Born and raised in Chicago, Paul Ervin has an older brother and a younger sister. He went to Florida A&M University for college where he obtained his bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism while minoring in social work. After college, he moved back home and became an elementary school teacher/basketball coach for two years before moving to Bristol, CT and working as an associate producer for ESPN. After a little over a year at ESPN, he was offered the same position with Fox Sports Net and "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," a position he still holds. Music and sports are his passions, and he enjoys listening to music and playing video games in his spare time. Barry Bonds has taken constant heat over the past few years regarding his alleged steroid use. What most people fail to realize is Bonds was dominating the game for years prior to 1998, the year he allegedly began using performance-enhancing drugs.
Unless you’re from another world, you have seen this movie several times already and are sure to see it again and again until the man calls it quits. Apparently Bonds is the devil as far as most sportswriters are concerned … or so it seems. In my 27 years on this planet, I have never seen an athlete of Barry Bonds’ caliber take the level of abuse he has over the past few years.
In the upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated, segments from a new book that alleges heavy steroid use by Bonds are included. The book, "Game of Shadows," by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, details the alleged use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs by Bonds beginning in 1998.
I do not know Bonds and have never spent any time in San Francisco or Pittsburgh for that matter, but I do know he was arguably the game’s best player before 1998. I actually would not be surprised if Bonds has used steroids, but if this alleged use did not start until ‘98, then the rest of the free world needs to get off his back because he was already the dominant player he is today before then.
That is the one problem I have with this whole Bonds and steroids fiasco. For the casual baseball fan and the younger ones, they might get the impression that Bonds would not have accomplished anything in baseball if it were not for drugs, which could not be further from the truth. For that fan, I will shed some light on his numbers BEFORE 1998.
Bonds entered the league as a Pittsburgh Pirate in 1986 and proceeded to hit 16 homers and drive in 48 runs, while also stealing 36 bases in only 113 games. Over his next three seasons, Bonds averaged 23 homers, 58 RBI’s and 27 steals while batting .264.
In 1990, his fifth big league season, Bonds started putting it all together, earning his first of seven MVP trophies, when he hit 33 home runs, drove in 114 runs and stole 52 bases … that’s right, 52! Oh yeah, he also batted .301 that season as well.
The following season, his power numbers dipped slightly, but he walked over 100 times, starting a trend that has become much too popular. In 1992 and ’93, all Bonds did was win back-to-back MVP awards with averages of 40 homers, 113 RBI’s and 34 steals. His batting average over those two seasons? .324.
Cover the name and the years and you could put those numbers up against anyone in today’s game (except Barry coincidentally) and they would be praised. I wonder how many people even know about these years, these years when even the biggest Barry Bonds haters would have to admit that he was as clean as they come.
The sad part about it is the man had five more seasons BEFORE 1998 that made these first eight look bad. From 1994-97, Bonds averaged 38 home runs, 104 RBI’s and 34 steals, while hitting .301. He also walked an average of 123 times during this four-year stretch.
If you consider all of these numbers I have just placed in front of you (did I mention he won seven Gold Gloves BEFORE 1998 as well), you will realize how great a player Bonds is, with or without steroids. BEFORE 1998, he was sitting on 374 homers, averaging 31 per year and hitting .288 a season. Had he stayed on that pace, he would have 620 home runs now instead of the 708 he currently has. So he would be fifth on the all-time list instead of third … big deal.
Only Barry knows if he did or if he didn’t. It just seems to me that he has not been given a fair shake by journalists worldwide. Our job is to report the facts, like it or not, and not once have I heard anyone talk about how great he was before all of this steroid talk. As proven by his stats BEFORE 1998, Bonds was well on his way to being one of the greatest players to ever step into a batter’s box.
To his credit, the easy thing for him to do would be to retire from the game he helped reinvent, but Bonds seems determined to leave on his own terms. He refuses to be forced out amid constant steroid allegations ala Mark McGwire.
Until we know for sure if Bonds is guilty or not, let’s just enjoy the show. At the end of the day, baseball is about hand-eye coordination more than anything else. If I took steroids every single day for the next year, I probably still couldn’t hit the ball further than shallow center … point being, if Bonds did it, maybe he did it as a test to see why everyone else was doing it because it clearly wasn’t making them better than him BEFORE 1998.