Two years after calling Barry Bonds a ‘roid abuser, former Cubs/Mets reliever Turk Wendell is entitled to feel as snug as his trousers are surely snug. From the Daily Herald’s Barry Rozner.
œThere were a lot of guys like that. That was Sammy (Sosa) last year. How many homers did he hit with extra power in his body? Now, it™s on the warning track.™™
Wendell (above) has no physical proof or evidence, but he says it didn™t take a summer of Sosa™s misery for Wendell to be convinced that Sosa and others, like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, enhanced their performance pharmaceutically.
œC™mon. Of course. There are so many guys who did and it™s all going to come out,™™ said Wendell, Sosa™s teammate on the Cubs from 1992-97.
œHere™s a guy (Sosa) who goes from 30 homers to 60 homers every year, and just as fast he™s out of baseball. Can™t get a job. How™s that work?
œBaseball people know this is going to get worse and nobody wants anything to do with the guys who were on the stuff.
œWe would sit there in the clubhouse and laugh. How™s a guy gain 30 pounds of solid muscle in three months (over the winter)? It™s physically impossible without the juice.™™
Wendell said he has received a lot of calls seeking comment on Bonds in the past few weeks, but up until now he hasn™t responded. He says he doesn™t see it as vindication because he never meant to stir up things in the first place.
œI didn™t know it would be in the paper, so it wasn™t like I stood up on a soapbox and said, ˜I™m sick and tired of all this,™ but that™s how it came out,™™ Wendell said. œWhen it was done, I couldn™t do anything about it, but I really didn™t care.
œNobody was mad at me except Bonds. I was surprised so many guys came up and said, ˜Dude, it™s about time someone had the guts to say it.™
œThat™s not how it happened. It™s not how I intended it, but what™s done is done.™™
Months later, the two met by happenstance in a ballpark weight room, Wendell said, and Bonds cursed at Wendell and challenged him to come say it to his face.
So, Wendell said, he walked over to Bonds and said it again.
œI told him that it™s his problem, not mine, and that he™s the one who™s going to have to answer these questions every day for the rest of his life, not me,™™ Wendell said. œEveryone in the weight room got real close to us, but nothing happened. He didn™t really have anything to say, and I left.™™