They’ve given $126 million to Barry Zito, but the coming weeks will really show us what the San Francisco Giants are made of.
They have a chance to make a statement, to stand up for what’s right. To preserve the integrity of Hank Aaron and what little Major League Baseball has left.
What do they need to do? Nothing.
That’s right, cut off negotiations with Barry Bonds. Issue a statement that the club is beginning a youth movement and has decided to go in a new direction. Then watch with delight as no team in the league picks him up and the steroids era meets its bitter (if only symbolic) end.
Okay, that’s wishful thinking. It take serious cojones to bid adieu to any franchise player - much less a man that has spent 14 years with the team, won countless awards, obliterated records and surpassed all but one on the all-time home run list.
It seems insane to walk away from their one-year, $16 million verbal deal with Bonds now, with him needing just 22 home runs to pass Hank Aaron and become baseball’s all-time home run king. But would anyone be upset? Does anyone argue it would be better for San Francisco?
Granted, I live 3,000 miles away from McCovey Cove. Perhaps there are half a dozen Bonds sympathizers lurking somewhere, or casual fans who just want to witness the record being broken. But I speak for the majority of fans when in saying I hope this contemptible prima donna never plays again.
When Bonds missed all but the final weeks of the 2005 season, I prayed that was it. I let myself believed that the game dodged a bullet. But he made his way back, and now it’s up to the Giants to pull the plug on a career that is perhaps the game’s most accomplished - and definitely its most heartbreaking.
Seriously. This is a gift - a chance to bail without shame. The Giants could blame it on Bonds’ failed drug test, after it was revealed last week that during the ‘06 season, the lefty tested positive for amphetamines. Or, they could cite the high injury risk he poses. Or the circus effect. Or the fact that there are far better uses for $16 million, even in this inflated market.
There’s also, you know, the perjury charge he’s being investigated for. In the BALCO case, dating back to the grand jury in 2003. Really, whatever route they want to take, it’s there. Just do it. Please.
Because if the Giants let Bonds go, there’s no way another team signs him. No one will cough up the kind of money he wants, agree to play him in left field, or want to deal with the headaches. He’ll be forced to retire and end his career on the most sour note imaginable - appropriate, given his unquestioned place as one of the most boorish, abrasive and disgraceful figures in sports history.
San Francisco - and any other team contemplating signing Bonds for a box office boost in the event he hits the open market - needs to consider its place in history. Hank Aaron earned his place in history and should hold the sport’s most cherished record until he’s surpassed by someone worthy.
The all-time home-run king can’t be a joke. He just can’t. We’ve already seen the demise of Roger Maris‘ single-season record 61 to Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. Legends of the game shouldn’t have their records broken by individuals who changed their bodies with the aid of illegal, performance-enhancing substances. Not any longer.
If the events of last week are any indication, the writers might be able to keep Bonds out of the Baseball Hall of Fame. But records matter, too, and the all-time home-run mark will be his if the Giants don’t walk away. Bonds’ name won’t be expunged from the history books. It all comes down to you, San Francisco. Do what’s right. Do it for all of us.
