The suit, filed in San Diego Superior Court, states the abuse began in 2002. It accuses Giles of “hitting and slapping plaintiff in the face; pushing plaintiff; shaking plaintiff; kicking plaintiff; hitting plaintiff in the chest; knocking plaintiff to the floor, battering plaintiff twice when she was pregnant with the parties' child, causing plaintiff to suffer a miscarriage.”
Obviously Brian Giles deserves his day in court and is fully entitled to the presumption of innocent until proven guilty. If it’s true, it is truly a heinous act.
What is going to drive me crazy if it is true will be people’s reaction to it. Oh sure, most will stand up and unequivocally condemn the cowardly act (as well they should) and insist that the full weight of the law be brought to bear on Giles.
However, the vitriol and condemnation by the fans and media will not reach the levels given to Barry Bonds.
Even worse, most will be completely oblivious to the disconnect in their thinking.
The press will not stand up and declare that employing Giles would be bad for business and teams will not worry about clubhouse issues should Giles be employed by their team. There will be no concerns about a consumer backlash or ticket sales and it will not be said that a club would be “selling their souls” by giving him work.
A team will be more concerned about whether he can still be effective in the outfield or if he can rediscover his 20 HR power or if he is still capable of batting .300 and drawing 80-100 walks. Rest assured that he will continue to find work as long as he’s productive and while the fourth estate may lob the odd rock in his direction, they’ll be more concerned with ripping Bonds a new one when he is again in the news cycle with his upcoming trial and later the arbitration hearing regarding MLB potential collusion against him.
Oh yeah, screw the whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing for Barry Lamar since as I have been informed all too many times in my e-mail “OMG…your such a idiot of course he‘s guilty look at teh size of his head!!1!!”
Of course, it’s not like the media has given the fans the straight dope on Bonds. If you don’t believe me, look at how many times a story has Bonds saying “whatever dude” to the grand jury or a government prosecutor. It makes Bonds sound surly, arrogant and completely disrespectful to the Grand Jury and/or prosecutor but guess what? It’s completely bogus. Here is the actual context of his “whatever dude” remark:
...everyone tries to give me everything. You get companies that provide us with more junk to try than anything ... I was fatigued, tired, just needed recovery you know. And this guy says: ‘Try this cream, try this cream.' And Greg came to the ballpark and said, you know: ‘This will help you recover,' and he rubbed some cream on my arm, like, some lotion type stuff, and like, some lotion type stuff, and like, gave me some flax seed oil, that's what he called it, called it some flax seed oil man. It's like "Whatever dude." And I was at the ballpark, whatever, I don't care. What's lotion going to do to me? How many times have I heard that: "This is going to rub into you and work." Let him be happy. We're friends. You know? [bolding and italics mine]
The “whatever dude” is what he testified he said to Anderson and was not directed at anybody in the grand jury room. Sure, he’s a surly, arrogant cuss but it does illustrate that the media isn’t above mangling the facts to make him look as evil as possible.
Plus, it’s exactly what people want to hear--they don’t want the truth, they just want to hear the spoiled rich ballplayer get skewered.
That’s what I find so frustrating. I’m not writing this in defense of Bonds but rather how maddening the hypocrisy of it all is; the fact that Barry Bonds isn’t unique--he’s a PED using athlete with an attitude problem. The only thing unique about him is that none of the others that fit that description have hit 762 HR.
There have been a lot of players that have done what Giles is being accused of; there are a lot of players that have done far worse than what Barry Bonds is accused of; there are bigger jerks out there and bona fide felons in MLB. The sport of itself has raped communities (collectively) of billions upon billions of dollars that should have been used for essential services for children, the sick and the elderly.
Yet folks decide to use up their vitriol on Barry Lamar Bonds--that he is the evil that needs to be purged from the sport so that it might regain a sanctity it never had and they base their opinion on what sources tell them and that source distorts the truth on this and many other issues. Make no mistake, the aforementioned billions upon billions of dollars taken out of your pocket and given with no strings attached to the feudal lords of baseball would not have happened had the media been truthful about what was transpiring. Instead they faithfully disseminated the propaganda given them by MLB without any critical analysis. The steroid scandal that causes so many to loath Barry Lamar Bonds might not have taken the shape it did had the press not lied for years that the sport didn’t have a drug problem.
Barry Bonds may be a first class jerk but it doesn’t speak well of us if we view him as the biggest demon that needs to be exorcised from MLB.
Best Regards
John
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