Beliefnet is exploring Barry Bonds’ assault on Hank Aaron’s home run record from a theological point of view. Today, Michael Kress, who says he finds himself “overcome by a deep sense of sadness and more than a little outrage when contemplating Bonds’s achievement,” weighs the issue of justice v. forgiveness and comes down on the side of justice.
Starting to inject oneself with performance-enhancing steroids so late in an already-amazing career strikes me as just craven, a self-loathing act of desperation, a statement that being great isn’t good enough, that nothing less than the history books–nothing less than god-like perfection–will suffice. Bonds wasn’t–isn’t–some striving rookie, he was already an established star, a role model, a leader. He could have become one of baseball’s elder statesman, retiring gracefully with one of the best careers ever. Instead he chose to artificially prolong it, making a mockery of the natural aging process and his God-given body, as well as his opponents and teammates, and the game itself.
David Kuo and Patton Dodd offer differing points of view.