The Day I Challenged Barry Bonds To A Fight

At the insistence of Pean, I will share with everyone the story of the time I challenged Barry Bonds to a fight. I think this is particluary relevant to the discussion of his probable use of steriods for a number of reasons that I will discuss below.

I can't place the year of this exact game, but it was most likely in 1999, possibly 2000, which places it right in the era when Bonds started juicing (allegedly). At this time (I don't know if the Mets still do this) the Mets had a promotion called "International Week" where every night would celebrate a different nationality. The year before I went to Dominican night incidentally and the largely Dominican crowd went nuts when opposing player Vlad Guerrero, of Dominican descent, jacked two home runs against the Mets. Anyway, two of my friends and I decided to attend Irish night at Shea Stadium, Mets vs. the San Francisco Giants and a post game concert by Irish American rock band Black 47. Sounded like good times all around.

To pre game, me and fellows decided to throw down a large number of Bud Ices, which for those of you that don't know, Ice beer contains crack. It's a scientific fact. Now despite the fact that we were quite toasted upon entering Shea and that we were probably underage at the time, we continued to consume alcohlic beverages throughout the Mets/Giants game, which I have little recollection of. Our seats were on the field level, near the left field side. At some point during the game, Barry Bonds caught the third and final out of the inning, and in typical Bonds fashion, pretended to throw the ball to a young fan in the stands, but pulled back with out throwing the ball; one of the greatest asshole moves in history. Needless to say, when Bonds returned to left field, the fans had some choice words for them. My friends and I, three sheets to the wind, began taunting Bonds as well.

Of course, the next inning, Bonds again catches the third and final out and again pretends to throw the ball into the stands. Needless to say, this was the final straw for me...upon returning to his left field post the next inning, I challenged Bonds to fight me in the parking lot after the game. Repeatedly. Using a lot of four letter words that we not suitable for the numerous families around, including many young children that were probably traumatized by my language. Well, the game ended, Black 47 played about two songs and we left for the parking lot, and unfortunately Bonds was nowhere to be found. Frankly, looking back I'm lucky I didn't induce a 'roid rage and wound up provoking Bonds to jump into the stands and pound me, Ron Artest-style. But frankly, I think I could have taken him in the parking lot.

And that't it. To this day I wonder what was more traumatizing for the kids in the left field stands that day: Bonds refusing to throw them a baseball or my incredibly loud and vulgar challenge for Barry Bonds to fight me in the parking lot. I guess we'll never know.

Date
Tue 03/28/06, 5:55 pm EST

Source

 * [What I can piece together from that day What I can piece together from that day]