIT. I'll check it out tonight on the 10:30 rerun. Sounds funny as hell! Thanks for the tip!

[Bill Lumbergh]

Originally posted by Matt White
Bonds was an ASSHOLE in Pitts, and continued his ways in SF. Fuck 'EM. He dosen't even register any more. Old news. His day in the sun has passed.

Who gives as shit if he's an asshole or not........he musta turned you down for a little after hours "batting practice" session or something Matty.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Originally posted by Bill Lumbergh
I love all the hate...........keep it coming bitches! It doesnt take away the joy of watching Barry perform for the last 12 years in SF.

I don't hate the guy Bill.... He's been a helluva a player since he started with my Buccos in '86....

But the bottom line is that he's been rude, unappreciative, and condescending towards everyone around him his entire career...

And now that's he's presumably caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and the press is doing their job questioning it, he's acting is if those same people should feel sorry for him....

Not me...

[blueturk]

The media might be the least of Bond's problems.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/24/BAGFIBU2D11.DTL


Prison yard, not ball yard for Bonds?
Joan Ryan

Thursday, March 24, 2005

From my seat in SBC Park, Barry Bonds has always looked eight feet tall at home plate. When he steps into the batter's box, even the wind and the seagulls seem to stop in their tracks. He is baseball's Paul Bunyan, performing feats our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will barely believe.

I have been trying to reconcile that image with the tired, defeated, bitter man on crutches who kept repeating during a press conference Tuesday in Scottsdale, Ariz., "I'm done. I'm done.''

But there is another image that keeps coming to mind as elements of the federal investigation of Barry Bonds continue to be made public: This swaggering, larger-than-life superman sitting on the edge of cot in a prison cell.

This is the elephant in the room, the topic that so far has been pointedly avoided in discussions about Bonds: He could do time -- not for using steroids or even tax evasion but possibly for lying to federal agents and the grand jury.

We need look no further back than last year to find another icon -- Martha Stewart -- who, through hubris and arrogance, landed in jail for five months. Remember, she wasn't nailed for insider trading, which was the focus of the original investigation. She went away for lying about it to the FBI. The investigation into Bonds seems to be pointing in the same direction.

"The coverup is usually what gets people,'' said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, "not the actual offense. But people think they can get away with it.''

Defense attorney Doron Weinberg, who handles white-collar crimes, said the best advice any attorney can give a client is not to lie. "If you take the Fifth (Amendment not to incriminate oneself), fine,'' he said. "But (the feds' position is) don't lie to us. If you lie to us, we'll go after you. Dishonesty takes conduct to the next level. It shows a failure to respect the system.''

If the feds are willing to put a 62-year-old homemaking maven in prison for lying to them, they surely could do the same to baseball's home-run king if they make their case. I'm no lawyer, but there seems to be a growing mountain of circumstantial evidence suggesting Bonds wasn't telling the whole truth when he said he did not knowingly use steroids, such as:

-- Victor Conte, owner of BALCO, allegedly told FBI agents during a raid in 2003 that he provided Bonds with steroids, a statement Conte later denied making.

-- Greg Anderson, Bonds' personal trainer, was captured on tape in 2003 talking about Bonds' use of an undetectable performance-enhancing drug.

-- Bonds' name was on a "calendar and a schedule'' seized at Anderson's home that allegedly tracked steroid regimens.

-- Other ballplayers, including Jason Giambi, testified they obtained steroids from Anderson through Bonds' recommendation.

-- Bonds' ex-girlfriend told the grand jury he talked about using steroids.

-- Congress declined to call Bonds to testify at last week's steroid hearing because he apparently is still under federal investigation.

Did prosecutors have this much evidence against Scott Peterson?

There is another parallel to Martha: Bonds comes across as so arrogant and condescending, so cocksure of his own special status, that the buzz in legal and baseball circles is that investigators are, shall we say, energized to prove their case. His sense of entitlement -- accepted without challenge by his sycophants, underlings and even employers -- apparently doesn't go over so well with the men and women with federal badges in their coat pockets.

For his entire life, Bonds has been allowed to live by a separate set of rules. With the Giants, he occupies three lockers and has his own recliner and television. He doesn't show up for team pictures. He dismisses advice from team trainers and team doctors. Maybe he figured even the rules of law wouldn't apply to him, either. And maybe he figured -- and who could blame him? -- that because he always wins, because he faces down opponents and the media and the pressure better than anyone who ever picked up a ball, he could win at anything, including a legal battle with the feds.

But this superiority might be exactly what brings him down.

After Martha Stewart was convicted, John Whitney, co-author of "Power Plays: Shakespeare's Lessons in Leadership,'' was asked about the spectacle. His answer could just as well have applied to Bonds.

"Hubris is her fatal flaw,'' he said. "It's a tragedy of Greek proportions. You're seeing the destruction of an icon, and it's sad. It's in the same context as Lear and Othello, the destruction of a human being. We've had the play written out for us while the whole world has been watching.''

Indeed, Bonds seemed like a destroyed man during his press conference Tuesday. As much as his words suggested defeat, they also illustrated another facet of hubris: the astounding disconnect between his actions and his perception of his actions -- about who, in the end, is the agent of his downfall.

In his mind, apparently, the problem isn't that he had a nine-year affair through two marriages. It is that the media aired and printed the mistress' story after verifying its accuracy. The problem isn't that he got himself embroiled in a federal investigation into illegal steroid use -- or possibly using steroids to help him hit a record 73 home runs -- but that the media have aired and printed the details. The media, not he, have caused all the pain he and his family are now suffering.

"We ARE responsible in a way,'' said Joe Russoniello, former U.S. attorney and now dean of the San Francisco Law School. "We fill the stadiums. We encourage owners to wrap these superstars in bubble-wrap. As long as they keep filling the seats, they'll be provided lawyers, accountants, whatever they need.

"It creates a false sense of security, that they are immune. That's not just wrong, it's dangerous. It encourages the arrogance and bizarre behavior like the attack on the media (Tuesday). It's a rationalization: 'They're all out to get me.' ''

The penalty for personal possession of steroids, a misdemeanor, is usually probation. Bonds was assured if he told the truth to the grand jury, he would not face even that. Maybe his legal troubles would be over now if he had answered differently at the grand jury. Maybe he did indeed tell the whole the truth, as he maintains, and the feds are simply out to get him.

In any case, his life has been changed irrevocably. He is no longer the same man who stood eight feet tall at home plate. Martha Stewart, unlike Bonds, never seemed bowed by her legal troubles, not for a moment. But she seemed, in the end, to have emerged from her ordeal a more likable person. She seemed to have discovered, while she was in prison, that she was human after all, a bit more like the rest of us than she had been led to believe.

It's impossible to ignore the possibility that Bonds could go to jail. As distasteful as Bonds can be, I hold dear my images of him in full swing, his eyes watching the ball sail over the right-field wall. I don't want those pictures replaced with this one: The greatest baseball player of my generation, and perhaps any generation, in prison blues, mingling in a high-fenced yard with embezzlers and frauds.

[Bob_R]

Originally posted by Warham
As long as he retires before he breaks Aaron's record, I'll be happy.

As long as he retires before he breaks Ruth's HR total, I'll be happy.