Are YOU having fun watching Barry?

[TimmyB]

Are you having fun yet, Barry?

David Halberstam wonders if Barry is having fun and, if anyone is having fun watching him.

I'm not.

I admire the way he has performed over the past couple years, but, the man is hard to like.

Simply stated, it's hard to root for Barry, because it's hard to admire him as much as he admires himself. He might be athletically a work of art, but even more accurately, he's a piece of work.

There are a lot of stories out there, and they are of a kind -- of a great athlete who takes a surprising amount of pleasure from the leverage he has as a star to use his power against people less powerful and less influential, just for the pleasure of showing he has the juice to do it

[soxfan121]

FANTASTIC article. Halberstam continues to be "at the top of his game" with this piece.

And no, I did not enjoy watching Bonds play. The man is a jerk and he'll continue to be a jerk. That doesn't seem to affect his play on the field (or does it?) but I'm no more a "Barry fan" than I was 5, 10 or even 1 year ago.

[Max Power]

Mod request - -
we've been down this path before on Bonds - - - - many times, most recently @
http://www.netshrine.com/vbulletin2/...&threadid=6354

Discussing it again is fine - - but, please, let's not lose sight that we must agree to disagree after a certain point - - - - thanks

[Max Power]

Interesting, just looking around, almost every Barry debate ends up at the same place...............

http://www.netshrine.com/vbulletin2/...&threadid=4568

[VNV Nation]

Putting aside the way Barry treats other people --

There is really nothing fun about Barry at all.

He's an incredibly compelling figure, a dramatic talent. You have to watch him because he's so good at what he does, and you get a thrill of excitement when he blasts a 500-foot homer, or you might laugh at how ridiculously easy it seems for him.

Kirby Puckett played the game like he was a little kid, the personification of joy. They say Willie Mays was much the same way, the way he played made you smile. Mickey Mantle, on the other hand, made you gasp.

Bonds, I don't know who I'd compare him to. Maybe Mike Tyson in his early days: pure power and single-mindedly focused on not just winning but obliterating the opposition.

[Max Power]

In fact, we've been on this topic since the NDF started - - - here's one from 2001:

http://www.netshrine.com/vbulletin2/...=&threadid=627

There's much more, at least 3 or 5 more threads on the same issue.

Maybe the site should be called the DiscussBarryShrine?

That in itself says something - - love him or hate him, he generates interest - - - - which is good for the game.

[soxfan121]

Originally posted by Max Power
In fact, we've been on this topic since the NDF started - - - here's one from 2001:

http://www.netshrine.com/vbulletin2/...=&threadid=627

There's much more, at least 3 or 5 more threads on the same issue.

Maybe the site should be called the DiscussBarryShrine?

That in itself says something - - love him or hate him, he generates interest - - - - which is good for the game.

I can only assume that if the NDF archives stretched back to 1998, there might be a similar number of McGwire/Sosa threads. And certainly there are more NYY-themed threads (or threads that discuss the NYY club) in the archives. When discussing "hot topics" in baseball, it figures to be dominated by the "biggest stories" and Bonds certainly has been that over the last two years. Prior to 2001, would there have been nearly as much discussion of Bonds - I think not.

Back to the topic: I agree VNV. And Tyson might be the perfect comparison.

I keep thinking about the Johnny Bach quote in the article - sometimes, it does appear that Bonds has been "sentenced" to play and looks upon it as a "job" and not a "game".

[Skip]

Originally posted by soxfan121
I keep thinking about the Johnny Bach quote in the article - sometimes, it does appear that Bonds has been "sentenced" to play and looks upon it as a "job" and not a "game".

I can't disagree with this statement, even though I didn't much care for the article. Maybe it's a *good* thing the Giants lost; otherwise Barry may have pulled a McGwire and hung 'em up(?). Talk about going out on top.

[Skip]

I went back and reread the article, along with Reilly's latest misleading weekly missive. Stunning - Bonds can be surly and distant. I'm shocked, SHOCKED I say.

My ultimate conclusion about these types of articles is that it'll be news when one of these guys tells us something about Bonds that we didn't already know. Until then, this is simply flagellation, piling on, a lazy way of generating a column. A non-story.

I have respect for Halberstam's writing in a historical sense, but what I've seen in recent years leaves me neutral at best. Of course, that beats Reilly.

Skip - do you think he would have bowed out? I think he would have hung on and gone for the HR record.

[Skip]

Originally posted by CpUltravox
Skip - do you think he would have bowed out? I think he would have hung on and gone for the HR record.

I very much think he'd have stayed too, unless he really really felt the Giants were in the toilet. Just an interesting exercise in what-if.

[sweaver]

Watching Barry play is like watching Rembrandt paint, or listening to a Mozart piece, or seeing da Vinci sketch: it is watching a master at work.

Yeah, I enjoy watching that.

[Glyndwr]

Horrendous article I thought.

Rambling, full of ridiculous hyperbole and smug self importance.

here are a couple of intelligent and amusing responses (which is probably more than it deserved)

http://thesandwich.blogspot.com/2002....html#83745846

http://www.colbycosh.com/#dhsp

[VNV Nation]

Halberstam -- good writer, makes some good points. But he's suffering from old fogeyism -- "Back in my day, the pitchers would have..." and self-importance is too tame a description. How does a column about Barry Bonds devolve into an account of Halberstam's undeniably but irrelevant credentials?

[JamesI]

When he's batting, he's fun to watch. He is the best I've seen. But he would be more fun to watch if he seemed to be having fun. Imagine Puckett with Barry's talent. He'd be the most popular player ever.