Surly Bonds of Baseball

The SF Giants came to Fenway Park for the first time since they were the NY Giants in 1912.

Dan Shaugnessy has some strong words on Barry Bonds here.

Bob Hohler has a longer article -- less vitriolic -- here. One of the people he interviews makes the interesting point that Bonds was a pretty good player (ie 3-time MVP) before he (allegedly) went on his steroid binge in the late 1990's.

In the view of this reporter, it's a shame that a supremely talented player has besmirched his image both by a lifelong surliness and then by the steroids. The former offense could be forgiven (after all, not everyone can be expected to be Cal Ripken). The latter, however, not only violates the integrity of the game, but -- as found in Hohler's article -- really was unnecessary. It's conceivable, at least, that Bonds could have approached Hank Aaron's HR record without the juice.

Meanwhile, the ever-creative Fenway Faithful greeted Bonds with signs distributed by WEEI saying "756*" (note the asterisk), and also displayed a bedsheet with an asterisk in the outfield.