On Tuesday, in between dodging questions about possible grand jury testimony and questions about the ongoing BALCO investigation, Barry Bonds tried to make it clear that if sports writers would stop writing stories that the story would go away. Despite the roid-filled elephant, shrunken testes and all in the room, Bonds was unable to see the current steroid "circus" as anything other than a voracious media beast unjustly feeding on his reputation.

"I think right now baseball just needs to go forward and you guys need to turn the page and let's move forward," Bonds said.

Move forward from what? You haven't told us yet. We forgot, you're not aloud to answer those questions.

Bonds forgets that celebrity and the media have an unnatural symbiotic relationship. They depend on each other, but if a reporter gets a chance they will devour him. But Bonds doesn't want his troubles to be about him he wants it to be somebody else's fault. So he stretches the limits of logic to figure out whose.

Could it be race? When asked why he faces so much scrutiny as he approaches Babe Ruth's mark for career home runs he said, "Because Babe Ruth is one of the greatest baseball players ever, and Babe Ruth ain't black, either. I'm black. Blacks, we go through a little bit more."

Never mind that a black man broke the Babe's record a long time ago or that a significant number of the reporters covering him are black.

"All of you lied. All of you have said something wrong. All of you have dirt. All of you. When your closet's clean, then come clean somebody else's. But clean yours first, okay," Bonds said.

When Bonds chose a profession that depends on the media to create buzz, he chose to give up a little privacy for 'the love of the game,' money, glory or whatever it is that motivates him to blast homeruns out of SBC Park.

No one is asking to find out how many girls he dated in college, to see his children's report cards or to know what his wife is making for dinner, but we do want a look inside his medicine cabinet. What's inside there has everything to do with baseball. Directly relates to how some fans feel about paying his salary with $30 tickets, $10 beers and $5 hotdogs.

When asked what exactly the media had said about him that was untrue he said, "I don't read all your guys' stuff, but you know, you write, you write your stories, you know. We all have to keep our job, don't we, one way or the other. You do your job." I couldn't agree more.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 24 2005.