ok Rick, you’ve finally managed to push me over the top…have been wanting to scream at the top of my lungs for a long time at the sick (not sick the way my 11 y/o daughter uses the word, but sick as in mentally disturbed) obsession you and a great many of your colleagues have with bonds – however, having a life (job, family, playing ball, attending and enjoying sporting events, etc.) and not really knowing how to type has discouraged me from taking the time to respond to the volumes of venom you and those of your ilk have been gleefully spewing forth for such a long period of time …but, as the hit pieces keep coming, well, let’s just touch on some things, not necessarily in order of importance, that should be noted.

George Borges responds to Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly’s column about Barry Bonds. George is a lawyer in San Francisco and an avid basketball player who can still hit a fade away jump shot.

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Bonds was the best player before steroids, the best player during the steroids era and is one of the best afterwards (at 4 days shy of 43)…it appears that the disdain, indeed hatred, of you all seems to emanate from his refusal to admit using steroids (a practice commonplace among the majority of players during that time period) combined with the prospect of his breaking the hr record…this is baseball rick, not war or the million other real life things way more important – and you actually write about that stuff on a somewhat regular basis (yes, am a nearly 40 yr SI subscriber and no, am not canceling my subscription – even though it’s turned into a people magazine/national inquirer type publication in recent years the swimsuit issue alone makes it worthwhile)…but you have devoted more time to bashing and belittling barry for "not coming clean" than can be justified by any measure…kobe, the rapist, pacman, the paralyzer, shawn kemp and the legends of pro athlete deadbeat dads, todd bertuzzi, the cheap-shot career ender, the wife beaters, rae & orenthal, nate newton and his ton of weed, the jailblazers & the bengals and on and on – long gone from the sanctiomonious moralizing you all engage in…but when it comes to barry having "cheated" you guys just can’t help yourself…he didn’t electrocute a dog that wouldn’t fight (see vick), he didn’t pummel a woman half his size (see brett myers), he has never been involved in anything except steroids – not something to brag about but to continue to villify him on a daily basis speaks volumes about all of you…what does it speak to? – among other things, your resentment of barry’s "toxic" personality (a throwaway quote from a recent article in your magazine happily predicting a lower $ value for #756)…yes, he’s been a jerk to the media forever…here’s a news flash – nobody likes bonds (or at least nobody used to like him – you guys have created a backlash that is rapidly growing by the day)…however, he has provided a tremendous level of excitement for baseball fans here in sf (and in pittsburgh and throughout mlb) for many years… take this to the bank – ANY city he was playing in would be cheering for him they way we do here…anyone who would suggest otherwise is a liar and the worst type of hypocrite…you know it’s funny – watching the giants in st. louis recently i was struck by the standing ovation behind both dugouts as bonds returned after his last at bat…it wasn’t wild adoration just a show of respect from those knowledgeable, classy fans and that, and similar, scenes of acknowledgement have been replicated in other cities on other occasions (witnees the booing of the hometown pitchers who walk him – like yesterday at wrigley after he homered for the first time)…but never a mention of that stuff anywhere in the papers or on tv or on the radio…indeed, after that cardinals game, our local paper carried a photo of a guy with an oversized batting helmet in the stands making fun of bonds…anything you guys can do to keep feeding the hate – really, you’re the ones who should be embarrassed for your refusal to provide even a modi***** of even-handed, unbiased reporting (remember, virtually all the polls are 50/50 on bonds in spite of media coverage that’s 100% one-sided).