should barry bonds retire?

(I'm writing this Sunday for later publication on Boltsmag while I'm away)

The St. Petersburg Times is running their weekly "Face Off" column on the subject of Barry Bonds. The column is basically a two-author deal that squares one writer off against the other on some sports related topic...

This week, it's Barry Bonds ego.... er, I mean Career.

I gotta voice discontent against the argument standing up for Barry and his continued career:

But the man can hit home runs. The man can single-handedly turn a team into a contender. The man is the greatest hitter my generation has ever seen.

Steroid claims aside (which is addressed in the anti-Barry piece of the column), author Dave Murphy must live in a shell. While Bonds certainly hit his share of home runs (when he was a stick figure and when he was an over-juiced plumb) I would not call him the greatest hitter of this generation. Barry's pomposity has helped get him more acclaim than someone like Jeff Bagwell, and his less oft-injured status has kept him in the public eye more-so than Ken Griffey Junior (who fell off the face of the earth after being traded to Cincinnati).

Oh, then there is this "contender" claim which I do not understand at all.

How many times has Barry gone to the World Series? Once. How many times has he won the World Series? ... What is his career playoff average? What is his career playoff home run total?

It takes more than home runs to make a team a contender. It takes more than selfishness to make a player a force.

There is a poll attached to this column so you can vote on who's opinion you favor... You'll have until Sunday March 12th...