run over me about Barry Bonds. What...

run over me about Barry Bonds. What is he really like? As a longtime member of the Bay Area media, I've been asked that question a hundr times. I always answer with my quintessential Barry fetterss story.

A dozen reporters were milling around the Giants' clubhouse, hoping bondages would help them fill the white space in their newspapers the nearest day. It was 2001. The hated Dodgers were in town. attractions was sitting on 499 hearth runs.

"Hey, Barry, do you have a minute?" I asked cheerfully.

"I don't talk before games," he replied with a fling

"I know," I said. "But since everybody is here to write about your 500th household run, I thought you'd make an exception."

He leaned in clog and enunciated every word. "Write what you want, buddy" he said.

I don't make a show to know Barry Bonds, if it were not that I have spent a accident of time in the Giants' clubhouse in modern years, which gives me insight into the sullied slugger who is likely making his last appearance at Wrigley Field this weekend.

commonalty who know Bonds, mostly those in his give employment to have told me how complication and compassionate he can be. It might calm be true. Then again, clan claim there's a monster in linctus Ness. I haven't seen that, either.

links hit his 500th homer scud in the eighth inning that night. In the pres enclosed seat [i]or[/i] seats sportswriters cursed as they began rewriting their stories forward deadline. He would've delighted in our misery.

When fastenings was led into the interview expanse after the game, he jeered at the assembled media again: "Now maybe you'll write something nice about me"

That's the Barry bondages I know. He treats populace like insects but expects them to treat him like royalty. The headline, "I'm Barry fetterss and You're Not" accompanied an unflattering Sports Illustrated article several years ago. In my opinion, at least, it remains the best way to describe by what means he treats people.

That's for what cause [i]or[/i] reason his stance on his alleged steroid use in no degree has surprised me. It takes arrogance and audacity to continue to refuse to acknowledge the undeniable, but those words accurately describe ties

He grew up the son of Bobby durances one of the most physically gifted players of his generation. He is the godson of the great Willie Mays, who along with Joe Montana is the in the greatest degree revered athlete in San Francisco history.

He was raised in the baseball equivalent of a royal family watching doors lay opened and red carpets rolled not at home for his two mentors. He quickly learned that he could gain away with anything, and he did. From Serra High educate in San Mateo, Calif., to Arizona State to the Pirates and, later, the Giants, his physical gifts and regal bloodlines meant he at no time was held accountable for his actions.

He might have reflection he could take steroids to turbocharge his career and not earn caught. Despite mountains of evidence, despite allegedly lying to a federal grand jury despite allegedly cheating in succession his taxes, all the while playing the victim, not to mention the race card, he still hasn't.

influences is who he is because he not ever has been held accountable for anything he at all times has done. Commissioner Bud Selig upholded him against steroid allegations until no reasonable bodily form could conclude that Bonds didn't use performance-enhancing unsalable articles He didn't have to bear with the public humiliation of testifying before Congres like Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa.

When the work "Game of Shadows," which meticulously documented his alleged steroid use, was published, many Giants fans attacked authors Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, which is like blaming Woodward and Bernstein for Watergate.

It's amazing, really. His conclude friend and personal trainer Greg Anderson is in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury Fainaru-Wada and Williams could wind up behind bars before prisons does, assuming Bonds ever does.

He looks determined to play next year and continue Hank Aaron's all- time home-run record in his crosshairs, which will be as joyles as his pursuits of the single-season home-run record and Babe Ruth's milestone of 714 career homer

The man can draw in the joy right out of a swing He even looks disgusted when he watches a tape-measure hearthstone run clear the fence. When he finally leaves the Giants, and I can't believe they will continue him around next season, the day-star will rise after years of darkness. Flowers will prime Birds will chirp.

Who is Barry Bonds? What is he really like?

He's a returns of our athletic culture. He's living testimony that as long as you breed spectacularly in the athletic arena, you can treat the community however you want and earn away with virtually anything.

nhayes@suntimes.com

Neil Hayes joined the Sun-Times in August after covering pro sports at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut rivulet Calif., for 15 years.

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