Where angels fear to tread...

Rant time!

I don’t get it--I just don’t.

Where’s utopia? Where is paradise?

I mean, there is a glut of righteous, upright, heck--downright holy people nowadays--you can’t swing a Bible without hitting a candidate for sainthood anymore judging by comments on various message boards and column feedback. Speaking of the good book, Jesus is reported to have said to a group of men that wanted to stone a woman caught at adultery: "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

Let me tell you something, that woman would be underneath a mountain of rubble when one considers comments made on articles about steroid use in baseball. I can just hear the *thud* *thump* *thud* *thud* *thump* *thud* *thump* *thump* sounds after the words “...at her” were finished. Some examples:

No, he is not like the rest of us. Most people would not break the law to achieve a higher salary or to achieve higher praise at their job. Stop writing articles like we should feel sorry for these players. We are talking about grown men that consciously made a decision to break the law and cheat for their own selfish reasons.

Welcome to earth--things are a little different than what you're used to so take some time to become acclimatized.

Poor McGwire. He's human. Boohoohoo. So am I. I never did drugs much less performance enhancing drugs. If I couldn't do with what I was given, I did without. So could he. He chose the low road. I have no sympathy for him.

Am I the only one that thinks that he has a selective memory? Ever buy a car? A house? Any large ticket item? Ever tell the salesperson that you can get the same item at a lower cost somewhere else when it wasn’t the case? Guess what chum--you sold out and took the low road for money--now tell me how you’re different than any juicing ballplayer?

Hypocrite.

If you don't want your reputation damaged, don't do stupid crap that could ruin your reputation. It's really not rocket science here.

Well, I've found my messiah--hopefully he will show us the way to truth, justice and purity.

He was a steroid freak and a cheat! For you to defend him is appalling!

Excuse me, I'd like to see your income tax returns for the last 20 years, your driving record and your school records--I'm sure that they will positively have an almost angelic glow.

No, these were regarding an article about Mark McGwire--not Barry Bonds. Here are some selected tidbits from a BLB column:

Look, this guys head swelled 3 hat sizes.....he was on the juice and he is a worthless human as well. Go to jail and out of our lives you fraud.

It's nice to know where we can go to determine the worth of a human being.

As good as Bonds could be, he raped the Giants clubhouse and his presence alone crippled in the Giants in terms of team chemistry.

San Francisco Giants: four playoff appearances in 15 years with Bonds, four appearances in the previous 38 season before BLB. The Pittsburgh Pirates went to the post season three straight times in their final three seasons with Barry Lamar and haven't returned since he left--but the chemistry is doubtlessly better.

bonds is a perfect example of a loser. he tried to cheat his way to success. but the problem all along was his steroid sized ego. he was never teammate material. he cheated on his wife and expected treatment no one else on the team got. a perfect recipe for divorce and never winning a world championship. get the hell out of the bay area, you have left a dark legacy!

Uh, yeah--four post season appearances and a new ballpark...that's quite a dark legacy. Just curious, what would you define as a good legacy?

Baroid Bonds is GUILTY of many things: 1) being an MLB tool like his doper father Bobby Bonds, 2) being a steroid addict 3) being a liar, 3) not ratting out Dusty Baker, Bud Selig and ESPN-Disney George J. Mitchell 4) telling Lance Williams to stuff it!

(sigh)

Sounds right on target. Pumpkin head Bonds reaps what he has sewn over the last 25 years. IMO the jury of public opinion is done with Mr. Bond's. He's guilty of being a FOOL.!!!

The jury of public opinion also resulted in a few thousand lynchings--what’s your point?

So, here’s the question: why is the world so badly messed up?

Holiness abounds, paragons of virtue are a dime a dozen--is it that it’s just a few bad apples wrecking the world for all the godly, upright folks that never bend, yet alone break the various rules society has set up? The IRS, Revenue Canada, and various police units must wonder where all the speeders and tax cheats are coming from. Why did Nancy Reagan need to begin her “Just Say No” campaign when most folks were saying no early, often and repeatedly?

“Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.”--Fyodor Dostoevsky

No duh eh? Mr. Dostoevsky died 128 years ago--nice to see we have made so much progress as a species.

The thing is, I’m not defending the users--it’s just that I find it so bloody frustrating that what was an institutional scandal that involved everybody in the sport: players, management, union, owners, commissioners and yes--media is being taken out on a few high profile players.

It’s being done by small, petty, jealous, vindictive people for the most part who--since they cannot elevate themselves through achievement--try to drag people down to their level so they can feel better about the miserable world they’ve created for themselves.

Similar comments and remarks were heard when players first started to unionize in the 1960’s, during the mass holdout of ’69, the strike of ’72, ’81, ’85 and ’94-95 as well as during the lockouts of 1976, 1990. They were heard during the cocaine scandal of the 1980’s, during collusion and they’re being heard again today. It’s always the “privileged, pampered, spoiled, overpaid players” and the latest issue becomes the latest reason for the chorus to begin anew.

Owners, team executives, media and others can be part of the same scandal but it will always be the players that will bear the brunt of the vitriol.

Look, I’m no saint and it wouldn’t be difficult for someone that is out to get me to dig up something I’d rather not have become public knowledge. Having said that, most folks that know a lot about me think I’m a decent person despite the mistakes of my past. Maybe it speaks poorly about the company I keep but the majority of people I come across on a daily basis I would not invite into my home and sadly, I have learned from hard experience that those you can truly trust are few in number and are only as honest as you are vigilant.

If people (myself included) worried more about honour, integrity and playing by the rules in our own lives than in MLB the world would be a much better place; however the world we non-major leaguers live in believes in “look out for number one,” “winning isn’t everything it’s the only thing,” “nobody remembers who finished second,” “the end justifies the means” etc. Folks cheat on their income tax, speed, lie on their résumés, cheat on exams, are less than forthright when buying or selling a car or a home as easy as they breathe, probably ingested something illegal at some point in their existence yet these same paragons of virtue feel that they’re fit to stand in judgment of those that did what they felt they needed to do to get ahead in their lives.

I’m not saying what the players did isn’t wrong--it is; I’m just stating that if we held ourselves to the standards we expect in others everyone would be better off and I doubt they’d want the same standard of enforcement of their misdeeds that they’re demanding for McGwire, Bonds et al--in fact they’d be quick to justify their actions and plead humanity and imperfection…

…and that imperfection often deceives us into believing that the jealousy we feel is in fact righteous indignation.

Rant finished.

Best Regards

John