by Amauryy Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–Isn’t it odd that the home-run king (one of the most heralded records in American professional sports) Barry Bonds who finished with 762 of them(and a record of 73 in 2001)never gets invited to throw out a first pitch at big baseball events like the All Star Game or World Series? Bonds played for 22 years in the major leagues and won seven Most Valuable Players Awards. Barry Bonds is out as Miami Marlins hitting coach after just one season. As Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza were elected this year, by the Baseball Writers Association of America.  Barry Bonds received an uptick in votes to 44.3%, in his fourth year of eligibility in the ballot. Any candidate receiving votes on seventy-five percent (75%) of the ballots cast shall be elected to membership in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

It might be that Bonds will have to be elected to Cooperstown first to get the recognition nationwide as the home run king and the great superstar in the game that he was. At the present time wounds are still open over the BALCO Laboratories(Burlingame, CA) steroids scandal performance-enhancing-drugs. The scandal broke in 2004 about the local nutritional supplement on the San Francisco Chronicle by investigative reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, authors of the book “Game of Shadows” the two reporters made the point that the late-career home-run surge by Bonds was not because of his rigorous weight training or anything else, but used of these drugs.. Fainaru-Wada and Williams galvanized the national debate about steroids. It became a highly publicized event when Congressional hearings about the topic involved some of the biggest names in baseball, including Barry Bonds.

Time heals everything, but in baseball the mortal sin continues to be gambling. The Black Sox Scandal is the best case. In 1919 eight players of the Chicago White Sox were accused of intentionally losing the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money from gamblers, and were suspended for life. Then we have Pete Rose, #1 In hits in history with 4,256, punished for betting on his team(as a manager) to win. I believe Rose is the only man who’s ever drawn a permanent suspension for this particular offense. Baseball accuses him of betting as a manager. Pete Rose is trying to rehabilitate himself, as we saw him again on the FOX pre and post game shows during this most recent postseason, and may I say that I found Pete to be not only knowledgeable of the game, but very funny and entertaining. Unless a very drastic change in baseball policy and attitudes we will probably see Barry Bonds in Cooperstown before we see Pete Rose, and a statue will be built at AT&T Park for Bonds. I was there with a bunch of other reporters the afternoon they broke ground to build that beautiful park when Barry grabbed a bat and a ball and hit the ball way out to right field. Yes, it was the ‘House that Bonds built” But that remains to be seen, if Bonds is elected to the Hall of Fame before Rose.  Like a man I interviewed many times, and who passed away in his native Dominican Republic two years ago,pitcher Joaquin Andujar, he always said that his favorite word in English was:  youneverknow.

About AT&T Park. I am very proud that the SF Giants gave me a brick to be installed and dedicated by myself (as it is today) next to the Willie Mays statue at the main entrance, together with other broadcasters who called the very first game there in 2000. April 11,2000 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and it was called then Pac Bell Park. Hard to believe that park is now over 16 years old.

 Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com