Bonds wants to play? Use the Rickey method
Posted: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 12:30 AM
Barry Bonds hasn’t retired and is ready to play ball right now. He hasn’t said that publically, because he’s way too busy feeling sorry for himself to have time to do anything so common as speak for himself.
So Bonds sent his agent, Jeff Borris, out to spread the word: the greatest home-run hitter of all time (performance-enhanced division) is available. So far, there are no takers, and there don’t look to be any. He’s old, he’s slow, and there’s a federal indictment hanging over his head. Oh, and people aren’t happy with the allegations of steroid and HGH use, either.
If it weren’t for the indictment and the drug thing, someone would hire him. But that doesn’t mean he can’t play baseball – if he really wants to, that is.
Just sign a minor league contract. Prove he can still play. Show them how much he wants it.
It worked for Rickey Henderson. Remember when Rickey was supposed to be done as a player? Back in 2003, when no one would hire him, he signed a minor league contract with the Newark Bears in the independent Atlantic League. He was rewarded with a 30-game call-up at the end of the season with the Dodgers.
The next year, when no one would sign a 45-year-old outfielder, he played in San Diego, and did it again in 2005 before finally retiring.
Throughout his career, there were always people who wondered just how much Rickey wanted to play the game. In those final three years, he demonstrated his love for the game by playing ball in independent minor leagues, partly in hopes of getting back to the majors, but mostly because he was a ballplayer and didn’t know how to do anything else.
There are at least nine independent minor leagues. You can bet that one of them would be delighted to have Bonds sign on. It would give them a great drawing card and him a chance to prove he can still play.
Let him make a big show of volunteering to take weekly drug tests. Heck, make it daily tests. Put up a sign in center field with a slot to put in the number of drug tests Bonds has passed so far this year.
Let him ride the buses with the kids and bunk two-to-a-room and get by on $15 per diem. Let him show how much he wants it.
If he tears the cover off the ball and he doesn’t go to jail and passes all the drug tests, he probably has a decent chance of getting a contract as late-season help for a team that needs a bat for a playoff run. If he doesn’t, at least he gets to play ball one more summer – and to prove how much the game means to him.
But he’s probably not going to get a job just sitting at home, working out, and issuing statements through his agent. And it’s highly unlikely any team will hire him until it’s late in the season and desperation kicks in.
Borris said Bonds is ready to play right now. The only thing he hasn’t done is hit against live pitching. You think maybe Roger Clemens would want to throw some BP for him?
