I was in L.A. this weekend for family matters, and after rubbing my face in the stinky mess the Giants have made on the carpet, my Southland relatives all wanted to know this: Where’s Barry going to play this year?
I don’t think they meant Barry Larkin. My guess, which is the same answer I gave in October, is “nowhere.” Even before the indictment and the Mitchell Report, I found it unlikely Bonds would find a team to carry his injury risk, his off-field baggage and his price tag, and I also found it unlikely Bonds would lower his price enough to make the rest of the risks acceptable.
So here we are, less than a month before full squads report, and Barry — not to mention 149 other guys — is still pounding the pavement. Imagine a line of day laborers in the Home Depot parking lot, except instead of standing in the freezing rain they’re waiting in their Range Rovers and Escalades with the heater on full blast. Solidarnosc, brothers!
I still think Bonds’s career is over. If he does play this year, it’ll probably be a mid-season signing by a club that has lost a key power bat to injury. By then, Bonds’s price will likely be down, too. But I still think that scenario is a longshot.
Does it make me sad that a guy I’ve rooted for all these years can’t go out on his own terms? Not really. All athletes retire and hope for a final lovely ride into a Missile-Pop sunset. Barry got all that and more, and we’ll put aside whether you think it was deserved or not. I’m glad the Giants are moving on, anemic offense or no, and I won’t cry for Barry if he can’t move on the way he prefers.
Will Bonds play in the big leagues this year? If the Giants make no other moves to improve their offense, should they bring Barry back if they can do it on the cheap? Discuss.
