An Unarmed Man

Not only is Barry Bonds unnatural, he’s stupid. He embodies (sorry) that old joke about how unfair it was to get into a battle of wits with an unarmed man. He insults Bob Costas after Costas points out the obvious about Bonds’ steroidal corpus. Calls Costas a “little midget who knows nothing about baseball.” Costas, who would have a Ph.D. in baseball if one were offered (hmm, I might go back to college for that), gave a response that immediately should school Bonds on being a human, if Bonds were capable of learning anything: "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.” Want proof that Costas cleaned Bonds’ clock? Here’s Bonds’ comeback: Bonds responded, "How do you know?" before going on to say he didn't care. Huh??? And of course Costas showed the class that Bonds wouldn’t recognize if it came up to him and said, “Hi, I’m Class”:

"I've actually always had a pretty cordial relationship with Barry," Costas said. "I have no ill feelings toward him personally. I regard him as one of the greatest players of all time who got an inauthentic boost and then became a superhuman player. I wish him no ill whatsoever."

Costas said he understood why Bonds might have denigrated him.

"He's under tremendous scrutiny and some pressure. It's no big deal," Costas said. "This is a consequence of doing your job, and I've never tried to do my job in any case with the intention of calling attention to myself. I think if people watch the program, they can judge for themselves."

Sometime soon yet another cap on the cynical and unserious country in which I live will arrive when the media go ga-ga over a cheater breaking a record earned by a fine and honorable sportsman. Barry Bonds is a tumor on any claim to a decent society and we succor and extol him. And Bob Costas just goes on his way, providing integrity and honesty, far less valued today than a tainted homerun ball.