Bonds is my Elvis

It is amazing how much of an impact a memory can have on one's views and opinions. Some people choose to remember a person as the way they were at one moment in life. For example, Ricky Bobby chose to remember Jesus as a baby. There was even a debate as to which Elvis ("Young Elvis" or "Old Elvis") the country should honor on a stamp. The country chose to remember the Elvis that set Rock 'n Roll ablaze with swiveling hips, deep bass rifts, and charming movie star looks. The nation thankfully chose to forget about the Elvis that became bloated on fame, fortune and pills. I choose the Bonds that still had not become bloated on fame, fortune, and pills. Just as the nation chose the younger version of Elvis, I choose to remember the younger Barry Bonds. I choose the Bonds that was the best Pirates player during my youth and dominated most games I saw at Three Rivers.

In my mind Bonds splashed onto the scene when he led off a 1987 game against the Mets' ultra-talented flamethrower Doc Gooden with a homerun. I was seven years old, listening Lanny Fraterre command the ball "Go, ball, Get out of here" over the radio waves as I waited in the car as my mom shopped in K-mart. I was content to turn the game off after the blast and join her inside. I knew we had the game in the bag. Later I would learn that statement is true, as long as it is not a playoff game.

Bonds was clearly my favorite player growing up. Cal Ripken ran a close second. How about that for contrast? One is a pompous, arrogant, egotistical jerk, and the other just wants to treat the game and everyone associated with the game with respect. I tried to collect all of Bonds' baseball cards until the evil card company conclave, that decided baseball cards were collectables and no longer for kids, ran me out of collecting as it ran its profit margins through the roof. My mom was kind enough to wait in a three hour line to get Bonds to sign a ball for me during the former annual event where all pirate players signed autographs for free one off day. When she got to the front of the line, the jerk wouldn't even look at her, or anyone of the fans who approached him. I guess I should have realized what scum I was following when he left the Pirates for the Giants and had the nerve to say it wasn't about money, and then quickly took shots at Pittsburgh. I kept on believing, however, all the way through their 2002 World Series run.

Bonds surely would have made the hall of fame before he started on his steroids kick. Since empirical proof has yet to surface, it is tough to say when Bonds first started using performance enhancing drugs. He's been quoted as saying he deserved the praise McGuire and Sosa got during their 1998 HR campaign, so I will use 1999 as the first season he was on the juice. Prior to '99 Bonds had amassed 411 HR, 445 SB, 3 MVPs, 8 All-star appearances, 7 Silver slugger awards and 8 gold gloves in only 12 seasons. He became the only player in baseball history to achieve 400 HR/400 SB in a career. He flat out dominated. There are men in the Hall of Fame with lesser resumes than Bonds had through 1998.

The Pre-1999 Bonds is still the best player to ever play the game in my eyes. Yet he threw it all away because no one recognized his achievements the way they did McGuire's. Had he been more polite to the press, heck, to anybody, he most likely would have received the accolades he felt he deserved. He most likely would not have been left off of the MLB All-Century team in 1999. He surely would not have passed Babe Ruth for homeruns in a season, let alone a career, but he still would become the charter member of the 500/500 club. He probably would have made more than the almost $173 million in salary he has made to this point. Most importantly, he would have been viewed as the best player to have taken a Major League Baseball field by all.

Often just one moment that can define someone. Many say your first impression is so important because people will make up their mind about you within eight seconds of meeting you. Barry Zito recently cashed in a contract to the total tune of $126 million dollars for a season he pitched 3 years ago, not his efforts of the previous three seasons. Elvis Presley will forever be known as the king of rock 'n roll for his youthful rock-a-billy songs, and not for his latter day performances filled with ballads and slurred, if not forgotten, lyrics. Unlike those two, Barry Bonds will be remembered by the public for his enhanced bulging body and head and not for the player he was previously. Thanks to a lead-off homerun off of Doc Gooden, I find it difficult to remember him as anything but the five tool force he was while here in Pittsburgh.