Bonds and Tampa: A Formula for Disaster

Forget forgiveness, and all of the other issues, Barry Bonds can still hit a baseball better than 75% of the league.  So why isn’t he heading somewhere south for spring training?  Well, because no one is willing to forgive him for his mistakes.  Eventually, you have to assume that someone will bite the bullet and offer an invitation to camp.  They have too, I mean, you don’t just let a player that is that talented to slip off into the sunset.  Right?

Well, unless he is named Barry Lamar Bonds.  Even if he wasn’t facing possible prison time a lot of teams would be tentative due to all the baggage that comes along with acquiring him.  No one is going to be willing to let this guy have complete control over the clubhouse, there won’t be six lockers set aside for him, there will be no reclining chair, otherwise, if this allowed to occur at his next stop, he will become a cancer.  For this thing to work wherever he may land, he’s going to have to be willing to be just another player.  The records, the ego, all that has to be checked at the door.

That’s why the whole Rays situation boggles my mind.  Everyone says that it’s a perfect fit, but I disagree.  I think that wherever Bonds goes there needs to be some strong veteran leadership in place, you know, guys that can put him in check when his ego gets the best of him.  There has to be someone that can deflect the attention away from his off the field issues when the media has nothing else to report on.  In Tampa Bay he would be the guy, and with all that young talent around his personality could only damage them.

Buster Olney of ESPN is at the forefront of those supporters.  On his ESPN blog he listed four reasons why this is a great destination for Bonds. 

In his first reason he states, “At this point, Bonds might be willing to play for far less than he played for last year, when he earned a base salary of about $17 million – and he would be a natural attendance draw for the Rays.”

I agree with the first part, if Bonds is going to stay in baseball he’s going to have to take the pay cut, he lost his bargaining chip when he got served with perjury charges.  No way can he demand a premium salary, but where we differ is on Bonds being a natural attendance draw.  I’m sorry; I just don’t see people coming out to support this guy, especially in Tampa Bay.  People outside of San Francisco hate him, and the only reason they came out on the road last year because history was looming over every at bat.  Now that he has the record where is the drawing card?  We aren’t talking about Babe Ruth here, we’ve seen more of Bonds than we would like.

The second point was that, “Bonds’ patience at the plate is something that the young and developing hitters could learn from over a long season.”

This is true, watching this guy can only help.  That’s all they’ll get from him though.  I don’t see Bonds taking anyone under his wing and giving them one-on-one lessons.  We are talking about the same guy that decked Jeff Kent for being a good baseball player.  No, seriously.

His third point is where it starts to get crazy.   “In a new place, on a new team, and in a short term situation.  Bonds’ allegedly stifling clubhouse presence might not be any kind of problem.”

Bonds, a good teammate?  Really?  Is Olney being serious?  We are still talking about the same guy here?  All those stories coming out of San Francisco must all be lies then.  Those guys repeatedly saying that it feels like they have new life,  and that, and I quote, “It’s like an anvil has been lifted off of us,” are just exaggerating.  Right Buster?

Then we come back to earth with this, “A lineup with Bonds, who racked up a .480 on-base percentage last year, makes the Rays a better team.”

That’s what this all about anyhow, right?  Like I said before, Bonds is a highly productive player, he just needs to land in the right situation for it all to work.  The question is, what is the right situation?  Stanger things have happened, I mean, Ron Artest put aside all his craziness to make it work in Sacramento.  Randy Moss did it in New England, so it can work.  I just wonder if Tampa is the place, he would just be prolonging his career for the sake it.   It wouldn’t be in pursuit of a ring.  So where is the motivation to be a team player?  If he goes somewhere like either of the New York’s, Boston, Detroit, or Los Angeles, then I can see him sucking it up to get the one thing that has eluded him throughout his career. 

I also don’t see the point on the Rays end, why stunt the growth of your young players when it isn’t going to make enough of a difference to get you into the playoffs?  This whole thing just doesn’t make sense to me.  It certainly isn’t the perfect marriage as Olney paints it out to be.