March 8, 2006
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The Daily News
All are Punished.
1 So…Gordon Parks walks into a bar…
2 As does Barry Bonds’ shot at immortality.
3 Say it ain’t so.
4 The sad things about the Bonds steroid scandal is that we all wanted to believe that this monster was not lying about using performance-enhancing drugs.
5 I wanted to believe him when he said that some people just work out hard, and when he adamantly denied using.
6 A whole bunch of us wanted to believe that fairy tale.
7 He had his dad right there through his career. He was surrounded by such greats as Mays, McCovey, and Alou.
8 And now, that has all come crashing down. At this point, only an idiot would honor this man.
9 I was one of his biggest supporters, and it is tough to look at someone you once respected as a lying, drug-taking cheater. But I don’t know what else to say.
10 What’s sad is what it has done to the game, of what it has done to young athletes who feel that the only way to compete is by injecting foreign things into your body.
11 What’s sad is going to be watching this pathetic man fall apart in the next five years.
12 Barry, you looked better in the dress. Maybe you oughta just go through THAT change, and go into witness protection. You’re going to need it.
13 You lied to all of us.
14 But we all bought into it. We all turned our heads when monsters like you, Magwire, Sosa, Cancseco, et al began smashing home runs into the sea.
15 We all turned our heads when young boys began desperately trying to build themselves up, and when they saw that to succeed, and to be adored, you needed the body of the Hulk.
16 Too bad steroids couldn’t build honesty, a clean body, and a sense of honor.
17 Barry, I agree with Mark Purdy. It’s time for you to smack a few more home runs, and leave the game.
18 And to the rest of us, it’s time we all woke up and realized that our silence, our support, our blind allegiance to this Game of Shadows, has also directly caused every sport around to remain suspect.
19 And I wonder why I walked out on baseball last year.
20 Pretty painful stuff.
21 As an educator, I am especially appalled at what this has done to young, impressionable athletes, who may still be using these drugs that could literally cripple them in later life.
22 Nice work, Barry.
23 And nice work, all of us, for putting our heads in the sand.
24 All are punished.
25 All are punsihed.
26 ‘Til the next time…
~H~
