Why do people dislike Barry Bonds? A Rick Reilly/Jeff Kent conspiracy!

That is if you believe Skip Bayless ...

http://thestartingfive.net/2009/03/09/the-skip-bayless-interview-part-ii-colorful-conscious-and-of-course-controversial/

 

Barry's a bad guy, and not because Rick Reilly said so.

 

Writers like Bayless take themselves way too seriously. 90% of sports fans don't read Rick Reilly. They wouldn't know Reilly's stance on Bonds if you put a gun to their head.

Even less read or watch Bayless.

 

From what I heard from folks who covered Jeff Kent, they all thought he was a huge douchenozzle whom they hated dealing with and would avoid at all costs.

I'm not sure when he morphed into Magic Johnson.

 

Bayless once again proving that he is a jackass.

Bonds started building that image in Pittsburgh, long before he played with Jeff Kent. The perception was that Bonds was the talented jerk playing along "nice guys" Andy Van Slyke and Bobby Bonilla. And yes, I do see how funny it is that many people in Pittsburgh thought of Bonilla as a nice guy.

 

Jim Leyland grew tired of Bonds' act in Pittsburgh. Not that I disagree with Bayless that Reilly basing his column on Bonds through the eyes of Kent was pretty bad.

Here is the Reilly column: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/life_of_reilly/news/2001/08/21/life_of_reilly/

 

Bonds was a jerk at ASU, long before anyone had evfen heard of Jeff Kent. Probably was a jerk at Serra High, although that's a qualify school.

 

Yup.
By all accounts Bonds was jerk before he ever set foot in Pittsburgh.

 

What happened to Bayless? Is he still on TV somewhere? Haven't seen him in years.

 

Where would anybody get the idea that Leyland had a problem with Bonds?

Actually, if I remember correctly, Leyland has defended Bonds even in recent years.

 

A pretty telling excerpt from a John Steigerwald column -- I can't find the whole article -- a few years back in the Beaver County Times:

They were the long-time groundskeepers at PNC Park and Three Rivers Stadium who were killed by a drunk driver on their way to prepare PNC Park for opening day in April of 2002. They were both well known and well liked not only by the Pirates players but many of the players on visiting teams. They were also well liked by the photographers who work in the area next to the Pirates’ dugout.

Not long after they died, Peter Diana, a photographer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, got together with a group of people who knew Lang and Scott and decided to raise money for their families.

They figured it would be easy to get Pirates players and visiting players to autograph memorabilia and raise money by auctioning the items. All the players who were asked to cooperate did so without hesitation.

Except one.

When Diana approached Bonds, who had known both Lang and Scott, and told him about the auction and asked him to sign a few items, he said, “I don’t sign for nobody.”

That’s why Diana is quoted on the inside cover of the book, “Love Me Hate Me: Barry Bonds And The Making Of An Anti-Hero.” Diana’s quote: “Personally, I hope he (Bonds) dies.”

The Pirates know about Diana’s story and they know about the quote. They also know that’s only one of many similar stories about Bonds. One of the biggest misconceptions in western Pennsylvania is that the media dislike Bonds because of the way he treated them. Most in the media despise him because they’ve witnessed and have been privy to information about so many of the rotten things that he has done.

 

Or was that image built for him?
There were bigger jerks in that clubhouse than Bonds when it started, with John Smiley being exhibit A.
But the media took VERY GOOD CARE of Smiley and lapped up every word Van Slyke said while zinging Bonds every chance they could get.
If I were Bonds, I'd have hated the media by the time I left, too.