Why Yes, It Has Been a While

Oh hey there happy blog readers! This baby has been on hiatus for a while since there haven't been any Browns games and...well, spring training is boring and unless the beat the Heat as they did last night, nobody wants to write abou the Cavaliers. But I have been writing for the Columbia Daily Spectator  and doing a few posts on their Spectrum blog. I wrote a column yesterday that I felt could go on this here blog too about Barry Bonds and how I think he definitely lied when he said he didn't knowingly take steroids.

So enjoy the subsequent column. I think I'll be back with my predictions for the Indians season tomorrow as opening day is on Friday! (Can you believe it?)

~MAS
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In the last few weeks, I’ve done two posts for Spectrum’s new series, “An Athlete’s Diet.” Basically, these posts detail how athletes eat throughout the day in order to perform their best at their given sport. In interviewing the two athletes, football left tackle Jeff Adams and wrestler Eren Civan, and subsequently writing the posts, I’ve realized how little thought I give to what I put into my body each day. Obviously, since I’m not an athlete, it isn’t nearly as big of an issue for me, but it shows the level of commitment that these athletes must have. Participating in a sport is not just about the performance you give when there are fans on gameday—it’s the preparation, the little things you do when no one else is watching, that makes a victory sweet.

That being said, the controversy surrounding Barry Bonds is ridiculous to me. He is currently involved in a perjury trial, accused of falsely testifying to the 2003 grand jury of the BALCO case that he did not knowingly take steroids. Based on what I’ve learned in recent weeks about Ivy athletes’ eating habits, how am I supposed to believe that a Major League Baseball player had no idea what was going into his body? The whole principle of it is ludicrous.

I’m not going to tell you about how guys like Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, and Rafael Palmeiro ruined the game by taking steroids. In fact, in many ways I’m very glad they took steroids because it led to some amazing performances. All the home runs and strikeouts energized a sport whose fan base had been decimated by the 1994 players’ strike. The 1998 home run race between McGwire and Sosa is a distinctive memory in my early childhood. I remember playing wiffle ball with my friends and trying to imitate Sosa’s trademark jump after he hit a home run. I also remember pretending to be Clemens when pitching. These players of the late ‘90s and early 2000s were vital to baseball’s revitalization.

Bonds was an absolutely essential part of this. The tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001 struck just as he was closing in on McGwire’s 1998 record of 70 home runs. Of course Bonds would go on to surpass McGwire’s mark by three, and in the process he provided a very welcome distraction from an American disaster in the form of an American triumph. To me, the image of Bonds touching home plate pointing to the sky with the American flag patch on his back after hitting his 70th home run is iconic. And I will never forget staying up late the summer of 2007 to watch Bonds hit an opposite-field home run to tie Hank Aaron’s career home run record of 755. I truly think that Bonds was one of the main players that helped to save baseball—even if he did cheat.

Now, all nostalgia aside, my problem with Bonds is that he’s a liar. I know we have innocent until proven guilty in this country, and I am not saying that Bonds does not deserve his due process of the law, but let’s be real for a second. Is the American public actually supposed to believe that a professional athlete just lets people shoot him up full of things and he doesn’t know what they are? Really? I mean, even when I’m in the doctors office for a vaccination shot I ask the nurse exactly what she’s going to give me. If I don’t ask, how am I to know if this is something that’s actually good for me?

I can break this down even further. Think back to middle school when you were eating lunch with someone else and that person wanted to trade food with you. If you see what that kid is offering and you don’t recognize it straight away, what’s the first thing that comes out of your mouth?

“What is that?”

Exactly.

Now this could be your best friend or your worst enemy, the question will remain the same—it’s what any logical person does. I mean, what if the food has peanuts and you’re allergic to it? Are you really going to believe someone if he says, “Trust me, it’s going to be great for you,” and not ask any more questions? I don’t think there’s that much trust in the world—especially if you’re a multi-millionaire who makes his living by hitting a baseball with a bat.

So as I think back to Jeff Adams and Eren Civan and the meticulous detail they use when discerning what to eat and what not to eat, it pushes my belief even further that Bonds has been trying to play us all for fools since 2003. If Columbia’s athletes can take me through their daily schedule and tell me precisely what they eat at a given time, I’m sure a Major League Baseball player on a multi-million dollar salary can do the exact same thing.

You may have some people fooled, Barry, but I see right through you.