Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Forget the Head, Look at the Feet

According to Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, the authors of Game of Shadows, Barry Bonds went from size 10 1/2 to size 13 cleats in his years with the Giants. Moreover, they state that "medical experts said overuse of human growth hormone could cause an adult's extremities to begin growing, aping the symptoms of the glandular disorder acromegaly." I don't have much to add to that, other than the fact that we've all been making jokes about Bonds's expanding head, but we were paying attention to the wrong end of his body.

The evidence that Bonds used a variety of steroids is, at this point, absolutely overwhelming. The fact that he hasn't challenged the factual statements set forth in Game of Shadows, despite the fact that he has more than enough cash for a spirited libel claim, is telling. This would be a good summer to be hiking the Hindu Kush to escape the media's saturation coverage of Bonds's grim pursuit of 755 home runs. With no major soccer tournament in the summer, we're going to have nothing to divert our attention from Bonds. It's going to get to the point where I'll be looking forward to coverage of the Red Sox and Yankees on SportsCenter.

1 comment:

David Samuel Sandler said...

I hit size 13 at age 12. My feet stopped growing around age 14 or 15 at size 14 (or 13 wide). Feet are supposed to be the bones that stop growing as the body stops. For Bonds' feet to grow again after age 30 after being stopped for so long is a pretty damning piece of evidence. (along with all the other pretty damning pieces of evidence)