San Francisco turned out en mass for hometown hero Barry Bonds yesterday to commemorate his career home run mark. Putting on his best face, Bonds thanked the city, his family, and Giants ownership for their support. (story at SI.com) He failed to thank BALCO.
Barry Bonds basked in hometown adulation Friday during a celebration where he received the key to the city and heard not a mention of the steroid controversy that has dogged his pursuit of the all-time home run record.
Bonds was joined on stage by family, teammates, politicians and Giants greats Willie McCovey and Willie Mays. The sometimes prickly slugger smiled broadly as he thanked his parents, Mayor Gavin Newsom, team owner Peter Magowan and especially the Giants faithful.
"Love was giving me that strength," Bonds said. "You the fans, the city of San Francisco -- that is why I'm the player I am today." (Is love a new anabolic?)
The evil media. determined to dwell on the negative. reported Bay Area comments on the steroids controversy surrounding Bonds the past few years:
With throngs in Giants black-and-orange cheering their hero, the lovefest differed sharply from the scathing insults heaped on Bonds at rival ballparks before his unprecedented 756th career home run Aug. 7. Across the country, Bonds has faced detractors wielding placards inscribed with asterisks -- baseball-fan shorthand for the belief that his record is hopelessly tainted by allegations of steroid abuse.
"Everybody in San Francisco is afraid to say anything bad about Barry," said Stephen Quirk, 33, a San Francisco resident originally from Boston who still roots for the Red Sox. "If you go to any other city, it's like the complete opposite."
In San Francisco on Friday, there wasn't an asterisk in sight.
But even among Bonds supporters in the crowd, an undercurrent of disenchantment was in evidence -- if not with the record-holder himself, then with a league plagued for years with suspicions of widespread performance-enhancing drug abuse.
"Even the pitchers were most likely doing it. Therefore I think the record stands," said Art Gomez, 36, of Sacramento who was in town with his three kids, including a young son he described as a big Bonds fan.
Excuses and rationalizations. Fans worry about Bonds' influence on kids. From this interview, sounds like the kids are thinking ahead of the parents.
Larry Pagel of Oshkosh, Wis., and his two sons came to observe the festivities as part of their vacation in San Francisco. Each was decked out in Milwaukee Brewers regalia in anticipation of Friday night's game against the Giants. But they didn't all share the same opinion of Bonds.
"I think it's just a major accomplishment no matter what anybody thinks," Pagel said of Bonds' record-breaking shot. "If he took [steroids], look at all the other people who probably took them that need an asterisk. It's still a human body hitting a home run ball."
But Pagel's son Tanner, 12, wasn't so sure Bonds could serve as a good role model for himself and his friends. The record books should probably carry a disclaimer next to Bonds' name, he said, adding "people don't just gain muscles like that."
If a 12 year-old can understand physiology that well, there just might be hope for the world...Was Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson at the ceremony? In the city where BALCO flourished, Anderson rots in jail for not giving up testimony on Bonds' PED use.
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