November 14, 2007

Is Barry Bonds a Fallen Hero?


One of the top sports stories of 2007 will be Barry Bonds breaking the all-time home-run record. However, a bigger story is likely to be the 4-count indictment of Barry Bonds for perjury and obstruction of justice. Bonds is facing many years of imprisonment if the government case is strong enough. You be the judge. Villagers are encouraged to download or read the indictment yourself.

Click here for copy of Barry Bonds indictment

What do you think? Should his baseball records be erased? Should there be an asterisk next to his records? Should his records be left alone? Are there any Barry Bonds' fans outside of the San Francisco area?

8 comments:

Derrick said...

Ummm, a fallen hero for steriod cheats I guess.

Bohemian Chick said...

I'm not really a big baseball fan, but I will say that his records should stand. He's not the only athlete that doped up. Mark McGwire comes to mind.

Derrick said...

But Hank Aaron didn't, and his was the greatest record that Bonds stole. Aaron is the real home run King - no diggity, no doubt.

Let's stop defending this cretin just because he's black.

"Wrong is wrong no matter who does it" - Malcolm X

Unknown said...

Yobachi - Wrong is wrong, no doubt. And it appears that Barry may have done wrong by lying to the grand jury. However, Barry never tested positive for steroids that were illegal in baseball. Neither did Sammy Sosa or Mark McGwire. As such, all of their records should be left in the books. The reality is that we will always place our own personal asterisk next to the records ... as I did with Babe Ruth's record since he hit them when baseball was segregated and as such he never faced some of the best pitchers in the country who were playing Negro League ball.

BHC - I tend to agree with you.

Dan Hanosh said...

You know we live in two different worlds . . . A war is going on and were destroying a man for a failure of society . . . Look around, everyone takes the performance enhancer, everyone believes in righteousness don't they . . . Right. I'm not throwing a stone, we all live in glass houses, we just don't know it . . . And so he will go to jail, for what? Being the best in his field . . . We should be upset, upset that these fakes are pointing fingers at everyone . . . Dreams are yours to share. Dan

Dreams are yours to share

Unknown said...

Dan - Thank you for sharing your village voice with us. I heard today that the average grand jury is in business for 30 days ... yet, this Bonds' grand jury was in place for almost four years. It seems like the gov't had a bug up their butt to get Barry Bonds at all costs.

Chuck Gallagher said...

So just how important is it to tell the truth?

As a motivational speaker, I was recently speaking to a group of high school students about the importance of telling the truth and making the right choices. What qualified me to make this presentation - personal experience…perhaps one of the best teachers in life. Having spent time in Federal prison for making unethical decisions, I know first hand the impact that choices have in our life. I am not proud of those decisions, but, likewise, refuse to hide the fact that I made them and that the impact they had on my life were - well - life changing.

The post in the WSJ Blog states: “Bonds joins a line of individuals stretching from Alger Hiss to Martha Stewart to Scooter Libby to who were indicted not for commiting an underlying crime, but for lying to investigators. Each time this happens, critics argue that a perjury prosecution is nothing more than an excuse for overzealous prosecutors to bring a headline-grabbing case against a boldfaced name. On the other hand, in pursuing such well-known figures, the feds hope to send a message to the meek and mighty alike: Don’t lie.”

I couldn’t agree more. Whether Bonds is convicted like Martha Stewart or not…the fact remains that the consequences of lying can have dramatic, life-changing effects. Take it from one who knows, “Club Fed” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s prison and no one I know wants to be there.

I routinely speak to business groups and associations on ethics, choices, consequences and their total effect. Every choice has a consequence - and the sooner we recognize that telling the truth is a choice the quicker we control the type of consequences we face. I personally perfer ”positive results” from the choices I make.

Unknown said...

Chuck - Thank you very much for sharing your village voice with us. Your point about choices is so important for each of us to remember on a daily basis. I hope you will visit our village often!