I suppose that’s low-hanging fruit. Alas. Point is that Barry Bonds was back in San Francisco yesterday for the reunion of the Giants 2000 team/celebration of ten years of that nice ballpark they have. He hasn’t done much media lately because someone who is indicted on perjury charges is well-advised to never say anything to anyone, but he did give the press six minutes of his time. Highlights, such as they were:
- Bonds had some nice words for Mark McGwire: “I’m proud of what he did. I’m happy for him.” From the video of the interview you can tell he’'s talking about becoming a hitting coach, but you just know people are going to take that as Bonds saying he was proud of McGwire for confessing to using roids.
- Indeed, the next question from a reporter was asking Bonds if he could see himself “doing what Mark did,” and then quickly appending " . . . becoming a coach” in a way that made it seem clear that the reporter was aware of the ambiguity between apologizing/coaching. Bonds winced a bit until that “becoming a coach” part was added. You can tell he thought he was being asked if he was going to apologize. Just kind of interesting to watch.
- Bonds said that he wasn’t retired yet and wasn’t sure what he’d do in the unlikely event that a team called him. Seems to be that he was just being PR mindful about the subject, however. Rich Aurilia had just announced his retirement at the same event, Bonds probably knew it, so there’s no way that he was going to stomp on that with some announcement, formal or otherwise, of his own. Bonds can be a jerk, but he’s not so big a jerk that he’s going to rain on a former teammates’s parade. My guess is that he just ends up doing it Rickey-style and never saying he’s retired because, really, what’s the point?
- The quote in the headline came when it was noted that he was in shape. The full quote is fun for any of you who love to hate Bonds: “I’ve just been working out a lot, that’s all. I work out all the time. It’s been in my genes my whole life. I just don’t work out as hard anymore. I don’t lift as heavy weights anymore to be bulky. I don’t know, I’ve got that Hollywood look.”
Fire away.