Barry Bonds: Time To Confess?

[The Brain]

I hope I have my facts straight with this thread. Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t believe Barry Bonds has ever tested positive for or ever admitted to using any kind of performance enhancing drugs. To say there is a strong suspicion that he did would be a massive understatement. A few years ago Bonds was the number one villain in baseball. He never did have the most charming personality but the hatred for Bonds mostly came from him breaking so many sacred MLB records in what most people suspected were not honest or honorable ways. Since retiring from the game in 2007 Bonds naturally has not been in the spotlight nearly as much as he once was. He’s still been in the news from time to time but for the most part he has disappeared. I’m wondering if now might be the right time for Bonds to finally come clean and confess to using PEDs during his playing days. That is of course assuming he did, and for the purpose of this thread I will assume that.

There is a new number one villain in Major League Baseball in Alex Rodriguez. He makes Bonds look like a choir boy and I think the fans’ hatred for A Rod is much greater than it ever was for Bonds. This is not only due to his PED usage but his constant denial and backpedaling when confronted. His stories are ridiculously inconsistent and if he expects us to believe him he comes off as much more stupid than naïve. Either he is really stupid or he thinks we are.

Maybe Bonds can capitalize on everyone’s hatred toward A Rod. I think most baseball fans accept the ugly truth that PED use was very high in baseball for about a 15-20 year period. They want to move on and are willing to forgive the players that used, but in order to forgive we must first receive an apology. Fans seem to be very forgiving of those that admit their mistakes and are sorry for them. Guys like Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi have been forgiven and it’s almost forgotten they were ever involved with PEDs in the first place. Meanwhile guys like Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa have fallen off the face of the Earth and are most known as steroid abusers. It may very well be too little too late for the fans to ever forgive Bonds, but if Bonds can at least make himself look good while A Rod continues to make a fool of himself maybe some will forgive him simply because there is a bigger enemy to hate.

I don’t know what consequences Bonds would face if he admitted to using PEDs. His career is over so it’s not like he can be suspended. Pettitte and Giambi confessed while they were still in the middle of their careers. Maybe confessing years after retiring will make Bonds look cowardly. Also I try to only follow baseball on the field, not in the courtroom. I don’t know what Bonds has said in court and if saying something different now could land him in hot water with a judge far tougher than Bud Selig. I think it may behoove Bonds to confess his baseball sins now provided he doesn’t land in serious legal trouble by doing so.

Bonds’ reputation is what it is. He got 36 % of the HOF vote last year and while that number is ridiculously low for a player with his numbers and achievements it is high enough to assume that he can reach induction within 15 years. There are some great first ballot names coming up over the next several years so it will be easy for the writers to continue to overlook the steroid guys. A confession and sincere apology from Bonds may help speed up his induction. That might be difficult since Bonds isn’t the most sincere guy in the world. That’s ok though. He doesn’t have to be Cal Ripken Jr. He just has to look better than Alex Rodriguez. That shouldn’t be too hard.

 

[LSN80]

He's really hamstrung on this one.

Were Bonds to confess, he'ld have to admit he perjured himself on the stand, which would then open himself up to criminal liability. If he wants to come clean in hopes of a HOF induction, he'ld have to wait until the statute of limitations on perjury ran out before he could do so, lest he risk jail time and the ridicule of millions.

Further, the HOF voters aren't going to let an admitted cheater in. The game has been compromised enough by the BALCO scandals and now A-Rod and BioGenesis down in Florida, so even if Bonds admitted, apologized and came clean, they're not going to let him in. He's not getting in now solely because the voters are pretty sure he juiced. As Brain said, the numbers are rediculously there that he should be a first-ballot on numbers alone. What other reason could there be?

If Bonds came clean, they'ld shut him out completelely. His best bet for a HOF induction is to stay quiet, if he can live with that on his conscience, which I'm sure he can. He's done so for so long, he may as well stay the course, and hope that as time passes, the HOF committee will look at the stats alone. I've said it before, begrudgingly so, that stats should be their only criteria. There are plenty of terrible human beings occupying Hall of Fames in all 4 major sports.

 

[Mustang Sally]

The only reason I can think of for a miserable bastard like Barry "Do I Stutter?" Bonds to confess is if he's got a biography in the works and wants to stimulate sales by having his publicists make it known that the book contains an admission of guilt.

Thankfully, I don't know this SOB personally, but my feeling is he doesn't give a tin shit about people and could care less about 'fessin' up. He wanted to gain more physical power to hit home runs.....and wanted to make gobs of money.....and he accomplished both, by fair means or foul. I don't know if he even gives a damn about making the Hall of Fame, but the idea of a ballplayer who would ignore teammates who speak to him in the clubhouse makes it hard to believe he'd be interested in giving fans some closure on his career by telling them the truth about his steroid use.