Marty Brennaman talks politics, life and baseball on this week's episode of That's So Cincinnati. Cincinnati Enquirer

Twelve years ago today, Barry Bonds hit long fly No. 756 off someone named Mike Bacsik of the Washington Nationals. That was good enough to make him the all-time homerun leader. How do you feel about that now, and how might it differ from your sentiments a dozen years ago?

As evidenced by Bonds’ rising totals in the Hall of Fame vote, the ball writers now are less apt to judge harshly Bonds’ suspected PED use. They say he had a HOF career before his head started growing. They say his era was loaded with cheaters doing the same thing. Or, lamest of all, they remove Bonds from the hook entirely by saying Bonds never failed a drug test. Which is true. To those voters, it was this amazing freak of nature that Bonds hit 73 homeruns at age 36 and 45 at 38 and 39.

That last bit of rationalizing ignores the obvious: This is not a court of law. Innocent until proven guilty doesn’t apply.

It’s not a great leap to suggest how we feel about Bonds’ Hall admission says a little about who we are and what we believe in.

My thoughts on Bonds aren’t exactly vague.

Either we have rules, or we don’t. Either you choose to play by them, or you don’t. You can choose to cheat – your peers, your fans, the game, yourself – or you can choose not to. We’ve minced up Lance Armstrong pretty thoroughly for the same transgression. Other than not being in the HOF, Bonds hasn’t suffered the same fate.

Bonds’ fans have also suggested that PEDs didn’t help his hand-eye coordination. They didn’t make him more talented. They didn’t help him turn on a 98 mph fastball. They’re right about that. What PEDs did was make Bonds unnaturally stronger and help him recover more quickly from injury.

Baseball didn’t have a steroids policy until the start of the ’05 season, three years before Bonds retired. In ’91, commissioner Fay Vincent did send a memo to every team stating that using steroids was against the rules. “A moral statement,’’ Vincent called it. Not a legal one.

So, technically, Bonds broke no rules for the first two decades of his career. He just sort of winked at them.

Baseball loves its numbers. They’re the game’s connective tissue. They are the grist of generations – Mays or Mantle? Their meaning has always depended upon the assumption of a level playing field.

In ’98. Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris’ single-season homerun record while admittedly using performance enhancers. Alex Rodriguez hit more than 600 homers while admittedly juicing for part of his career. Roger Clemens did unusual and interesting things after he turned 40.

They corrupted the spirit of the game. 

It’s rare now that big-league players get suspended for PEDs. MLB has decided to juice the baseballs instead. But the Bonds legacy remains.

What say you, Mobsters?

SPEAKING OF HOFERS. . . Marty Brennaman had some tough stuff to say about US citizens murdering one another en masse. He spoke for the Enquirer’s excellent podcast, That’s So Cincinnati.          

"What in the hell does a normal citizen have the right to own an assault weapon?" Marty said. "I’m a Republican, and I’m proud to say that," he said. "I voted for the guy in the White House. I don’t know whether I’d vote for him again. It can’t be about politics.’’

Who’s gonna be the first to tell the Famer to stick to sports?

HOW MUCH IMPACT could pro jocks/coaches/managers have on reducing gun violence, and should they exercise their freedom to not stick to sports?

Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs coach, coach of the U.S. national team, frequently outspoken on issues outside the gym, had this to say about the recent mass murders in El Paso and Dayton:

“It’d be a lot better if people in power got off their a----- and got something done in a lot of different areas," he said, per The Mercury News' Mark Medina. "They're on vacation right now. Nothing going on, so they're taking a break. They'll come back and fix the gun situation, the environment, the inequality in pay. They'll fix all of that when they come back. I'm sure."

His USA team assistant, Warriors coach Steve Kerr “is demanding more online from lawmakers. His Twitter account includes recent tweets or retweets of posts calling for stricter gun control laws,’’ according to

Why no players? How come a LeBron James or a Tom Brady hasn’t spoken out on this subject? They have no obligation, of course. But might it make a dent in the public consciousness if they did? Are they scared off by the Kaepernick stuff?

It’s your country, too, rich and famous jocks.

THE BENGALS PLAY AN ACTUAL FOOTBALL GAME Saturday night, at KC. Were you aware of that? Fake Game 1 has about as much meaning in the big picture as the Pro Bowl. Fewer and fewer teams are playing their best players, for fear of injury. Does Dalton play a series Saturday night?

More: Cincinnati Bengals' Joe Mixon: You can’t replace the great running backs in the NFL

While I like Zac Taylor’s limiting practice time and giving key veterans days off (Mixon, Gio), I do wonder how that works when you’re putting in a brand new offense, and your offensive line is patchwork, its members only vaguely familiar with one another. I guess we’ll start to find out Saturday. Or maybe not.

Show Thumbnails
Show Captions

ONE OF MY FAVORITE WORK DAYS of the year is today. I’m headed out to Higher Ground, to Bearcats practice. West Harrison, IN, is miles from anywhere, which is delightful. It’s also a decent lab where Luke Fickell & Co. can get some undivided attention and max focus. There’s nowhere close to go and nothing to do when you get there.

This is the year Fickell establishes himself as Hot Young Coach. He nagged at that designation last year. With another 10-plus wins/bowl appearance, he will be front and center. And we will see, again, if loyalty and appreciation (and likely a redone contract) are any match for ambition and huge money.

History suggests, uh, no.

More: UC football Q&A: How DC Marcus Freeman found his passion by reuniting with Luke Fickell

STICK TO SPORTS. . . I will ask again, because I haven’t seen/heard this question anywhere else: Why are better gun laws/better mental health care mutually exclusive? Why does it have to be one or the other?

Why does a “sportsman’’ need a semi-automatic rifle to go deer hunting?

How can we argue that a weapon capable of firing many, many rounds per minute doesn’t do any more harm than a single-shot weapon?

Why do we rail against (and spend a fortune protecting us from) foreign terrorists, but shrug at domestic terrorists? The former are a menace; the latter are “mentally ill.’’ Yet we kill each other far more than “invaders’’ kill us.

TUNE ‘O THE DAY. . . Long live rock, be it dead or alive. But no music is better able to get me moving and in a good mood than sweet soul music. This wasn’t one of Marvin’s signature tunes. But it’s my favorite. Get up and move a little.

facebook sharetwitter shareemail share
Read or Share this story: