Barry Bonds is boycotting the Baseball Hall of Fame...Why? One word: ASTERISK.Slugger Barry Bonds has announced he will boycott the Baseball Hall of Fame, including a potential induction ceremony, for displaying his record-setting home run ball with an asterisk.
"I won't go. I won't be part of it," Bonds said in an interview with MSNBC that aired Thursday night. "You can call me, but I won't be there."
Bonds belted his historic 756th home run on August 7, and fashion designer Mark Ecko purchased the ball in an online auction for $752,467 before setting up a website that allowed fans to vote on the ball's fate.
The three options included sending the ball to the Hall of Fame unblemished, branding it with an asterisk or launching it into space. In the end, 80 percent of voters decided to send the ball to Cooperstown, with 47 percent in favor of marking it permanently due to the controversy surrounding Bonds and whether he used performance-enhancing drugs to break the home run record once held by Hank Aaron.
"I don't think you can put an asterisk in the game of baseball, and I don't think that the Hall of Fame can accept an asterisk," Bonds said. "You cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history. You can't do it. There's no such thing as an asterisk in baseball."
When asked what will happen if the Hall goes through with the display, Bonds said, "I will never be in the Hall of Fame. Never. Barry Bonds will not be there."
"That's my emotions now. That's how I feel now. When I decide to retire five years from now, we'll see where they are at that moment," he added. "We'll see where they are at that time, and maybe I'll reconsider. But it's their position and where their position will be will be the determination of what my decision will be at that time."
Back on September 26, Hall president Dale Petroskey said just because Cooperstown accepts the ball does not mean it endorses the fans' viewpoint that Bonds used banned substances.
"The asterisk represents the voice of the fans at this moment in time," said Petroskey when the vote concluded September 26. "The level of interest reflects a strong bond between baseball and American culture. Our responsibility as a history museum is to present every story in proper context, and this ball allows us to do that."
So, enjoy the Hall before Bonds changes his mind, as he will, because he is an attention whore. This man and his ilk have sullied the game far worse than Peter Edward Rose ever did with his schenanigans. Baseball today with its phoney numbers is no different than Vince McMahon's circus, except we know McMahon's circus is staged and a put-on. Baseball still tries to paint itself as on the level.
The only way Bonds should get into the hall is to buy a ticket.
