Video: Henderson, Fennelly On Bonds

Barry Bonds has been trying to be more agreeable lately (if you can overlook the Home Run Derby snub). In TV interviews he is actually smiling at times and he has been magnanimous about Hank Aaron and Commissioner Bud Selig.

I’m guessing his agent or someone close to him recommended this strategy, and it is well played. He seems to be generating some support, if not outright sympathy, from the public. Players supported him at the All-Star Game and a brief sample of local radio callers could best be summed up this way: What has he done that is so terrible?

So, let’s go through this again, class.

Steroid use, of which Bonds is widely (cough) suspected, cuts to the heart of the game’s integrity. Stop laughing. There are some folks who still cling to the quaint notion that putting chemicals in your body to pump you up to size of Godzilla is a bad thing, espeically when kids are watching. If one kid picks up a syringe because he thinks it will give him a leg (or bicep) up on making millions, that’s all the justification needed to heap scorn upon the man and the moment.

The argument that Bonds and others like him aren’t hurting anyone is absurd. When we start to justify such behavior on that basis, the game is over.

He isn’t the only one suspected of steroid use, of course - just look at the damage that has been done to the Tour de France, and even pro wrestling (as if you could actually damage that industry) by association with steroids and the like. But Bonds is about to break a hallowed record, and regardless what some might argue, the way he got to this point matters greatly.