Best Not to Mess With People Who Use Words for a Living

Barry Bonds, he of the questionable muscle gain activity over the last 4-5 years, uses his muscles for a living. They speak, as I see it to his guilt as much as his greatness, more than anything he might ever put into print. In fact, Bonds generally gets in trouble whenever he speaks. To put it nicely, he comes across in less than flattering ways.

A few days ago Bob Costas, a renowned sportscaster for NBC who grew up in St. Louis and is a real baseball fan, interviewed a guy on an HBO show that was directly involved in the formation of HGH and performance enhancing drugs at the BALCO Labs in San Francisco which is suposedly where B.B. got his stuff. Anyway, "the guy" said Bonds was "on the program" which for everyone else meant he was using the steroids that the lab was producing. Costas pressed the question and "the guy" said yes he thought Bonds was on steriods as well.

Bonds retaliated, with words, in the media the next day by saying that Costas is a "little midget man who knows (nothing) about baseball." Again, Costas is a real fan and an excellent broadcaster as well. B.B. is obviously a bit defensive and chose to lash out at Costas. Barry got zinged a day later when Costas responded by saying (and I love this line):

"As anyone can plainly see, I'm 5-6 1/2 and a strapping 150, and unlike some people, I came by all of it naturally."

Great response. I think it best to remember Barry to not mess with folks who write, speak, and create with words the "once in a lifetime event" that is your chase of Henry Aaron's homerun record. In this game, you'll lose everytime.