Here are some of the replies we got to our fill-in-the-blank exercise, "Barry Bonds will be remembered as...."
My answer: "...controversial."
Replies:
- ...smarter than Jose Canseco.
- ...the greatest baseball player who ever lived and who was the victim of a vendetta by some government prosecutor who got pissed off at him, and who was victimized, always, by the press because he refused to kiss their butts.
- ...…one of the biggest jerks in professional sports, and as an asterisk in record books.
- ...the greatest and most feared offensive player of my lifetime.
- ...a great baseball star who broke all the rules of baseball and who had no regard for rules, regulations and the sanctity of the sport that made him rich. He always had to have the spotlight shining on himself regardless of the depth of deceit he had to go.
- ...the greatest; whatever he did it's his business…..
- .... baseball's ultimate asterisk (with emphasis on the first syllable).
- ...what happens when ego trumps talent.
- ...the Expanding Man.
- ...best I ever saw.
- ...one of the most dangerous hitters of his generation, roids or no roids. Kind of like the shock and awe of baseball.
- ...a cheater, along with so many others in pro sports who chose to enhance their natural abilities with drugs.
- ...The Scapegoat.
- ......a ballplayer with all the talent in the world, but it wasn't enough.
- ...the guy who couldn't get away with what Mark McGwire got away with, among other things.
- ...an amazing player but comes with a a package deal of worthless integrity and human decency.
- .... an asterisk.
- ...a tax evader.
- ...a baseball player with a lot of talent but couldn't just leave it at that.
- ...an infamous baseball player (both positive and negative) worth millions and millions of dollars, who warped our perception of the game, but made us realize how sociopathic one becomes when all you do is stare in the mirror.
- ...filthy rich at the cost of deceiving fans.
- ...a scapegoat for Major League Baseball's unofficial embracing of steroids. While Mark McGuire goes down as a snitch who cried in court.
- ...a man who knew greatness but greatness comes at a price, a very high and painful price. Baseball royalty that lost sight of the people and saw only himself.