From Bob Smizik (retired Pittsburgh Post Gazette Columnist) in his daily blog....Today, he answers some questions.
Shows you just how big a butt hole he is.
Michael Bowers, Editor at Newsday Westchester: The stories about Barry Bonds all seem to be so universally negative and consistently portray him as rude and difficult. Is it really that black and white? Surely you must have something positive to say about him? Not even Satan gets so much universally bad press. I'm always suspicious when something is so over-the-top extreme like that... or is he really just a bad apple?
You want something nice, here it is:
I was walking back to my hotel after a game of the 2004 World Series in St. Louis, where the Red Sox were in the process of sweeping the Cardinals. Coming out of the hotel was Bonds, with a woman. Our eyes met. He smiled in recognition. We approached each other and shook hands. I congratulated him on having a great season. He asked about me and after a few seconds we parted. Anyone viewing the encounter would have taken it as a meeting of two old friends.
That’s the only positive I can give you about Barry. I was stunned by the meeting because we never had a good relationship when he was with the Pirates. I couldn’t wait to get back to Pittsburgh and tell my colleagues, who probably would not believe what I was saying.
I remember approaching his locker after a playoff game, probably 1992, and from the back of a group I asked a question. His response, without looking up. ``I’m not answering your questions, Smizik.’’
Bonds is a bad guy. Jeff Pearlman wrote a book about Bonds about five or six years ago. I can’t find this particular passage but it went something like this: The Giants were walking into a visiting clubhouse and the attendant was asking players to contribute to a fund for the son of Brian Fisher, who had a serious illness. Fisher was a teammate of Bonds with the Pirates. Bonds’ response, as I recall it: ``(Bleep) you,’’ to the attendant and ``(Bleep) Brian Fisher.’’
Another: In 2002, two PNC Park groundskeepers were killed in an auto accident. Not their fault. They left behind four children, no insurance. A couple of photographers who covered the Pirates attempted to raise money by getting star players to sign memorabilia. Plenty of guys signed, including Sammy Sosa, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling. When Barry came to town he was asked: His answer: ``I ain’t signing (bleep).’’
Here’s one more of a different nature. In an advance of the first game of the 1992 playoffs, I did some kind of story, which I don’t remember, but in it I pointed out several on-the-field similarities between Bonds and Andy Van Slyke. The next time I was in the locker room, Van Slyke approached me and asked if we could go outside to talk. He was not angry but he said because I compared him with Bonds he would no longer grant me interviews. He would, he said, talk to me during the playoffs because they were so important, but that was it.
That, I think, tells you what his teammates thought of him. They didn’t even want to be mentioned in the same sentence.