WASHINGTON, July 22, 2007
Barry Bonds Is No Hero
Bob Schieffer Says The Soon-To-Be Home Run King Would Need To Do A Lot More To Be A Hero
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Schieffer: Bonds Is No Hero
"Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer says San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds, the soon-to-be home run king, is no Hank Aaron.
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San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds sits on the bench during a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers Saturday, July 21, 2007, in Milwaukee. (AP)
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Hounding "The Hammer"
Follow Barry Bonds' pursuit of Hank "The Hammer" Aaron's home run record.
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Barry Bonds
Follow the career of the embattled baseball star
Americans love our sports, and we love our sports stars. And we love to keep score: who got the most hits; who ran the fastest mile; who ate the most hot dogs, for that matter.
Yet, when Barry Bonds breaks the most famous record of all in the next week or so – Hank Aaron's home run record that has stood for more than three decades – many Americans won't cheer at all. They'll wish he hadn't been the one who did it.
Bonds is booed every place he plays except his home park in San Francisco. First because he is widely believed to be a cheat who used illegal drugs to increase his strength. Second because he is a self-centered, all-around jerk who sees no responsibility to the fans who pay his enormous salary.
It's too bad, really. We want our heroes to be good guys, but maybe we need jerks like Bonds from time to time to remind us what real heroes are – and they are not just people who have mastered a difficult physical feat.
For sure, hitting home runs is hard to do. But, so is standing on your thumb which hardly qualifies thumb standers to be heroes.
We admired Hank Aaron for hitting the home runs, but what made him an inspiration to others was the way he overcame adversity in order to set that record. The homers were just part of his greatness.
Real heroes are not just athletes. In fact, most of them are not: the firemen who gave their lives to save the innocent on 9/11; the soldiers who go into the streets of Baghdad day after day; parents who adopt handicapped children.
Heroes are those who set the examples we teach our kids to follow.
Barry Bonds is no hero. He is just a guy who hits home runs. Who would want a kid to be like him?
By Bob Schieffer
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See all 57 CommentsMy son is a beautiful addition to our family, and he truly lights up our lives. We are followers of Christ, and we are simply expanding our family in a way that we believe God has led us.
I appreciate the compliment, but find it really rather excessive. Lee
Thank you for speaking with the voice that reflects the feelings of so many of us who are appalled by the controversy of the situation with the home run record. I have always admired you with the greatest respect. Indeed real heros are not just athletes. Sometimes they are TV news program anchors.
I agree, Barry Bonds might be a good baseball player but he certainly is no hero!
You don't deserve that title unless you have earned it --cheating, lack of morals, lack of humanity, lack of ethics, & even if you reach your goal-you certainly have not earned it.
Look around us at alot of our everyday people--- folks that do great deeds, extraordinary things, that are fair & honest, good, decent people that work hard,individuals that volunteer & help their community & its people, that save lives, & mostly our troops----they are our real heros !!!!
I was so happy to see you comment today on the Bonds issue! How can the public take Bonds breaking the upcoming Major league record seriously? In my mind this record will remain and belong to Hank Aaron!
The ethics and morals have been tossed aside for great wealth and how a competitor can live with themselves living out a lie is beyond many of us!
Chuck
Stillwater Montana
When someone like Bonds comes along it's the black "community" that triumphs. Now before you all get a rope for my neck all I ask is that they read their own newspapers, black columnists and listen to black radio/tv newscasts.
I honestly believe most black folks see color as much or more then any white person does.
With all do respect no one needs you to be judge, jury, and executioner with Barry. You have no real clue about any of the facts and should not let your gums flap with ignorance.
Maybe you yearn for the good ol days...when Ruth and Cobb were the real heroes. Ruth...the drunk who pounded alcohol during prohibition. Kind of like a player snorting cocaine all day long today. Would you give him a free pass like so many give Ruth? An illegal substance is an illegal substance.
In addition, please let us know how you were able to obtain Barry's testing results and why the ones you have differ from the ones everyone else has...you know the ones that show he has never tested positive for any banned substance.
Face it Bob. You are just a grumpy old man that is part of an establishment of hypocritical writers who give a pass to those they like and hound those they don't.
We have a long way to go in this country to resolve black white issues. We cannot make more progress if the race card gets pulled at every opportunity.
If we are looking for a hero, we need to look to Hank Aaron. At least he has the class and the sense to try to downplay the circus and stay out of it.
We may see the same thing in a couple years, when the gifted A-rod, often misunderstood and often arrgant takes his run at the crown.
That aside, all I ask is, if it is proved Bonds took strength enhancers (cheated) I say instead of an asterisk, a hypodermic syringe be placed in the record books on his new record.
Is Bond's a model citizen? No! But, neither was Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Billy Martin, Mickey Mantle, and many other stars of baseball lore. So he is a jerk, he still is the best of the best in our age--though tainted it might be.
I can tell you that I have lost all respect for Sheiffer and CBS News. I will clearly never watch another Sheiffer newscast.. and am strongly considering eliminating CBS from view forever.
Sheiffer's comments will NEVER be forgotten.
LCMike
On the other hand though, they won't have the "race" card to play.
I stated "If" it is ever "proved" Bonds took strength enhancers!!! (cheated). Go back and read it a few more times maybe you'll get it.
On the other hand Bob Schieffer is entitled to his opinion and so am I, and so are you!!
I gotta go.
If you can't get the Paris Hilton interview maybe you can interview barry buns.
bob, your writing is so lame and trivially bland.
So you proved you can't write about entertainment, make pointless commentary about sports, could you tackle cooking next?
Here are some words you can use in your next commentary:
blah, blah, ha, ha, ha, blah, blah, icky, icky, yack, yackety, yack, and ain't I so smart for saying nothing in a whole commentary.
Posted by ZeeZedZee at 09:13 PM : Jul 22, 2007**
The wasn't all this mess when Hank did it ... because Hank did it the hard way, time, sweat and skill ... not the easy way with a needle full of insta-muscle
Real heroes don't aspire to be heroes. They stick to their principles and wish people wouldn't make such a fuss over them.
Barry Bonds is a zero--not a hero. The reason he is under such a cloud is the existence of very compelling evidence that he took steroids to enhance his performance. That's cheating in anyone's book. He may have hit that many home runs, but how many grimy faced kids has he signed autographs for? There is a story about the coach of the San Antonio Spurs who signed autographs one afternoon at a local bookstore. A young fan raced to the spot only to find he was too late. The coach had gotten into his car and saw the boy. The coach got out of his car and met the boy on the street, spent time with him, and bought him a Coke and signed his basketball. You can havbe all the Barry Bonds autographs you want. I'll take this guy's.
But my main concern is the hypocritical way folks are making Hank Aaron into this grand and glorious person whose record Bonds has no right to break. These same folks AND Hank Aaron are forgetting that Hank Aaron was treated worse than Barry Bonds is being treated.
Hank Aaron received hate mail and death threats from bigots who did not want a black man to break Babe Ruth's record. Now, he's acting immature and petulant about Bonds breaking his record. I have lost all respect for him.
Posted by Misspp at 09:48 PM : Jul 22, 2007
Just do a Google image search of Bonds and compare his picture from a decade or so ago with what he looks like today and you'll be a bit less sure of the "innocent until proven guilty" assertion. I don't know how he did it but somehow he managed to get the roids to grow his head as well as the rest of him. He could have gone down as one of the greatest hitters (but not the greatest!) in the game, but instead history will deservedly be far less kind to him.
And Bonds is seeing no race based adversity? Many of the same people booing bonds now also booed Aaron, but now they hide their racism behind the "steroid excuse".
Did their parents also boo an alcoholic named Ruth when he set the record?
Look at Mr. Schieffer, looks like he predates Abner Doubleday, so it is questionable that there even was little league when he was a child...
Nothing changes.
Though, Scheiffer is right in one respect: Bonds will forever be tarnished with his inability to 'come clean' about his performance-drug use.
Too bad for Bonds. In all likelihood: Aaron is the 'real deal', while Bonds 'could-a-been', but didn't come clean and so is under suspicion.
Still, in a wierd way, we should celebrate Bonds nevertheless. In an atmosphere where 'everyone' is using these drugs, he still became the 'king'.
Society needs to level the playing field through gov't oversight, and not just in baseball. But, try telling that to the 'free-marketeers' who run our country....
Until the country realizes what's going on, we'll continue to buy the 'Bonds' of this society, in commerce, investment, government, sports, entertainment, etc...
And by the way, Barry was a jerk long before this home run derby limelight. He's never been one to sign autographs, or be a 'team' player. His team player status has converted in recent years and that's a good thing.
Did he use steroids? Don't care now myself, we're dealing with a fella that took on a persona long before we talked about steroids.
He'll be in the record book, but many of us will always say, "ya but..."
We don't say that with Robinson, Dimaggio, Aaron, or Ripkin do we?
Babe Ruth ate hotdogs, drank beer, and hit a whole bunch of homers. If this guy would have juiced he probably would have hit way more. Hank was just a nice guy, who had never heard of steroids. Niether one of them gained 30 pounds of muscle weight in their 30's. Ruth may have gained 30 pounds, but it was in his belly from beer and hotdogs.
;-)
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