24 hours after the story hit the local newspaper, KCAL9 decided they wanted a piece of the action as well. They showed up this morning, spoke to tenants and neighbors (I declined - it's one thing giving quotes to the paper, it's another thing getting caught on film) and taped footage from the inside and outside of the building.

So, at 12:30 and 3:00, all of Southern California got to watch and laugh at the building, instead of just Riverside...

Now the place is becoming a tourist attraction. I go to the store to stock up for tonight, and the first thing I see is a Corvette, sitting right in front of the place, with both occupants gawking at the place. Apparently, they aren't the first, and I know they're not the last - I saw two more cars just sit in the middle of the street and the drivers stare as I came home.

I don't know how to feel. Part of me is very embarassed. ORANGE?! I mean, if they had decided to paint the building purple or blue or something, hey, I could live with it. But orange?! It does look like the Simpsons' house!

However, I'm also trying to think like my namesake - my long lost famous twin. WWED - What Would Esther Do? And we know that Esther - back when she was still Madonna - would take advantage of this. After all, any press is good press was always her motto. Just as long as it was her name in the headlines or her face on the cover or footage of her on the news, she was happy...

Still, what the hell am I going to capitalize this into? And would Esther even try to capitalize off this kind of media attention?

Labels: Madge Worship, Mi Vida Loca

Bea Sternberg, 87, is among the residents who are upset over the new look of their apartment building at (address removed) in Riverside. The owners painted the building yellow, orange and purple, saying they chose those colors to match the city logo.


A Christmas decoration hangs on the knob of the purple front door of the apartment building in downtown Riverside.

House coat too colorful

The owners of a downtown apartment building are under city orders to undo the hue

RIVERSIDE - Tenants and neighbors are laughing, and crying, at the coat of colors a downtown apartment building recently received: light yellow with mustard trim, orange and purple.

The structure at the corner of (address removed) stands out amid surrounding buildings, which are in much more muted tones. The owners are defending the paint job.

"Why would they pick that purple?" tenant Linda Pollard, 55, said.

"These colors look like they belong in a comic book," tenant Deborah Gibson, 29, said.

City officials received complaints and have issued a notice to correct to the owners, Irvine-based Trico Development Inc. They have set up a meeting in January to discuss the colors, officials said.

Doug Wetton, a principal in Trico, said an architect hired by the firm selected the colors after much thought, based in part on the city's logo.

"It wasn't something that was dreamt up out of the blue," he said.

The city logo features palm trees against an orange sky with a purplish band across it enclosing the city's name, which is in white. The building's colors are similar to those of a copy shop that opened recently on Market Street, Wetton said.

"We are trying to keep with the Spanish colonial heritage of the city of Riverside," he said. "We really feel we haven't done anything illegal or irrational."

Change provokes a reaction, he said. "It's not a typical brown and cream paint job," which the building sported before, Wetton said. "We're not trying to create an eyesore."

Janet Hansen, the city's historic preservation specialist, said the building is in a potential historic district and, because of this, the municipal code gives the city the right to regulate its appearance.

"There's nothing in that neighborhood in quite those colors," she said.

The colors might not even be right for a Victorian house but they are definitely wrong for the apartment building, which is not a Victorian, she said.

The paint colors offended neighbor Tim Hart, 35, who bought a house across Fifth Street last summer.

"It looks like the Simpsons' house," he said, referring to the cartoon show family.

"It's garbage, it's horrible."

Labels: A world gone mad, Mi Vida Loca

The following post is intended to express my views on the last year, and was not achieved by "scientific" means or polling in any manner.

Phenomenon Of The Year: Who else, but Ken Jennings? 74 wins, $2,522,700 in winnings, and made one show on network TV "Must See TV" for me for the first time in years. And it's not over yet - Ken's coming back for an encore in May!

Biggest Debacle Of The Year: The re-selection of Bush, thanks to more dirty tricks in Ohio and Florida.

Honorable Mentions: John Kerry, the continued genocide in Iraq, Paris Hilton

Most Amusing News Story Of The Year: What else, but the one that inspired this blog - a certain Material Girl in her mid 40's deciding to reinvent herself as Esther.


Biggest Sports Story Of The Year (negative): BALCO. The mask has come off once again, and revealed that many of the big names in baseball have cheated their way to MVP statistics. The low point being Barry Bonds - a man flirting with history, and now there is no longer any doubt that he has cheated his way to this point, and is on the verge of tainting one of the biggest records in sports history.

Dishonorable Mention: The Malace At The Palace.

Biggest Sports Story Of The Year (positive): The Boston Red Sox, ending 86 years of heartbreak, of near-misses, and of frustration after capturing their first World Series since 1918.

Now, the Cubs need to join them...

Honorable Mention: Phil Mickelson wins the Masters, ending his 0-for-42 streak in the majors. Only three other players had won the Masters by making a birdie on the 72nd hole.

Sportsman Of The Year (negative): The Thug. Whether it's Rangers pitcher Frank Francisco throwing a chair into the crowd, or the disgusting melee in Detroit where the Indiana Pacers decided to use the fans as punching bags, violence in sports between players and fans reached a new low this year.

(Idea inspired by my friend Mike, who had emailed SI and suggested they name The Thug their Sportsman Of The Year.)

Dishonorable Mentions: Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Terrell Owens, Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, Jermaine O'Neal, Kobe Bryant

Sportsman Of The Year (positive): Brett Favre. Whether it's passing 200 straight games, or once again flirting with 4,000 yards and 30 TD's, or performing despite adversity in his family, or his toughness on the field and class off the field, Favre represents everything that SHOULD be celebrated in sports.

Honorable Mentions: Mickelson, Lance Armstrong, Peyton Manning

Coach Of The Year: Terry Francona. For having enough courage to let the Red Sox be the characters that they are, for doing all the right things with Boston down 0-3 to the Yankees, and for leading the Red Sox to their first championship since World War I.

Honorable Mention: John Fox, for taking the injury-riddled 1-6 Carolina Panthers and leading them to a 7-8 record that can still make the playoffs.

Worst Coach Of The Year: Mike "Meathead" Martz. Whether it's his lying, his scapegoating (Sean Landetta, Chris Chandler, Kurt Warner), his poor coaching or his inability to prepare the team mentally and emotionally, there's no end of the list of reasons why Fartz deserves this "honor". In five years, Fartz took a team that looked like it could become a dynasty and turned them into the laughing stock of the NFL.

Dishonorable Mentions: Jim Tracy, Mike Sherman, Brian Billick, Mike Holmgren


TV Series Of The Year: South Park. In it's eighth season, it's as sharp, witty and controversial as ever, willing to take on everything from the election to Paris Hilton to the Super Bowl halftime fiasco.

Honorable Mention: The Ken Jennings Show, AKA Jeopardy!

Worst Series Of The Year: Reality TV. Take your pick. Survivor, Fear Factor, The Swan, Amazing Race, The Apprentice, the list goes on and on and on...

Dishonorable Mention: The OC (rich, spoiled preppies who fuck up their lives got old with 90210.), just about anything else on network television...


Artist Of The Year: Sherrie Austin. Still the only artist whose career began after 1990 that I still follow... Perhaps because she hasn't sold herself and her fans out?

Honorable Mentions: Madonna, Van Halen (welcome back, Sammy!)

Worst Artist Of The Year: Britney Spears. Not only does her music make my ears bleed, but I'm tired of seeing the woman and tired of the media going gaga over her. People think my antics were bad?

Dishonorable Mentions: Shania Twain, Eminem, Christina Aguilera, Gwen "Sellout" Stefani, Lindsey Lohan, Kelly Osbourne, Jessica Simpson, all boy bands and/or any solo acts from any of their members, and in general just too fucking many to mention.

Song Of The Year (semi-current): "Streets Of Heaven" by Sherrie Austin

Worst Song Of The Year: Chances are if it's mainstream and on the charts, it sucks.

Album Of The Year (semi-current): Streets Of Heaven. While not her finest work, still a very good album, and definitely better than anything that came out in 2004.

Honorable Mention: None. While I'd like to say American Life, I have to admit it's not my finest work.

Worst Album Of The Year: Too many to choose, but I guess I have to go with Britney's GRATEst Hits.


Best Moment Of The Year: MOVING on September 20th.

Worst Moments Of The Year: January 1-September 19.

Drunkest I Got In 2004: November 18th. Just a bit too much to drink that day...

Favorite Thing To Collect In 2004: My nice, new collection of Madonna T-Shirts. I needed to expand my wardrobe, after all...

(Re)newed Passion Of 2004: Madonna. While still sitting #3 on the big list (behind Sherrie and The Beatles), my "reinvention" had lead me to being into Madonna more than I'd been since the late 1980's.

Though, I'll still take Madonna of 1983-1987 over any other period of her career...

Phrase Of The Year: Oh my God! They killed Kenny! (second straight year)

Honorable Mention: What's a hoe?

Friends I'm Grateful For In 2004: Ann, Alane, Robert, Eric and his family, Mike M., Sydney, Mike F., Matt, Libby, Shitpumpkinhead, Rob, Chris, Daria, Krissie, Jenn (congratulations again!), Ginger, Michelle, Sufwatt, Gary, Candice, Susan, and Stefanie.

People I Need To Get To Know Better In 2005: Esther (I love your writing!) and Butch (you're crazy - in a good way!)

Hopes For 2005: World peace (just like every year), corporations that quit fucking over people for bigger profits, a music industry that quits fucking artists and fans and ruining music, a real head coach for the Rams, a World Series for the Cubs

Phrases I'd Like To Never Hear In 2005:

Paris Hilton
President Bush
Rams coach Mike Martz
Yankees pitcher Randy Johnson
Wardrobe Malfunction
Preemptive Strike
War On Terror
Fontana, California
Britney Spears
Jessica and Nick (or either one of them seperately)
John Kerry
Governor Schwarzenegger
All-time home run leader Barry Bonds
Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots
The return on Ron Artest
Michael jordon

Gone But Not Forgotten In 2004: Christopher Reeve, Reggie White, Tug McGraw, Pat Tillman, Mattie Stepanek, Laura Branigan, Gene Wood, Ken Caminiti, Rick James, Johnny Ramone, Paul "Captain Terrell" Winfield, J.J. Jackson, Bob "Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan, Rodney Dangerfield, Tony Randall, Isabel "Weezie" Sanford, Ray Charles, Ronald Reagan, Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch, Art James, Nick and Mary Yankovic, Ralph Wiley, Bob Murphy

Labels: Bushwhacking, Gone But Not Forgotten, Madge Worship, Meathead Martz, Mi Vida Loca, Sinead O'Britney, Sports, Stone Cold Sherrie Austin, Terrible Owens, The Stormin' Mormon, Year In Review

Sunday's passing of Reggie White triggered a flood of memories, and a varying degree of emotions.

For many years, Reggie was one of my favorite - if not favorite - players in the NFL. Not only a great player, but a classy individual on the field. Where so many of his contemporaries would taunt their opponents or showboat after a big play, there'd be Reggie, reaching down and helping the quarterback he just sacked onto his feet.

Reggie was also a huge part of Green Bay's return to greatness in the mid 90's, perhaps as much as Brett Favre. Until Reggie, no big-named black free agent had ever signed with the Packers. The team was often viewed to be a white team in a white city. Reggie's signing changed that - especially after he helped bring in former Eagles' teammate Keith Jackson, and Sean Jones.

There are other memories that stick out about his career. His role in the birth of the Lambeau Leap back in 1993 - when he recovered a fumble, ran it 10 yards, then lateraled it to Leroy Butler. Butler ran it the rest of the way for the touchdown, then leapt into the crowd behind the end zone... The Lambeau Leap was born.

The playoff game against the Lions in 1994, when defensive mastermind/mad scientist Fritz Shurmur decided to play Reggie at defensive tackle to try to slow down Barry Sanders. Sanders would carry the ball 13 times for -1 yard and the Packers would win 16-12.

Super Bowl XXXVI, when he'd set the record with three sacks in Green Bay's 35-21 victory over the dreaded New England Patriots.

Sadly, though, there are the moments that I'm sure everyone would've loved to have forgotten... The infamous speech before the Wisconsin Legislature in 1998, when he blasted homosexuality, then made a number of statements that backfired - "Mexicans are good at fitting 40 in a house", "Native Americans are good at being sneaky", etc. In hindsight, it's obvious that Reggie was trying to point out what he viewed were qualities in people (with the exception of homosexuals). It blew up in his face, though, and came across as a series of stereotypes.

The speech left a bad taste in my mouth for years, even with his apology. Probably mostly over his comments on homosexuality. I guess it hadn't helped that I felt at that moment that Reggie had crossed the line from "spiritual" to "preachy", and like so many others, had decided to use the Bible as a weapon against someone he didn't agree with.

There was also the comeback with the Panthers a couple years later. I was actually very critical of him over this on my old website. However, that comeback attempt has basically been long forgotten by most football fans just four years later, and it's probably for the better that it has been...

One of the things that came out Sunday morning was that Reggie had spent less time involved with Christianity in his last few years, and focused more on studying religion - including Hebrew. He wanted to make sure he "got it right". According to family friends, he had also grown to deeply regret his infamous speech, saying it resulted from "Listening to others too much, and not thinking enough for himself". To what degree he came to regret the speech - perhaps even as much as regretting his comments on homosexuality? - we may never know. But it's obvious that while the majority of people had moved on and put the speech in the past, Reggie hadn't.

One thing is for sure, and that's how much he had meant to people all over the NFL. Former teammates and players have been speaking out for the last three days, discussing and sharing their thoughts and memories. Former teammate Mike Golic broke down on the air on ESPN. Even Doug Flutie - who had a jaw broken while being sacked by White back in the old USFL - had nothing negative to say.

The Philadelphia Eagles will retire Reggie's #92 next season, and it appears likely the Green Bay Packers will at some point as well.

I think the saddest things, moreso than the loss of a great football player, are how many people lost someone very special to them, the fact Reggie never got the chance to learn all he wanted and "get it right", and his family. His wife Sara has been battling MS for a few years now, and now Reggie is gone. I can't even begin to imagine the grief they are feeling right now.

May Reggie White rest in peace, and may his family find the strength to cope and survive this.

Thanks for the memories, Minister Of Defense. Even with the controversies later on, you gave football fans everywhere some remarkable memories over the years.

Labels: Gone But Not Forgotten, Sports

My apologies on posting this a day or two late, as I haven't had much time to do so the last couple of days. I do hope everyone out there had a safe and happy holiday season.

I spent Christmas Eve with my friend Robert, and Christmas day with Alane and later with Eric and his family, who have become my extended family in recent years. I am grateful to all of you for sharing the holidays with me. Thank you!

I do hope Eric enjoys his Kurt Angle biography and AUTOGRAPHED Triple H book. I sure hope he enjoys the new reading material...

Woke up this morning to my phone ringing at 8:20am. My father calling me to tell me Reggie White just died. I'll touch more on that later today once the fog clears, because there are a great deal of thoughts I've had over the years on him.

Labels: Gone But Not Forgotten, Mi Vida Loca, That's What Friends Are For

After four and a half years, the unthinkable has happened...

AOL has finally terminated my account!

It, of course, took a billing error for it to finally happen. The dumbasses never updated my account with my NEW phone number when I moved, so they tried to bill an unexistant phone number... Whoops.

So, I convinced them to just cancel the bloody thing and waive the balance they attempted to bill me (and, I would've cancelled BEFORE they had tried to bill me had it not been for these dumb fuckers painting my building who cut my phone line).

I'm relieved. Now I don't have to call ever 2-3 months and worry about what reject I get to deal with this time around, what lame bullshit I'll hear to convince me not to cancel, and worry about forgetting to call in time to cancel.

Good riddance. It's not like I haven't had a REAL ISP all this time and have needed AOHell anyway...

And, speaking of the work to paint this building, that's a story for another time. And believe me, it's quite a story - because this is going to wind up in the local newspaper!

Labels: Corporate Assholes, Mi Vida Loca

Found this today on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's forum.

I've also added a new link today: Check out MadRussian's enlightening blog Dump Martz!.

PLAYOFFS?! Don't talk about playoffs! Are you kidding me?! PLAYOFFS?!


Every fan in The Lou-ville liked winning a lot...

But the MARTZ, Who coached the Rams of The Lou-ville,
Did NOT!

The MARTZ hated winning!
The whole football season!

Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that his head wasn't screwed on quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that he coached until his team had no fight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his brain was two sizes too small.

But, whatever the reason,
His coaching or brain,
He stood there on Sunday, hating the game,
Staring down from the sidelines with a sour, Martzy frown
At the talented players again on 4th down.
For he knew every fan in The Lou-ville would cry
While the NFL post season would be passing them by.

"I'm a coaching genius" he snarled with a sneer.
"Next month is the playoffs! They're practically here!"
Then he growled, "I don't need to coach defense... there's really no reason",
"No take aways won't keep us out of the post season!"
We'll keep playing prevent, there's no way that they'll run...

...Third and long comes a draw play and their down card read "1"
Such glee across the field, their coach was in heaven
And then! came more run plays and soon they had "7"
That's one thing he hated! The RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!

Then the fans, young and old, would boo loud from the stands.
"Our Special Teams stink, put in someone with good hands!"
"We're tired of giving their team good positions!"
But the Martz wouldn't let them change his decisions

And THEN
He'd do something they liked least of all!
Every fan in The Lou-ville, the tall and the small,
Would watch from the stands, not cheering, but grumbling.
They'd stand hand-in-hand to watch the Special Teams fumbling!

Then the other team scored!
AND they'd SCORE! SCORE! SCORE! SCORE!
And the more the Martz thought of the score out of control
The more the Martz thought, "I should coach the ProBowl!"
"Why for years I've been coaching at this level of play!
Who cares if I win, as long as it's done...
...My WAY!!!"

Things still look bleak for the fans in The Lou
Try as they might, there's only one thing they can do
The front office can provide a happy ending if inspired
BOYCOTT THE GAMES AND MAD MARTZ WILL BE FIRED!!!

Labels: Meathead Martz, Parodies, Ram Pride, Sports

Since Wednesday afternoon, I had received a series of telephone calls, all with a bogus name coming up on the caller ID, all from the same number. I'd gotten over a dozen of them (one as late at 11pm), and everytime the idiot hung up on me.

So, this morning, I get another call. Same number, same bogus name... Except this time, the person decides to stay on the line.

And who was it? A telemarketer from AT&T!

Needless to say, it took about 2.6 seconds for my temper to take over.

They kept trying to get me to listen to their offer, I kept yelling at them about these phone calls I've been getting from them. At which point, the telemarketer hands me over to a supervisor.

The supervisor had the nerve to complain about me being unprofessional and rude, at which time I get even louder and even more angry. "Unprofessional is your band of flunkies calling me for four days and hanging up in my ear, jackass! That's phone harassment, and if it happens again, I'll file a complaint through SBC. That'll look real good, won't it? SBC pressing phone harassment charges against AT&T!".

"Look, we're just trying to tell you about our long distance."

"Not fucking interested. I already have a damned good plan from a company that doesn't call me and hang up."

I wish I had known that if you move or change your number you have to sign up again for the "Do not call" list. If I'd known that, this shit wouldn't have had a chance to happen.

I'm so tired of this corporate shit. Spam in my email box. Telemarketers harassing me over the phone. Ad banners and popup windows all over the Internet. More and more commercials on network television. Geez, can we do anything anymore without fucking advertising and corporation uber alles being shoved down our throats?

Well, I'll say this: AT&T has made an enemy of me this week. Hell will freeze over before I do business with them again. If you got to pull this bug people over the phone shit, at least have the decency to SPEAK and not hang up in people's ears!

Labels: Corporate Assholes, Mi Vida Loca

I hate when something doesn't look right.

Ten days later, I turn on Jeopardy! and something doesn't seem right. No, it's not the set - while I actually MISS the original set from the 80's, I've gotten used to the current one...

No, it's not Trebek missing his moustache or even his 70's/80's afro being long gone - though he looked much more amusing with it...

It's the podium that appears on the left of our screen. The one closest to Alex. It just doesn't look right anymore. I guess that's to be expected when the same person stands behind it for 74 games.

Oh my God! Nancy Zerg killed Kenny!

Yes, I'm still going through Ken Jennings withdrawals...

I think they should put a plaque on the podium... Or let Ken carve "Ken was here!" into it.


The NBA is at it again... This time, it's immature/self-centered punk Carmello Anthony taking part in an anti-snitch/witness intimidation DVD. Yet another item on the constantly growing list of why I'll never again follow this sport, which honestly is more of a crime syndicate/gang than a professional sports league at this point.

Classy, Carmello. Real classy. And the sickest part is the owners, general managers and league office clearly don't care anymore. This type of behavior has been a growing problem for a decade, but nobody seems to give a rat's ass as long as they can dunk and sell sneakers.


I've been trying to drag myself into the Christmas spirit. Never easy, and usually doesn't happen until a couple days before Christmas. The holidays aren't the easiest time of the year for me to deal with, with most of my family passed on or out of the state, and there's usually a sense of relief come December 26th.

Depending what may happen as far as GameOvr Radio between now and the 25th, I wouldn't mind doing MY idea of a Christmas show - Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics ("How about we sing 'Kyle's Mom Is A Stupid Bitch' in D-minor!"), Sherrie Austin's "Winter Wonderland", Weird Al's "Christmas At Ground Zero", and my own "Santa Baby". However, it's hard to say if it could happen. Eric unfortunately is dealing with major car problems, and that's been his biggest worry lately (understandably so).

Good luck getting your baby running again.


Love Rob's new terror/stabbing alert system! We need to come up with one for my site as well... Heh heh.


Butch is doing his 2004 lists, and Rob plans to as well. I likely will as well, but will likely finish it and/or post it during the last week of the year.


The "If you want something done, gotta do it yourself!" item of the month: I recent took The Subway Poster (which measures 41" by 61" - this photo was taken from the old, crappy apartment. I intend to take a photo of it sometime soon in my new place) into Michael's to see what it would cost to frame it during one of their 50% off custom framing specials. The total, including tax, came to about $155 - and includes NOTHING to cover or protect the poster itself. They don't carry glass big enough, and don't do any plexiglass. They did suggest I try a hardware store like Lowe's to see what they can do as far as plexiglass. However, let's face it - I'm probably looking at nearly $200 between the plexiglass and framing job. That deserves a fucking sheesh! And it'd only be that much worse if it wasn't 50% off...

So, I'm going to look into materials and do the job myself. I don't know what I'm more shocked over - the price, or the fact I'd be on my own on glass/plexiglass. I mean, if they'd told me $155 and could include some sort of protective covering, I'd have probably done it... But, let's face it - I could easily do this for less myself.

Too bad I couldn't just buy something to display the poster in from these companies that do advertising at bus stops and the like... Then again, if I could, they'd probably quote me a price that makes $155 sound like pocket change.


Two new links added to the left: Jay Jaffe's Around The Bases (part of his great site Futility Infielder) and Buddy's FuckedSports.com. Both are highly recommended reading for baseball/sports fans. Jay offers some great insight into baseball, and Buddy has done a great job exposing and nailing sports' rotten apples, especially now with Steve Hofstetter's Jerk Of The Week no longer around.


And, fortunately, only 21 days, 16 hours left until 2005...

Labels: A world gone mad, Mi Vida Loca, Sports, That's What Friends Are For, The Stormin' Mormon

To the surprise of nobody (except the most deluded Barry Bonds bandwagoners), the media broke the news last night that many of us knew all along:

BARRY BONDS IS A CHEATER
According to Bonds' testimony before a grand jury last year, he claimed he had "unknowingly" used steroids provided by BALCO and his personal trainer, Greg Anderson.

This, just 24 hours after the news broke that Giambi - another BALCO client - admitted to using steroids, THG and human growth hormones from ***1 until 2003. A couple months earlier, Gary Sheffield (yet another BALCO client) said he "unknowingly" used steroids provided to him by BALCO and Bonds.

First off, let me make one thing clear: I don't buy the claim that Bonds didn't know what he was putting in himself. Secondly, even if he didn't know, it's not a defense in the NFL, and shouldn't be here.

Bonds has worked with BALCO defendent Anderson since 1998, which would coincide with his massive growth/muscle gain where he'd gain 43 pounds and grow an inch taller. While he tried to put a PR spin (in front of the grand jury, no less!) on it, he overlooks the fact that some of us noticed his increase in size and power figures date back before 2002, when he "admits" to using "the clear" and "the cream".

Though, of course, don't mistake Bonds' confession to the grand jury as honesty or integrity. All the athletes who testified were told they'd be given immunity if they admitted to steroid use - however, if caught lying, would face charges of perjury. The "I didn't know I took steroids!" bullshit was Bonds' way of covering his own ass, not an act of contrition or honesty.

When you consider not only the fact that Bonds has seen a significant increase in size and power since starting to work with Anderson (which began in his early 30's), but the lengthy list of athletes who have worked with Anderson and/or BALCO who have tested positive for steroids or implicated in this scandal, the evidence is overwhelming that Bonds was cheating further back than 2002.

Bonds not only VERY likely set the single-season home run record (which, ironically, was previous held by steroid freak/cheater Mark McGwire) while taking illegal steroids, but has cheated his way to over 700 career home runs and now sits 52 away from the all-time record.

Baseball now has a serious black eye, and a brewing situation that could damage the game far worse than the Black Sox scandal. The league has hyped itself around individual greatness - especially home run figures - since the 1994 strike, and has a growing list of prominent sluggers who have been caught or admitted to illegal steroid use:

The late Ken Caminiti (1996 MVP)
Jose Canseco (462 career home runs)
Jason Giambi (***1 MVP, three 40 HR seasons in last five years)

And now Barry Bonds, the single-season record holder and third all-time.

Baseball needs to take immediate and serious action to repair the game, and it's reputation.

1. Remove Bud $elig as commisioner. $elig allowed and even supported baseball's paper-thin, smoke and mirrors, PR "steroid policy" during the 2002 collective bargaining talks. The policy was a scam, concocted by both the union and the owners, to appease suspicious fans. The policy is essentially meaningless. Neither the owners (higher TV ratings and attendence thanks to the home run increase) or the players (more salary and endorsement money thanks to the home run increase) wanted a real steroid policy, which would result in lost money. They were all willing to sell out the game for the sake of profits, and $elig was in on it too.

Furthermore, if the recorded phone conversations of Greg Anderson are accurate and true (the ones where he said he was provided steroids for Bonds), MLB was also telling him WHEN Bonds would be tested, meaning they took part in a conspiracy to protect Bonds and his illegal steroid use because his "chase for history" was bringing in attention and ratings.

2. SERIOUS punishment for any player who admits to or tests positive for THG. It's one thing to use steroids and cheat yourself and the game. It's another thing entirely to go out of your way to use an undetectable substance to get past drug testing. Bonds ("I didn't know!"), Giambi, Sheffield ("I didn't know!"), Benito Santiago, Armando Rios, and Bobby Estalalla - all BALCO clients - have confessed before a grand jury to using THG. All of them did so hoping to benefit from illegal steroid use and fool drug tests.

And, as far as I'm concerned, all should face AT LEAST a one year suspension, if not permanent banishment. Pete Rose is banned for life for betting on his own team, and those actions did far less to hurt the game of baseball than the rampant steroid use in recent years. If baseball had the integrity to toss out Rose - who was immensely popular back in 1989 - do the same with Barry Bonds. And in the best interests of the game, do so now - because it will only be that much worse if he's permitted to pass Hank Aaron thanks to his cheating.

No one player should EVER be bigger than the game. Breaking that unwritten rule was the beginning of the end for the NBA, when they took the stance in the 1990's that Michael jordon was more important than the game itself. For Major League Baseball to repeat that mistake, especially under these circumstances, would be suicide. The game won't make it another decade under these conditions.

And as far as Bonds? He has now and forever lost all credibility. His 73 home run season is a fraud. His 500th, 600th and 700th career home runs are frauds. And should he be permitted to pass Hank Aaron, he would turn the most hallowed record in sports history into a fraud - one that I doubt Major League Baseball could ever recover from.

Bonds has cheated the fans, the game, and baseball history. And for that, he should never be forgiven. From this day forward, he is officially - now and forever - a cheater.

Labels: BALCO Barry, Cheaters, Corporate Assholes, Sports