by Mark Silva
After much back and forth with the White House press corps today over whether or not President Bush would place a congratulatory call to Barry Bonds, the new homerun king who faces questions about steroids, the president made that call early this afternoon.
And later today, the president explained his initial delay as a matter of time zones -- Bonds blasted his 756th home run on the Pacific coast last night, at 11:51 pm on the East Coast, well after Bush already had gone to bed for the night. Bush explained all this for Fox News.
“I just got off the phone with him,'' Bush told Fox News Channel during an interview aired by Your World with Neil Cavuto this afternoon -- the president had called the big batter at 1 pm EDT -- "I politely waited until the appropriate time on the Pacific Coast (to) call him to congratulate him.
" He is a great hitter,'' Bush said of Bonds. "He broke the record of another great hitter, Hank Aaron. And I congratulated him on breaking that record.''
As for the question of steroid use in sports, which Bonds has denied and Bush made an issue during his State of the Union address three years ago, the president said this:
"There is a lot of speculation about Barry Bonds, and my only advice for people is to just let history be the judge. Let's find out the facts, and then everybody's opinion, one way or the other, will be verified or not verified.
"In the meantime, however, I think it's appropriate to recognize this man can hit the baseball.''
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Comments
President Bush is right, Barry Bonds is a great hitter, regardless of whether he used steroids. Steroids do not affect one's ability to hit the ball, only the distance that might be achieved by the extra muscle. If it is proved eventually that Bonds did use steroids, it will be a shame because he would have continued to be an outstanding ballplayer regardless. And Bush did exactly the right thing by waiting to call him at the appropriate time.
Posted by: Fran Cisco | August 8, 2007 6:43 PM
Leave it to one over achiever too admire another over achiever.
Posted by: Sac Ramento | August 8, 2007 6:56 PM
"HATERAID, HATERAID, HATERAID"
GET YOU PAPERS, BUSH ACKNOWLEDGES A BLACK MAN IN THE UNITED STATES.
BUSH REFUSES TO MEET WITH NAACP OR THE BLACK CAUCAS, BUT AFTER MUCH SURVEILLANCE OF LAST NIGHT PITCH, HE SAW IT, HE HEARD IT AND HE DATA MINED IT. HE AGREES BARRY BONDS IS NOW THE HOMERUN KING.
BUT DON'T YOU THINK THIS IS GOING TO HELP KATRINA VICTIMS. DON'T THINK THIS IS GOING TO HELP MISSISSIPPI RESIDENCES. DON'T THINK I'M NOT GOING TO VETO THAT DAMN CHILDRENS HEALTH CARE BILL. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY AFRICAN AMERICAN KIDS THAT WILL GET SOME OF MY GOVERNMENTS AID? SEE.
BUT BARRY, BARRY, BARRY MY BROTHA, HOMEY, HOME SKILLET, BRO HAM. DON'T YOU THINK THAT I'M GOING TO LET YOU GO. YOU SHOULD HAVE GAVE ME THAT AUTOGRAPH WHEN I ASKED YOU BARRY. YOU KNOW WHEN YOU PLAYED AT ASU AND I WAS PARTYNG AT THE ASU DORMS. OOPS DID I SAY THAT?
AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE A JOKE TO BUSH. BLACK PEOPLE ARE LITTLE FISH IN A BIG POND AND HE HEARD THAT SOME OF THEM COULDN'T SWIM. COME RITA, COME ON KATRINA. COME ON IMMIGRATION BECAUSE I A B CARD FOR THEM.
BUT BLACK WOMEN, OR AN AFRICAN WOMAN. OOOOOOHHHHHHH BBABBBYYY JUST LIKE IN THE OL DAYS HUH DICK.
BARRY SHOULD OF HUNG UP OR BETTER YET, ASKED HIS PRESS CORP DID HE EVER EXTEND OR KNOW OF ANY OF HIS PLAYERS ON HIS PRO BASEBALL TEAM THAT HE OWNED DID STEROIDS AND IF SO, WHO?
WE ALL KNOW YOU DIDN'T MEAN IT DECIDER GUY. JUST A FORMALITY THAT YOU WERE FORCED TO DO.
Posted by: Roger Morris | August 8, 2007 8:52 PM
Let's think about the two giants, and I don't mean Giants, in the room.
BRuth was a fat, out of shape smoker that drank too much, yet he accomplished legendary status.
By Hank's time condition meant something, and he was in very good condition, yet look at him! Trim as a girl! Yet he swatted out 755!
Now comes BB. Consider this. What if he could have done it without the enhancement drugs!? There is a real tragedy.
What might have been?
Also, had he finished in the third all time position, he still would have been venerated and respected for his accomplishment, but due to the stain on his record he will never be accepted as a true champion.
Shakespeare could not have concocted a greater tragedy.
Posted by: C.Morris | August 8, 2007 8:52 PM
Leave it to one cheater to admire another cheater. At least Bonds just damaged a game. I guess damaging the entire world is overachieving, if you measure achievment by damage done.
Posted by: Dean | August 8, 2007 10:39 PM
CMo,
None of it matters anyway. A Rod will pass him up by the end of his career. Most likely without the steroid cloud over him.
Posted by: Bubba | August 9, 2007 12:26 PM
What I love about this story is that Bush was at the epicneer of the steroids eruption in the 90's -- the team Canseco wrote about in Wired, the Texas Rangers, happened to be owned by George W. Bush.
Why anyone expects George Mitchel and company to get to the root of steroids in baseball -- without the ability to subpoena people -- need only look at how well investigators who CAN subpoena people are doing with Bush and friends. We will get no answers, just a whitewash of how much owners knew and allowed -- and Barry Bonds makes a perfect scapegoat anyway, because he's a jerk. Maybe Roidger Clemens will get nailed too, but no one in ownership will ever admit how much they knew....
Posted by: BaltimoreTom | August 9, 2007 1:56 PM