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We still knew that the relationship between Barry Bonds, legend of the Giants, and Major League Baseball was far from friendly, but former MLB commissioner, Bud Selig, more than doubled those feelings in his next book, "For The Good of the Game".
In an excerpt from his book published Tuesday by Sports Illustrated, Selig was not hesitant to express his dissatisfaction with Bonds and the time elapsed between July 27, 2007, when Bonds was connected to Career House No. 754 of August 7, where he had hammered his 22nd round of the season and the 756th of his career.
"Bonds was about to break Henry Aaron's record for career circuits, and I was doing what the curator of a sports league is supposed to do," Selig writes. "I was touring the country to witness the ceremony when the egocentric slugger reached the record of history."
Selig chaired baseball as a struggling commissioner from 1992 until his retirement in 2015, a period in which a growing number of steroids were used in baseball, particularly for many of his players. stars.
Although Selig took the responsibility of not doing more to prevent drug use in order to improve his performance, he did everything to describe his emotions during the two-week period when Bonds and his record hunt were epicenter of the sporting world. .
In addition to lamenting the arrogance of Bonds, Selig also noted the contrast between Bonds and Aaron, whom Barry was looking for the record of all time.
"Along the way, I had plenty of time to think about the differences between Barry Bonds, who was just not friendly, and Henry Aaron, who had been a giant on the field and was now off the field, wearing as much coolness as humility, "Selig said. "I consider myself a friend of Henry since 1958 and I overflow with pride every time I talk to him."
Selig went on to discuss the scene in San Diego after Bonds went to the opposite field to Petco Park to get the # 755 home run to tie the MLB record:
The next night, I climbed into a box at the top of the stadium. I did not mind being alone. I thought I had all the possible emotions in a baseball stadium. I was very nervous and angry more often than I would like to admit. I was smoking at the chain and I felt the degree of peace that my friends were talking about after long hikes in a national park. I was excited and had moments of pure joy. But that took me to a place I had never been before, and I'll admit it.
I was thinking about that and a million other things as I watched Bonds fly a Padres Clay Hensley to San Diego's left seat, setting off a celebration by tying Henry's record.
I did not go to the club to congratulate him afterwards. I just could not bring myself to look him in the eye and enjoy what he had done. I do not really have a poker face.
[RELATED:[RELATED:[ENRELATION:[RELATED: New rookie giant Hunter Bishop has a similar background to bonds.]
Selig also noted that Aaron had been hesitant to render a video tribute to Bonds when he had set the record, but that it was Selig who had convinced him to do so "whatever circumstances."
Bonds, due to its alleged use of steroids, is still not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Giants, however, withdrew their No. 25 jersey in the 2018 season and Bonds was welcomed by the San Francisco public cheers.
But while Bonds is not in the room, Selig was elected in 2017. Selig has presented his entire career and the era of steroids in the last paragraph of the excerpt available.
"Steroids have become a bigger problem than any of us imagined when we were watching Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in the summer of 1998," wrote the former commissioner. "But thanks to my work with the owners, possibly with the cooperation of the players union, who shoved our feet, we ended up with baseball having the toughest steroid policy in the sport." I could not be more proud looking back, and the same goes for the economic redesign of sport during my tenure. "
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