Why does everyone hate Barry?

Barry Bonds is closing in on Hank Aaron’s home run record. The commission, Bud Selig, has not indicated whether he will try to attend upcoming Giants games, mainly for PR reasons since he doesn’t want to make it look like he condones steroid use. It’s ‘highly probable’ that Bonds injected ‘roids before, perhaps regularly, but I find MLB and the commissioner’s stance rather hypocritical since it’s not like no one was aware that players were sticking needles in their butts. Many owners, coaches/managers, trainers, players, you name it, knew about this problem for years but looked the other way, because 1) they liked how juiced balls were generating more ticket and merchandise sales, and 2) of the potential backlash and lost revenues.

While I’m not in any way condoning Barry’s likely use of steroids to get to where he is, the reality is that anyone in the vicinity of hitting 500 to 700+ home runs over the last 10 or so years has likely used steroids to get to where they are. Look at the others on the list: Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, etc….Are we hating Barry or are we hating that entire group?

Let’s analyze this using game theory: It’s like one big ‘ol fraternity mixed with prisoner’s dilemma. Many players do steroids, but each is afraid to rat on another, because by doing so, it’ll draw attention to himself and increase the odds of him getting caught too! And the retired ones don’t want to tarnish their legacies….Well, unless your name is Jose Canseco.

I think what’s saddest of all is that many of those in the stands who boo Barry, probably would have done the same were they in Barry’s shoes. Human nature, greed, egos, etc…just sick.