When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

02.04.2008
Barry on the Dole

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.



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[February 4, 2008 3:18 PM]  |  link  |  reply
bigO said

My guess is that Barry is done (put a fork in 'im). I think if anybody took a chance on him it would be the A's. They seem to be retooling and probably won't win this year either (meaning the G-men) so why not put the biggest attraction on the planet on your team (provided the price is right-which by the way I dated a price is right model when I lived in LA)to help put butts in the seats?

[February 4, 2008 5:06 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

Conventional wisdom said the A's are *less* likely to go after barry now that they're rebuilding. Why spend that money if his presence won't help them contend?

Butts in seats, yeah, but he'd have to take a super cheap contract for the A's to be interested. I just don't see him doing that. Just speculation on my part, of course, but I think he'd rather retire than play for peanuts.

[February 4, 2008 6:26 PM]  |  link  |  reply
bigO said

"Butts in seats, yeah, but he'd have to take a super cheap contract for the A's to be interested" that's the $2 mil-$12mil question? I don't know why but somehow I can see Barry taking very little money to play one more year (kind of a "see someone did want me" attitude other than the $$$).

[February 5, 2008 2:41 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Zo said

I think Barry has something to prove. He is the media-annointed face of the steroids era, fairly or not. Aaron did not just break Ruth's record, he added 41 more home runs. Barry just squeaked by Aaron's. Barry needs to add to his record, with testing, so he can make his case that it is legit. Why wouldn't a team (probably an AL team), for a price want a guy (probably a DH guy) who has maybe ~35 hr's in him? As long as the numbers of teams willing to take a chance on Bonds are few, they can wait until the last minute and offer him peanuts. It's not money that will drive Barry, it will be ego. (btw, my first post to this great site).

[February 5, 2008 3:14 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to Zo

Thanks for your comment, Zo -- I hope it's the first of many.