Bonds, up close

Got to take Saturday's game in, in person. It was nice to see a full house.

The Bonds Boo Birds started earlier, had more volume, and lasted longer than the pro-Barry set, but at least in my section, I think there were more cheerers than not.

I am surprised by this. Bonds is the very public face of what seems to be a very big problem in baseball. Even though he claimed it was inadvertent, he did admit, in sworn grand jury testimony, that he did use both the "clear" and the "cream." He's an admitted user.

And while we cannot know exactly how much benefit he got from illegal substances, surely he felt like he was getting a benefit, or he wouldn't have been using them. Further, his denials and non-denials are compounding the problem. For example I have much more respect for Mike Morse and Matt Lawton at this point than Ryan Franklin and Rafael Palmeiro and I don't think I'm in the minority. We would much rather hear, "Yes, I did it, I made a mistake, I'm sorry and I accept my punishment," than all the various excuses and prevarications that other guys have made. I tell my kids all the time that you only make things worse by lying about it, I think this holds true for adults as well. And ballplayers.

I'm not advocating booing Bonds, by the way. I myself, feel somewhat conflicted, because I was genuinely looking forward to seeing the man in person on Saturday. I was coming to see him basically and I think that makes me part of the problem. Chicks, and bloggers it seems, dig the longball. I was just surprised by the number of people who were up and cheering, giving him a pass, essentially, on all of the above.