There’s been some talk on the street that the A’s might be interested in signing Barroid Bonds as a replacement DH for Frank Thomas, now that the Big Hurt has signed a silly deal to go break his ankle on Toronto’s concrete playing surface for like a gazillion bucks and a truckload of rebar.
Well please hear these words: If that happens, all mention of the A’s, whether they be in Oakland, Fremont or Peoria, will cease on this site.
There’ll be no little Oakland logo at the top. There’ll be no mention of A’s news. There’ll be no talk of former Vancouver players and how they’re doing in The Show. It will all cease, right there and then, and will not return.
I can take a lot of stabs to my baseball heart. I took it with a smile when the C’s went from AAA to short-season rookie ball. I have no issue with the A’s moving to Fremont, since the city of Oakland (the fifth most dangerous city in America, according to recent stats) puts them on the level of a Scientology bake sale in terms of civic importance. I watched Mulder and Hudson and Tejada leave, and will do so again with Zito, and I shrug, understanding that it’s the lot of a small market team for such things to happen. I watched Ron Washington stupidly abandoned, allowing Texas to offer him the manager job that he so deserved, while Billy Beane hired his BFF to take the A’s managerial position, even with a range of other great options out there.
All that stuff is fine. Whatever. You buy the ticket, you take the ride. But I won’t put up with Barry Bonds in white cleats. Can’t do it. Won’t do it. If the A’s have that little respect for the integrity of the game, they’ve lost me, and may not get me back.
Reasons why after the fold:
1) Barroid is the biggest cheat the game has ever known. Other steroid cheats have apologized for their actions (cough*Giambi*cough) or retired in semi-disgrace (Boone, Sosa, McGwire), but Bonds continues to pursue a record he has no business being within six miles of - the last pure record left - and if he were to break it while an A, well I’d just have to puke.
2) Barroid doesn’t run out flyballs, and doesn’t chase outfield balls. He’s like Benji Molina pulling tractor tires out there - and not because he can’t run. He just doesn’t feel like he should have to.
3) He’s a prick of the highest (or should that be lowest) order. I don’t want that schissebag anywhere near the famously congenial A’s clubhouse, and I certainly don’t want him (and his ‘trainers’) anywhere near the rookies.
4) I’ve spent the last few years spitting on the floor whenever I see a jackass Giants fan worshipping this asshole - to me, Giants fans who will overlook what a dirtbag Barroid is just because he was hitting homeruns for them, are the worst examples of classless human beings, and I’m not alone in that characterization. Character counts more than homeruns, at least it does in my book, and the thought of A’s fans bowing to Barroid as he breaks a homerun record (another one) just chills me to the core.
So there you have it. Thanks to JLaff at AN for the stolen image above, and thanks to the dugout for putting into a few pictures and a few words exactly why any team who takes this pig of a man deserves unlimited scorn.
Oakland has an opportunity here to do what the Texas Rangers have done - say that Barry Bonds will never darken their door. Of course, the Rangers also got Ron Washington, so they’re going to be a step in front of the A’s no matter what, but at least the A’s can follow their lead in the integrity stakes.
If they fail to do so… well, that’s my limit. I’ll continue to follow the Vancouver Canadians with a passion, but MLB baseball will be dead to me. Fair warning.
6 users commented in " A word of caution for the Oakland Athletics "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackTo be completely honest, nobody is going to give a sh*t if you stop writting about the A’s, there are a lot of other websites that dedicate themselves to the A’s.
Second, you’re acting like Barry is the only person to use steriods and that’s where all of his homeruns came from (NOT TRUE) he used them yes, is the the only one? NO, BUT, he is the most successful homerun hitter to have never tested positive to sterioids, never admitted to using them, and even if he did, SO WHAT? You have any idea how many minor leagues have passed through the Vancouver Canadians clubhouse and been either juiced at the time, or before, or after???? A TON. FURTHERMORE……. you talk of Javier Herrerra being so damn good and it was a mistake and so on……… BULL. He knew exactly what he was doing, and still you give him praise for being so good. How good do you think he’d be if he never used them??? Probably still a very skilled player, but not one to be hitting balls between the flag polls in left-center field during a night game off a guy throwing 80poo. And still you give him praise, but not Barry Bonds because he’s had too much success.
What if Javier makes it to the big leagues and one day challenges Bonds record?? Will he be a cheat and a ball-hair licking piece of sh*t like you say Bonds is?? Or will he be a kid that you would like to believe never took anything other than that one time he got caught??? BULL, he’ll have the money to get the Juice that there is no test for yet, like HGH is right now, and maybe we’ll be arguing about this 20 years from now with another name instead of Bonds.
Steriods don’t make the ball slow down. Pitchers can still strike bonds out, Bonds can still fly-out, ground-out, walk, get picked-off just like any other player, but sometimes (more often than not) he connects and IT’S GONE!!!
Don’t be jealous that he’s great, so what if he’s juiced, everybody else has had the same opportunity he has had to do it and a ton have done it. We’ve let murderer’s, rapists, gay’s, drug-addicts, perverts, psycho’s, guys that beat there wives continue to play the game, but not a guy that’s used steriods? Give me a goddamn break.
OZ man,I’m with you.
I have no problem with the Fremont move at all. None.
I was unhappy about Geren getting the nod over — well anyone else really.
I am upset that Big Frank is leaving, though the numbers probably don’t add up for the A’s to sign him.
Zito leaving is more upsetting, but not surprising.
But Bonds, with the A’s would end it for me as well. That’s it. Instantly.
I don’t want to dwell on this though, because if it doesn’t happen, then it was time wasted thinking about something very unpleasant. And if it does happen, then I’m already … gone
Answering both comments - first, WGAFAQ.
Look, dude, I’m not singing Herrera’s praises like he can do no wrong. For mine, any ballplayer who puts something in his system that he doesn’t know is 100% clean is a moron. Is Herrera a moron? Absolutely. But I’m prepared to give him benefit of the doubt for one infraction as a minor player, moreso because he’s not someone for whom English is a first language, so I can see where an error could occur - maybe.
That certainly doesn’t mean he gets a break from here on, especially if it happens again. In fact, if you did a little digging on this site you’d see I’ve been damning a guy called David Castillo for several seasons now. Castillo is a catcher who hasn’t got above AA ball yet, but has been busted for steroids THREE TIMES so far. What he’s doing still in organized ball is beyond me.
As far as Bonds goes, the fact that you claim I’m “jealous” of Bonds tells me everything I need to know, Giants fan. You mentioned other people have done steroids before, and that’s true. But here’s how I look at it - you’ve got guys that break the rules and should be punished for doing so (if it was up to me, they’d be booted from the game for life), and you’ve got guys that go the extra mile and break the rules so much, so often, and to such great effect that they cause Senate enquiries to be launched.
In ‘murderer’ terms, every murderer is a scumbag and deserves to be punished. But serial killers have a special place in hell.
In the world of steroid abuse, Bonds is the ’serial killer’ equivalent, and I won’t ever watch an A’s game where he’s involved, unless he’s an opponent I can yell obscenities at.
To Jakarta, I hear ya, man. If the A’s aren’t going to sign Bonds, and aren’t interested in doing so, then this is all moot. But to me, it’s such an important issue, that I’d much rather be heard ahead of time and maybe, just maybe, help sway Beane from signing him (along with thousands of other outraged fans) than stay quiet and see him walk out there in white cleats.
Keep on readin’!
Response to the David Castillo bit……
I agree that what he did was wrong, the thing that doesn’t sit right with me is that the NEW baseball Performance Enhancing Drug Policy is flawed beyond belief. Before you call my bluff, hear me out………1. They can tell if you took a substance they have a test for…”YES”. 2. If you test positive, there is no way to tell if your next test (which could be one week after the first positive) is showing a decrease in the substance suggesting you have not taken any and it’s just taking time to get out of your system and leaving the player with another positive test. 3. There are some substances that will leave a trace in your system for up to and including a year, so why do some players like Castillo get tested every 2 months and players like the previously stated Herrera get tested only once???? Seems kind of fishy to me.
Until baseball has the technology to test if a substance is decreasing in the body over time or increasing or staying the same they should not be allowed to give multiple tests in a season resulting is positives because they don’t know if it’s just the first positive’s residue still in the body, or a whole new chemical. Which to me sounds just utterly rediculous, “hey, you tested positive for this, we’ll try again tomorrow but if it’s still there, then that’s another positive, after that we’ll give you a week and if it’s still there, you’re out of baseball; BUT, somebody else could get that one test, be positive and not get tested again all year. Either do it every three weeks to every player or don’t f*$#(ing do it. It’s a waste of time and just a band-aid put over the huge cut steriod abuse has caused in MLB and MiLB!
Come on now, WGAFAQ, we all know that when a player gets a positive reading, it takes weeks for it to be announced (usually after a second test to be sure the first was right). In the majors, it takes MONTHS.
So if a player registers as positive again, that happens months after the first test, the announcement, and any subsequent suspension has happened. In Castillo’s case, his positives were over seasons, not a matter of weeks.
I’m certain that part of any suspension for steroids there’s follow-up testing, be it for Herrera or Castillo or (I can but dream) guys like Bonds, Giambi, Palmeiro, MgGwire etc.
One thing that can’t be denied is that steroids screw up the integrity of the game, and Barroid Bonds has been their biggest user/promoter/financier/advancer over the past five years. He’s filth.
I agree with the Castillo comments you made, but like I said, SOME OIL BASED and SOME WATER BASED STERIODS CAN AND DO STAY IN THE BODY FOR UP TO AND OVER A YEAR. It will take a couple weeks for a test to come back positive, the player can then sit his 50 games, come back, play 100 more games, test positive again at the end of the season, come back for spring training and test again, ALL WITHOUT taking anymore steriods, and LIKE I SAID, there is no way to show how much is in, if it’s on its way out the body, or if it’s more than before. So you can’t deny that fact.
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