Baseball Musings: Bonds Speaks, II

February 23, 2005

Bonds Speaks, II

SFGate.com has the transcript of Barry Bonds' press conference. It's worth the read, since you'll get information that's left out of the media stories. Two things struck me as very interesting:

The problem with me, my dad told me before he passed away, he said, "The biggest problem with you, Barry is that every great athlete that has gone on for great records, everyone knows their story. People have made hundreds of millions of dollars off their stories with them and protected them. Nobody knows you and they are pissed off."

It's a very insightful statement by the late Bobby Bonds. If Barry had cultivated the press over the years, this story might be going very differently. But Barry has chosen to live in a cocoon, and he keeps people out by being unlikeable.

The other interesting part was about his knee surgery:

Q. In your pursuit of Ruth's record, how do you feel about coming to play -- with the knee surgery, getting prepared, how is that going to delay you?
Bonds: That's the part that I'm afraid of more. See, my legs have always been the strongest thing on my body. The work ethics that I use with my legs, that's my power and my entire drive. It's always been my legs. This, you know, your hands are just -- use your hands to hit, but I need that drive.

And you know, I'm going to have to work a lot harder. I'm going to have to work a lot harder this year than I ever -- I had two surgeries, in three months. It's going to be really hard because, I mean, at 40, I mean, I go in the gym, I work out, but unfortunately it's not staying as long sometimes. It's like my legs don't feel as strong. I feel strong for two or three days, but it's starting to go away faster, you know what I mean. So I'm having to do some of this -- I'm having to do more of the same things constantly, but that's what I was doing last year. That's why I have a team of people around me to keep me doing those things, forcing me to do legs that I would normally want to do once, you know -- maybe once a week that they are making me do three times a week, because, "Barry, you are getting older and if you want to maintain your strength, you're going to have to do it more often."

I'm wondering how much pitchers will challenge Bonds this season. If the knees are bad, if the legs are going, maybe the power's down a bit. Bonds will still have the good eye, but will he be able to generate the power? How much will fear of what he might do (rather than what he can do) effect how teams pitch to him? If his intentional walk totals go down, we'll know teams believe they've found a weakness.

Posted by David Pinto at 09:54 AM | Interviews | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Admittedly, I don't read the Giants newspapers or blogs, but this post is the first piece I have seen that actually talks about Bonds and the state of his game. Thanks David.

Posted by: Tom G at February 23, 2005 12:43 PM

He needs to take some steroids so he gets stronger. Oh wait . . . that's right. While he is 40 and that is a fine excuse, maybe his lack of 'roids is finally breaking his body down.

Just a thought . . .

Posted by: Bob at February 23, 2005 01:31 PM

It is infuriating that reporters are asking questions about "Ruth's record". For one, it's wrong, and blatantly so. For another, it simply supports Barry's argument that he (and Aaron, as an extension) gets different treatment from white players.

Posted by: John at February 23, 2005 02:28 PM

I'd be more sympathetic to this argument if BB himself hadn't publicly suggested that he might stop after passing Ruth's total. He made it an issue, and people are going to bring it up, even now when it's obvious that he's going to pass Aaron barring sudden injury or retirement.

Posted by: M. Scott Eiland at February 23, 2005 09:43 PM

The press sure doesn't work hard to make Barry's decision his whole career to keep them at arm's length look unreasonable, do they?

Posted by: NBarnes at February 23, 2005 09:48 PM

It'd be funny if the lost power, combined with increased willingness to pitch to him, resulted in Bonds accomplishing something that might generate publicity that dwarfs anything that he's done before--hitting over .400. The writers basically downplayed his 73 homers as less exciting than Mac's 70, but if he ends up being the one to succeed Williams to the magic number at age 40, there won't be enough superlatives to describe the moment.

Posted by: M. Scott Eiland at February 23, 2005 09:52 PM

M. Scott, if that's the case, then my problem is more with the incorrect use of "record" by the media. They should say "Ruth's total" or something like that. Aaron gets ZERO credit for being the record holder, IMHO.

Posted by: John at February 24, 2005 10:29 AM

I don't think that's fair, John. I've seen Aaron quoted any number of times about the implications of Bonds breaking his record (including the steroid issue), and they've even done a rather amusing TV ad together about it (with Bad Henry whispering "it's time, Barry--retire" into the PA system while BB takes batting practice until BB tells him to knock it off). You've made a good case that the media is committing grammar misdeameanors, but I don't believe that HA is being slighted here.

Posted by: M. Scott Eiland at February 24, 2005 12:17 PM

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