Whoa, Bonds

[CanOfCorn]

I was just thinking about this today. Giambi last year, Magglio, Bonds and Sammy this year. Somethings up...I know Maggs wasn't in Canseco's book or called to testify, but these mysterious illnesses (pre-hernia) made me wonder about steroids and the effect on the body when you are no longer on them. Hmmm...thanks FlaSoxxJim, now about that Whale fart....

[Nokona]

I honestly dont believe Barry ever wanted Hank's record, he wants Babe's. Babe is immortalized, and barry wants that too.

[YASNY]

By Barry Rozner

Daily Herald Sports Columnist

Posted Friday, May 20, 2005

 

Not only is Barry Bonds’ season in doubt, but his career and pursuit of Hank Aaron also are in jeopardy.

 

This is the opinion of 18-year major-leaguer Dale Murphy, whose career — and probably his chance for the Hall of Fame — was ended by a staph infection in his knee.

 

“If it’s a staph infection in Bonds’ knee — which is what’s been reported — my opinion is he won’t be back this year, and maybe his career is over,’’ the soft-spoken Murphy said Thursday from his car in Utah, where he was en route to his son’s baseball game.

 

“Two weeks ago, they went back into his knee to address some infection problems and then he’s on intravenous antibiotics around the clock?

 

“That raises a lot of red flags. Typically, they drain your knee and culture that fluid to make sure there’s no infection, but in my case it didn’t show up and it was still getting worse and swelling like crazy.

 

“So they went back in and took some tissue samples, and that’s where the staph came up, deep inside the knee tissue.’’

 

And by then, for all intents and purposes, it already was too late.

 

“The problem is when it’s in the knee, in the joint, it eats away the cartilage and the soft knee tissue wherever it goes,’’ Murphy said. “I lost some cartilage and basically the result of the infection was arthritis. I was never the same.

 

“If it did compromise his knee, it damaged the cartilage, and you can’t fix that.’’

 

Murphy batted about 100 more times over two seasons and was forced to retire with 398 career homers, two MVPs, five Gold Gloves and seven all-star appearances.

 

“You can get rid of the infection, but the damage is already done,’’ Murphy said. “You won’t get rid of the pain, and the bigger problem for him now is it’s not a typical rehab thing.

 

“They probably want him to do nothing for several weeks. Four weeks, six weeks from now, maybe he can start working out again but he’ll be in pain, and then it’s trying to get back into baseball shape.

 

“Hopefully, Barry didn’t suffer too much damage in there, but a staph infection is a bad thing. It’s just not something you want in your body, period. And for him to get it from a scope, I’ve never even heard of something like that.’’

 

The part that really scares Murphy is the story of Bonds being on 24-hour-a-day IVs.

 

“I used to go in for a bag in the morning for an hour, and at night for an hour, for six weeks,’’ Murphy said. “The antibiotics are so strong that they put them in an IV and water them down. For someone to be on them around the clock for two weeks, after three knee surgeries in a few months, I don’t know. I hope he’s OK.

 

“That’s a lot of very strong medicine. You just have to wonder what’s going on in there that made them do that. You have to wonder if he’s going to play at all this year.

 

“Or ever.’’