second vibe: 715

Monday, May 29, 2006

715

We have a problem. The problem is, we don't have a clue what to do with 715. We shrug. We blink. We move on. We fail to rise from our seats. We fail to cheer. There isn't much to care about. Not when 715 defines Barry Bonds.

Meanwhile the moment is gone. Our reactions are well past the moment of 715. Let the brickbats continue.

Patrick Hruby of ESPN Page 2 recently came up with 616, the number of home runs Barry would have hit had he remained Barry and not a BALCO product from the laboratories of Victor Conte. Well, now we have a number, give and take a few, but still nowhere close to Babe. Babe is safe. We feel better.

715 is not a milestone. It is just another step towards the Hall of Shame.

Because Barry is a cheater. So we have been told and told pretty convincingly. Even for a skeptic, the platform of trust becomes shaky;Malcolm Gladwell sharing his thoughts, on "Game of Shadows",

"When the book first came out, and several baseball writers predicted that Bonds’ reputation was destroyed and his chances are getting in the Hall of Fame seriously damaged, I thought they were overstating things. Now I’m not so sure. “Game of Shadows” is a death sentence for Bonds. More to the point, it’s impossible to read the book and accept that Bonds has a right either to the single season home-run record or, assuming he keeps playing, the career home run mark."

We have been fed a story. Nonstop. Without a break. From everywhere, every corner, every street, every lane and from every house. We cannot but believe it. Somewhere in the continuum, allegations became the truth. And the truth, whatever it is, yet to be found.

We believed the story, because we wanted to. Patience for truth is not our virtue when it comes to Barry Bonds because Barry's a threat to Babe. No, we never wanted Barry to come even close, and him going past Babe was our worst nightmare. Steroids or no steroids.

Because Barry is a jerk. We know, we've seen him being a jerk. We never liked that chap. He's obnoxious. He stinks. He is not fair. The steroids injected reasonable doubts in us. He's now dirty. The appreciation, if ever there was any, turned into disgust.

We asked for a "rat", we got Jose Canseco. We asked for proof, we got a book. So take him down. And we did.

A job well done. Let's now talk about who's next.

Labels: Sports