Aaron to Bonds: Screw you, Barry. Screw you very much.
AJC columnist Terence Moore tracked down Hank Aaron and asked him if he planned to be on hand when/if Barry Bonds breaks his home run record. Aaron said no. Hell no.
“I’m sorry Barry feels that way, and I don’t have any resentment toward him whatsoever, but I have no intention of trying to get in contact with him or doing anything with him in regard to his [chasing the record]. Nothing. Why should I?” said Aaron, who discovered only recently that the privately sensitive slugger for the San Francisco Giants wants to become pen pals or something. “It’s really not a big concern of mine. I don’t know why I should have to do anything. I might send him a telegram, and that would be the extent of it.”
So that settles that. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s one “no” from Aaron and one “maybe” from Bud Selig.
Speaking of Selig, apparently he’s the one who told Aaron that Bonds is feeling slighted. Aaron says Bonds shouldn’t take it so personally.
The commissioner told me that [Bonds] has asked him several times about why I haven’t contacted him,” Aaron said. “I don’t talk to anybody, really, and I’ve never talked to Barry, outside of that commercial we did together a few years ago, and a few other short times.”
If I were Barry, I would make a point to break that home run record in SanFran. Because if he breaks it on the road, I don’t think he’s going to be feeling a lot of love. Certainly not from Hank Aaron.
April 10th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Man…. when has this whiny turd NOT felt slighted? I’d love to see how it would play out if Barry had to graciously hand over one of his records to another player some day - I’m betting he’d find it hard to be generous.
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April 10th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
This is not about Aaron not being generous etc. This is Aaron making a quiet statement about the state of the game, the state of role models in the game, etc. Aaron tried to enlist Willie Mays to carry on Jackie Robinson legacy, but Willie was not interested. Gee, seems kind of similar to his godson, who now can’t even be bothered to pick up the phone to call Hank. I think Aaron does not think too much of Bonds as a player or a person.
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April 10th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
A telegram? That’s cold. Also old. What, no carrier pigeons? No Pony Express? Maybe Hank could just tie a note to an arrow and have Robin Hood shoot it over. “Hark, ye Barry! Thee sucketh!”
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May 15th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
I believe that Mister Gwynn has been the classiest about this issue. In his recent article in USA Today, it was pointed out that many methods of cheating have been used over the years. Were it not for the caliber of the records Bonds is threatening, hardly anyone would care. The most telling and most ignored factor to me is the status of his grand jury indictment. It has been said that a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich if the prosecutor told them to. Yet, two grand juries examining the evidence on Bonds have failed to return an indictment. It doesn’t have to be proof beyond reasonable doubt, only probable cause, a much lower standard, and the rules of trial evidence do not apply. In other words, hearsay and such are admissible. Then why no indictment? The only possible is that the case against him is incredibly weak. If he were about to set the record for most doubles in history (or in the alternative, if he were a really nice guy) the steroid issue would be completely ignored.
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