There was a time when people doubted Barry Bonds.
They called him washed up. They said he couldn’t hit anymore. They claimed that steroids had finally caught up with him.
That day was March 29 around 2 p.m. when Bonds was taken in the 23rd round with the 182nd overall pick in my fantasy baseball draft.
To put this travesty in perspective, he was chosen only eight picks ahead of Coco Crisp. That’s not a ballplayer ““ that’s a cereal. Even Roger Clemens, who was still retired at the time of the draft, was picked six rounds before him. Then there’s Corey Patterson ““ he gets to first base less than Steve Urkel, and is considerably more awkward about it. Patterson was drafted 91 players ahead of Bonds.
Appalling.
I myself am partially to blame for this mockery of a draft. I think I slept through it or something. That’s the last time I let the computer pick for me. Instead of picking up the available Bonds in the 22nd round, Yahoo gave me shortstop Stephen Drew. I dropped him last week.
But I wasn’t the only one who seriously underestimated the power of the soon-to-be home-run king. In the Yahoo fantasy leagues, he was selected on average with the 165th overall pick.
I wonder if he sat in his recliner on that fateful afternoon, sweating bullets while on the phone with his agent, wondering what round he was going to go this season. I’d bet it was like Brady Quinn on draft day, only without Mel Kiper and with fewer angry Miami fans.
The big difference is that Bonds is without a doubt one of the greatest players of all time. Quinn was probably just overrated.
Bonds may not be one of the nicest guys of all time. He might not even crack the 10th percentile of nice people, but he deserves some respect.
Now, I’m no psychologist, but I believe his draft-day dis was about something deeper than baseball. People genuinely hate Bonds. The truth is fantasy baseballers across the nation simply avoided drafting the guy just because he’s the MLB version of Oscar the Grouch.
Well hey, if Oscar had an on-base percentage of almost .500 I couldn’t have cared less if he loves trash. Get that guy on my team.
Really, what kind of world do we live in? Can you imagine Willie Mays or Babe Ruth slipping past the first round of a fantasy draft for anything, much less baseball? I realize Mays and Ruth were a little more personable than Bonds and did not have the whole steroid cloud following them around, but give him a break.
Everybody wants Bonds to fail and he’s still the most-feared batter this side of Alex Rodriguez.
It’s a good thing Bonds does not take criticism lightly. He has responded to the fantasy slighting by showing up everybody like me who took players like Brian Fuentes over him.
He’s hitting a solid .275 despite recent struggles and has homered 12 times. To quantify that even more, the average major leaguer has only three home runs. Using some math, that makes Bonds about four times better than the average player.
In a few weeks, Bonds will break the all-time home run record. No matter what ballpark it happens in, he will get a standing ovation.
And as he rounds the bases for the 756th time, he will be thinking to himself, “23rd round my … .”
E-mail Feder at jfeder@media.ucla.edu if you’re sitting in seventh place in your fantasy league, too.