Barry Bonds chatted with Jim Gray on MSNBC’s “Countdown” last night, telling the Pete Rose-baiter that he’ll not attend his Cooperstown induction if the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Mueseum chooses to display the no. 756 HR ball with an asterisk. From the AP :
œI won™t go. I won™t be part of it, Bonds said in an interview with MSNBC that aired Thursday night. œYou can call me, but I won™t be there.”
The ball Bonds hit for home run No. 756 this season will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Hall. Fashion designer Marc Ecko (above) bought the ball in an online auction and set up a Web site for fans to vote on its fate. In late September, he announced fans voted to send the ball to Cooperstown with an asterisk.
Bonds has called Ecko œan idiot.
œI don™t think you can put an asterisk in the game of baseball, and I don™t think that the Hall of Fame can accept an asterisk, Bonds said. œYou cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history. You can™t do it. There™s no such thing as an asterisk in baseball.
What if the Hall goes through with the asterisk display?
œI will never be in the Hall of Fame. Never, Bonds said. œBarry Bonds will not be there.
œThat™s my emotions now. That™s how I feel now. When I decide to retire five years from now, we™ll see where they are at that moment, he added. œWe™ll see where they are at that time, and maybe I™ll reconsider. But it™s their position and where their position will be will be the determination of what my decision will be at that time.
Given the prevailing mood surrounding Bonds, it might be a tad presumptous for Barry to presume he’ll be inducted. Given the amount of warmth and goodwill he brings to most proceedings, a threat to boycott Cooperstown is a tad curious — for the Hall, that might seem like a pretty good deal.
Bonds fails to recognize the Hall Of Fame wasn’t responsible for defacing the ball — though they could’ve pre-empted this discussion by telling Ecko they had no intention of accepting an altered baseball prior to his launching the online poll.
Had Bonds chosen to pay off the guy in the Jose Reyes tee, however, he’d be holding all the cards. Though it isn’t my place to tell an unemployed man how to spend his savings.
“There’s no such thing as an asterisk in baseball.â€
Did Barry Bonds almost quote A League of Their Own?
I hope Barry decides instead to sign autographs down the street at some bed & breakfast or bat/hat shop in Cooperstown the day of his inauguration.
This would require Barry to interact with real live human beings and the ensuing follies would make great YouTube fodder.
Bonds has a point, tho, in that allowing baseball history to be written by Internet fan sites is lame (unless he means my posts …). It’s too important. It needs to be written by writers of stature like Jay Mariotti, Bruce Jenkins, and Jim Rome.
Let’s see how many players need *s when the Mitchell report names more players. Singling out Bonds won’t be the issue after that.
Ben
amazingly, Ben, your remarks echo the comments of Mike Golic this morning, almost word for word.
Well, except for the dissing Rome and Mariotti part.
Does that mean I’m dumber than you thought or smarter than you thought?
Pete Rose’s saga has more important and irreconcilable differences to Bonds’ plight than similarities, I think.
I become a bigger Bonds fan with each new conundrum the man, his accomplishments, and his documented and leaked methods introduce to both this story and “the legacy.” Even the loudest and lamest Bonds crucifiers should get the point here. Eventually. I hope.
Prediction: The HOF will take the ball, Bonds’ admission to same will one day be mutually refused, JT the Brick, Jim Rome and all else continue to wax volcanic on this subject for as long as the government gathers labor statistics.
Not to stray off-topic–and admittedly I’ve never been–but I believe the institution of baseball’s hall of fame should change its name to something other than “hall of fame”, as there are plenty of famous baseball players and baseball-related happenings not enshrined, and a fair amout of obscurities who are.