Barry Bonds was known as a surly bastard by the media when he played. Some of it was the media grinding an axe and some of it was Barry’s handling of the press. The combination usually made for BS answers from Bonds if he felt like talking at all. Now that he’s out of baseball and hanging out in Hollywood Barry’s a changed man. Look at him talking to the paparazzi about Dancing With the Stars, playing again, and dealing with the media as a former player.

Barry Bonds was a normal-sized, media-friendly member of the Pittsburgh Pirates before he became the face of MLB’s steroid era. In 1991 the Pirates took a trip to Buffalo to face their Triple A affiliate Buffalo Bisons, and to have a home run derby. Barry steals the show with his bat and his mouth.

2:03 Barry prophetizes his career.
4:55 Barry compares his “Guns” with Joey Meyer.
5:15 Barry hits one off the center field scoreboard.
5:35 Barry explains how well he hit the home run.

That muthafucka was smoked. Wasn’t it? That shit was still going that wall fuckin’ fucked it up. That thing was on it’s way back to New York City.

Baseballs come from New York City? I didn’t know that. Whether it’s true or not this is the greatest Barry Bond quote of all-time.

• Barry Bonds’ trainer Greg Anderson caught on tape discussing steroids and Barry Bonds

The government is going after Barry Bonds like he’s the Pablo Escobar of the Steroid Era, and they’re latest evidence sounds like a bombshell. The Feds have tape of Barry Bonds’ trainer and non-rat Greg Anderson talking to former Barry Bonds buddy and full-blown vermin Steve Hoskins about the ins and outs of steroid use and why they’ll never get caught.

ESPN played the audio on SportsCenter and they’ve posted the transcript at the dot com. There’s some question as to how much of this recording (if any) will be allowed in court, but Bonds’ already crappy public perception is gonna take a big hit.

Listen to the phone call here:

First Greg Anderson explains to Steve Hoskins how to properly inject the steroids so you can avoid those pesky cysts.

Anderson: No, what happens is, they put too much in one area, and what it does, it’ll, it’ll actually ball up and puddle. And what happens is, it actually will eat away and make an indentation. And it’s a cyst. It makes a big [expletive] cyst. And you have to drain it. Oh yeah, it’s gnarly … Hi Benito … oh it’s gnarly.

Hoskins: He said his [expletive] went … that’s why he has to, he had to switch off of one cheek to the other. Is that why Barry’s didn’t do it in one spot, and you didn’t just let him do it one time?

Anderson: Oh no. I never. I never just go there. I move it all over the place.

After talking about how to properly inject the ‘roids, and saying whaddup to Benito, Anderson goes on to mention how Marion Jones and ‘em were getting away with juicing at the Olympics.

Anderson: … everything that I’ve been doing at this point, it’s all undetectable.

Hoskins: Right.

Anderson: See, the stuff that I have … we created it. And you can’t, you can’t buy it anywhere. You can’t get it anywhere else. But, you can take it the day of and pee …

Hoskins: Uh-huh.

Anderson: And it come up with nothing.

Hoskins: Isn’t that the same [expletive] that Marion Jones and them were using?

Anderson: Yeah, same stuff, the same stuff that worked at the Olympics.

Hoskins: Right, right.

Anderson: And they test them every [expletive] week.

Hoskins: Every week. Right, right.

Anderson: So that’s why I know it works. So that’s why I’m not even trippin’. So that’s cool.

The only thing I can say is bye-bye Barry.

Barry Bonds believes he can still contribute to a Major League Baseball team, and I agree with him if he’s willing to split time at DH. But since no team is gonna sign Barry Bonds (Is it collusion?) it doesn’t matter if he can still hit or not.

It looks like Bonds can see the writing on the wall and as a lot of people do when they retire, he’s picked up a hobby. Forget golfing, fishing, or backgammon. Barry’s packin’ a custom made 300 ultra mag and hunting Canadian Whitetail.

I know when you read Barry Bonds is hunting Canadian Whitetail you expected to see Bonds in a club pushing up on white women. Not this time. You have to go to this site to see the conclusion of Barry Bonds’ hunting trip. I’m guessing that he took the deer down, making that the only way he’s gonna see big bucks this offseason.

• The Players’ Association says owners acted in concert against Barry Bonds after 2007 season

As first reported by Murray Chass, the Major League Baseball Players’ Association claims to have evidence that team owners acted in concert to keep Barry Bonds out of baseball after the 2007 season.

The MLBPA won’t immediately file a grievance because of an arrangement reached with the Commissioner’s Office.From ESPN.com:

“We have the agreement about the timing of a potential grievance,” Weiner said. “Our investigation revealed a violation of the Basic Agreement. It’s a violation of the Basic Agreement related to Barry Bonds and free agency.”

Weiner said the section that had been violated was Article XX (e) of the collective bargaining agreement, which states, in part: “Players shall not act in concert with other players and clubs shall not act in concert with other clubs.” Weiner would not say how long the agreement runs to allow the union to file a grievance.

When I read that the filing of the grievance was being delayed I assumed it was because baseball didn’t want to deal with this problem during the World Series. Murray Chass offers this insight:

When it believes it has a case, the union doesn’t usually delay filing a grievance. Considering its history with collusion and the fact that Bonds is a high-profile player, it would seem more likely that the union would act as quickly as possible.

In this instance, though, the union is waiting, a baseball official said, for Bonds to get beyond the trial he faces on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from his grand jury testimony in the Balco case.

Barry Bonds isn’t scheduled to go to court until March 2, 2009. By then he’ll have missed an entire season, and the ’09 spring training in addition to being 44 years old. Bonds might get a little money if the MLBPA proceeds with and wins the grievance but he’s never suiting up for a major league team again.

The San Francisco Giants held a pregame ceremony in honor of their best outfielders and as rumored, Barry Bonds showed up to participate. The crowd gave Barry a standing ovation proving that there’s at least one city where Bonds isn’t hated.

At the end of Barry’s speech (2:01-2:37) he says “I’m not retired“. I hate to be the one to break it to Barry but he’s retired. He might want to play, and could probably still put in work, but Major League Baseball has decided not to let Bonds get near a baseball field unless it’s to be part of some sort of reunion. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t see the difference between Barry Bonds cheating and guys like Rick Ankiel, Troy Glaus, Miguel Tejada, Andy Pettitte, Jason Giambi, Ivan Rodriguez, Paul Byrd, Gary Sheffield, Brian Roberts, and Gary Matthews jr. cheating.

Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants, video, youtube

Barry Bonds is spending his time away from baseball posing for pictures with Gavin Maloof, supporting Barack Obama, and being stalked by Jim Gray. I can only assume Gray is trying to snuggle up to Bonds since Ric Bucher stole Kobe Bryant from him. Somebody might wanna let Jim know that Barry’s not playing anymore.

Barry Bonds, Jim Gray, Barack Obama, baseball, youtube

If you can get past the bad quality of the vid you get a chance to see Tim Donaghy and Barry Bonds team up to rip-off Michael Vick and Pacman Jones. It’s hard to tell who’s dog came out on top since the dog’s are invisible, but once Barry broke out the bat it didn’t matter. Good to see Bonds and Donaghy are still earning a living even though they’re not working.

Michael Vick, Pacman Jones, Tim Donaghy, Barry Bonds, dogfighting, video, youtube, utube

George Mitchell’s steroid investigation findings are the other shoe waiting to drop. Everybody knows it’s coming, but nobody knows when. Names are supposedly gonna be revealed, so MLB’s gonna have to figure out a way to sweep the report under a rug before next season. Hopefully Bud Selig has been taking notes from David Stern on how to handle a potentially league crippling scandal.

During the course of the investigation George Mitchell has tried to talk to anyone he felt could give some insight into performance enhancing drug usage in Major League Baseball. The only player he has spoken with is Jason Giambi, and that’ only because pressure was applied to Giambi. With the lack of available people to question, the Mitchell investigators turned to people formerly associated with the game.

Larry Starr was the head trainer for the Cincinnati Reds from 1972 to 1992 and for the Florida Marlins from 1993 to 2002. He has been interviewed by lawyers involved in the investigation 4 times over the past year and a half, but has stated numerous times that he will not reveal the names of any players he knows to have used PEDs. That hasn’t stopped the lawyers from asking.

He said throughout their conversations — which included a face-to-face meeting in the summer of 2006 in which Gordon and another lawyer traveled to Florida — Gordon would throw out the names of players and ask if they had used drugs.

Starr said Gordon asked about “the obvious ones,” including Barry Bonds, and about other players as well.

“I think Sheffield’s name probably came up, and to be honest, I said while he was with me there was nothing I saw,” said Starr in reference to Gary Sheffield, who played for the Marlins from 1993 to 1998.

I’m not surprised that they asked about Barry, he’s been the trophy the whole time, but this caught me off guard:

“They asked me if Rose used drugs,” Starr said. “His name did come up; I am not sure why, other than I had him as a player. Anyone that knows Pete knows he didn’t use steroids.”

The Mitchell investigation wants to know if Pete Rose used steroids? I guess Pete Rose, the all time hit king, being banned from the game isn’t enough. They need to let Charlie Hustle breathe. And how far back did the investigation go? I don’t need the Mitchell report to tell me Jackie Robinson and Stan Musial never used the cream and the clear.

Former Trainer Provides Insight Into the Mitchell Steroid Investigation. Courtesy of The New York Times

Tags: Steroids, Performance Enhancing Drugs, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, New York Times

“(When) I was chasing the (home run) record, it was all about a man of color. Now when Barry was chasing the record, it was all about steroids, and I really didn’t want to be involved in that. It wasn’t because I had any animosity toward Barry breaking the record.”

I’m sure the people that want Hank to be against Barry Bonds will spin this some way, but it sounds pretty clear to me. Henry Aaron will talk baseball, just not steroids.

Aaron OK with Bonds, just not steroids questions. Courtesy of USA Today

More Barry Bonds:

Barry’s Gon Knock It Out

Barry Bonds Not Always A Douchebag

Poll: Racial Polls Are Dumb

Tags: Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Steroids, Home Runs, Controversy