Seven Wonders of the (Sports) World

It’s official: eight new natural wonders have been added to the World Heritage List.
The U.S. got shut out this year, but the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico and Joggins Fossil Cliffs in Canada finally made the cut.
What does this have to do with sports, you ask?
Well, all this talk about wonders of the world got me thinking, what are the Seven Wonders of the Sporting World?
Here are a few suggestions courtesy the WCBias Heritage List:

• Wrigley Field, Steve Bartman and the Billy Goat. Take your pick, one of those Chicago curses has kept the Cubs from winning the World Series for 100 years now.
• The “Smurf Turf” at Boise State’s Bronco Stadium. That stuff is hideous on TV, but boy does it turn in some memorable performances – like that classic win over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, possibly the greatest college football game of our bloggeration.
• The Diesel himself, Shaquille O’Neal, and his hundred nicknames: The Big Aristotle and Hobo Master, Diesel, Shaq Fu, Superman, Big Daddy, Wilt Chamberneazy, Shaq Albert, etc. New nicknames Shaq might have to consider: The Big Divorcee and Sir Hates Kobe A-lot.
• Al Davis. Yep, he’s still kicking. The Man in Black just turned 120, and he’s still drafting like a 12-year-old.
• L.A.’s Big Three: Vin Scully, Bob Miller and the late-Chick Hearn, the greatest trifecta of sports announcers a city will ever see. Gold mics all around.
• That black hole in poor Bill Buckner’s mitt, making the Boston Red Sox first baseman unfairly responsible for the biggest choke job in World Series history.
• Barry Bonds’ head. How does a guy’s hat size increase from 7⅛ to 7¾ anyway? That’s the difference of about an inch in circumference, despite shaving his head later on in his career. Sure makes you wonder.

Waving the White WCBias Flag

I give up. It seems like every blog I’ve written this week has backfired.
First, I punch out a take on how Baron Davis “wants to be in the Bay,” citing his own blog, and that he’ll probably remain in Golden State despite becoming an unrestricted free agent. (Hours later, reports have him flying south to L.A. to play for the Clippers).
Then I cite an ESPN.com/AP story reporting the Hall of Fame isn’t going to take up pub hound Marc Ecko on his Barry Bonds asterisk ball loan. (Hours later, ESPN and AP backtrack and report the Hall of Fame has come to an agreement with Ecko and is accepting the ball after all).
I guess that’s the 24-hour news cycle for you … and the beauty of the Internet, which allows you to quickly revise your copy in seconds and prevents you from having to steal every newspaper out of every newsstand in town when you make a gaff. It’s just too bad the major mainstream media organizations are more hungry about getting the scoop than they are about getting the story right the first time.
That’s also the problem with blogs, especially when their bread and butter is tearing takes from the day’s big headlines – whether they’re true or not. The blogosphere is a crazy, convoluted universe that’s filled with nebulous reports and editorials that are produced largely by non-journalists on Kool-Aid-stained keyboards in mommy’s basement.
That’s also why I was once against blogs. But like many things in my life (i.e. fly-fishing, golf, running), blogging has grown on me and become quite addictive. Plus, what’s a 30-year-old journalist to do over the latter half of his career if he’s stuck on the inverted pyramid in a dead-tree medium and doesn’t know a thing about HTML?
At the same time, we need to have the same accountability and principles when it comes to what we report on the Net, which is why we’ve tried to keep the content on this site newsy or just plain funny and have done our best to avoid the crude, sophomoric posts and pics you’ll find orbiting a majority of the blogosphere.
That being said, it’s about time for me to write some glaring inaccuracies again in hopes that the following comments will also backfire and force the exact opposite to come true:

• I will be writing dozens of blog entries instead of taking the next few days off because I’m not going to win the lottery on my way to the beach tomorrow.
• I’m not going to go fishing and catch the biggest bass of my life this weekend.
• That Yoda-looking dude waving the white flag isn't really a leprechaun poised to lead me on an week-long adventure to find his secret pot o' gold.
  
• My wife will still hate my guts every time I tune her out to post another inaccurate blog on WCBias.com.
• The site won’t crash because this post won’t receive a record number of hits today.

Bonds Ball HOF Bound after all

It appears Barry Bonds may have to boycott the Hall of Fame after all.
After initially refusing the Barry Bonds asterisk-branded 756th home run ball, the Hall of Fame has now accepted the donation from Ecko Unlimited founder and PR stuntman Marc Ecko.
Ecko bought the ball for $750,000 last September, wanting to brand the historic pearl with an asterisk in response to the allegations of Bonds’ steroids use.
Initially, the HOF was hesitant about accepting the ball.
“The owner's previous commitment to unconditionally donate the baseball has changed to a loan. As a result, the Hall of Fame will not be able to accept the baseball,” the Hall told The Associated Press early Tuesday.

That vague statement left us at WCBias.com scratching our heads. So we did some digging and came up with some reasons Cooperstown might not want Bonds’, make that Ecko’s ball in the Hall:

10. Bonds said he’d boycott the Hall of Fame if it accepted the ball, and the Hall doesn’t want a class act like Bonds on the outside looking in.
9. The crusty old men at the HOF think Ecko’s clothes are "too hippitty hop."
8. Innocent until proven guilty – a failed drug test, hundreds of media reports linking him to performance enhancers, Game of Shadows and the Mitchell Report aren’t nearly enough proof.
7. Who needs the ball when you have Bonds’ size 22 cap?
6. Ecko got flaxseed oil on his hands and dropped the ball in McCovey Cove.
5. The Hall was afraid Ecko might tag their hallowed walls worse than Air Force One.
4. The Hall is holding out for the real Bonds’ souvenir – the syringe.
3. Jane Forbes Clark, Chairperson of the Hall’s Board of Directors, is hoping to sign the free agent Bonds to the company’s co-ed softball team.
2. There isn’t enough room for a ball with that ginormous bronze bust of Bonds’ dome on the way.
1. Because of steroid use, the ball has since shriveled up into the size of a raisin and is now useless.

This KG’s pretty darn good too

In an era flooded with power hitters, and the asterisks, question marks and suspicions that follow them, Ken Griffey Jr. stands alone.
Junior, whose only career flaw has been the injury bug, hit career homer No. 600 on Monday night, becoming only the sixth player to reach the milestone.
As far was we know, and nobody can be certain in this day of never-aging, Hulk-like sluggers, Junior is clean – which is more than can be said about a couples of the other modern names on the list below.
Barry Bonds* and Sammy Sosa* have been connected to steroids on multiple occasions and Bonds heads our list of players on the WCBias All-Steroid Team.
Junior, however, hasn’t even received a vote for the team, and unlike the three above names is a sure-fire, first-ballot Hall of Famer.
In fact, the only question that looms over Griffey at this point is whether he’s legitimately the best all-around ballplayer of this generation.

600 Home Run Club
Barry Bonds* 762
Hank Aaron 755
Babe Ruth 714
Willie Mays 660
Sammy Sosa* 609
Ken Griffey Jr. 600

T-Shirt of the Week: Go to Hell Baseball

The Free Barry Campaign has already begun. ... One of Barry Bonds' long lost fans shows his support of the slugger Friday at the federal courthouse in San Francisco, where Bonds renewed his claims of innocence in pleading not guilty to 15 federal charges of lying to a grand jury about his performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds, who I was worried had gone missing there for a minute, goes to court in March ... possibly for a chance to play the next contestant on BG's "Name That Criminal."
AP Photo/Marcio Jose

WCBias All-Stær(oid) Team

Not sure why the major media outlets are calling this story a new “tough stance on steriods” because there’s no HGH testing, those named in the Mitchell Report won’t be disciplined, and the Jose Guillen and Jay Gibbons suspensions were somehow rescinded because of the deal.
But if you believe the reports, MLB players have approved the “toughened” drug agreement.
In honor of this “strict” new drug agreement, roid-ragin' WCBias presents to you its All-Stær(oid) Team, consisting of the who’s who of players linked to performance-enhancing drugs, according to a rash of media reports, admissions and the good ol’ Mitchell Report.

Outfield
Barry Bonds, LF
Lenny Dykstra, CF
Sammy Sosa, RF

Infield
Rafael Palmeiro, 1B
Brian Roberts, 2B
Miguel Tejada, SS
Matt Williams, 3B
Ivan Rodriguez, C
Mark McGwire, DH

Pitchers
Roger Clemens, SP
Eric Gagne, RP

Reserves:
(all but Canseco named in Mitchell Report)
Gary Sheffield, Jose Canseco, David Justice, Gary Matthews Jr. OF
Benito Santiago, Paul Lo Duca, C
Wally Joyner, Chuck Knoblauch, Troy Glaus, IF
Mo Vaughn, DH
Andy Pettitte, Kevin Brown, P

Life after Barry Bonds sucks

Visiting AT&T Ballpark on Sunday for the first time this season, it became obvious the San Francisco Giants missed Barry Bonds before I even stepped foot in the stadium. Here are a few snapshots about what I'm talking about (photos by BSlim):

Without Barry: McCovey Cove was a ghost town.

With Barry: McCovey Cove was a fire hazard.Without Barry: Look at all the empty green seats and that out-of-place No. 40 in left field.

With Barry: Butts were in the seats. So what if those asses were bruised from steroid injections.

Without Barry: The left fielder is Dan Ortmeier, who has yet to hit a home run this season and tripped over the bullpen mound (which hasn't moved in years) and took the header that allowed the White Sox to turn a 6-6 game into a 9-6 laugher on Sunday.

With Barry: No hustle in left field, which means that ball would’ve fallen in for an easy single. Barry would’ve walked over, picked it up, lobbed it to the cutoff man and kept at least one of the runners on – and kept Ortmeier from making a fool out of himself.

I’ve looked everywhere for the video of Ortmeier’s face plant, but haven’t been able to find it. If you find the clip, or a photo, send me the link. I’m guessing nobody’s posted it because nobody watched the game. Even the fans at the ballpark were more interested in the final minutes of Game 7 of the Celtics-Cavs series than the Giants game, which was tied 6-6 and about to be decided on Ortmeier's gaff when a majority of the fans at AT&T were huddled around the TVs at the sportsbars.

But I guess you’ll have to take my word on it, because Barry wasn’t there and nobody seemed to care.

To be or not to be at AT&T

My wife, daughter and I are headed up to the Bay Area this weekend for her 30th birthday with plans to take in all the usual tourist attractions: Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island and Fisherman’s Wharf with a few cable-car rides mixed in between.
AT&T Ballpark, however, is on the bubble at this point.

Five reasons we won't visit AT&T this weekend:
1. No Barry Bonds (and without him, the Giants had ONE .300 hitter in the lineup tonight).
2. No Kevin Correia. Yeah, you’ve never heard of ’em, but I went to college with the Giants right-hander who is out with a side injury and won’t be taking his very deceiving 1-3 record and 4.50 ERA to the hill.
3. Interleague play. It was old 10 years ago, and Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski has been on my nerves even longer.
4. ONE “Splash Hit” this season.
5. It’s May 16 and the Giants are already 8.5 back.

Five reasons we might just (gulp) visit AT&T:
1. No Barry Bonds.
2. Interleague play. Sure the players suck and play for losing teams, but when will San Francisco ever get a chance to watch Ozzie Guillen go bonkers, punch out an umpire, jump into McCovey Cove and swim to Alcatraz for some mother-bleeping solidarity?
3. Masanori Murakami Bobblehead Night.
4. Six-pack of tickets will only set you back $75. I paid that for a single standing-room only seat last summer.
5. I heard the fishing out at McCovey Cove is on fire now that it hasn’t seen a boat or a baseball in months.

MISSING: Barry Lamar Bonds

Where in the world is Barry Bonds?
I’ve searched everywhere – the San Francisco Giants roster, the Oakland Athletics roster, even the DH-less Toronto Blue Jays roster. I Googled him, MySpaced him, even scoured his journal at BarryBonds.com.
Major League Baseball’s home run king is nowhere to be found.
The Sultan of the Steroids Era hasn’t updated his journal since Feb. 28, so nobody’s quite sure where the seven-time MVP is.
In his last post on BarryBonds.com, he admits he’s “been getting a lot of emails asking what I’ve been up to this past off-season. This winter has been the first time in my career that I’ve had the chance to take time for myself and really enjoy the time off. While at home with my family I have been able to work out of my office concentrating on my various companies, attending meetings as well as making a few business trips.
“I continue to work out and feel in great shape. Thank you again for your continued support for me and my family; it truly helps keep me strong.”
Not strong enough to make a Major League roster, which is sad considering Frank Thomas was just banished from Toronto and – after Wednesday’s 0-for-4 performance – is hitting .181 for the Oakland Athletics, the one team said to be considering Bonds in the offseason when the now-cursed Giants let him go.
Despite ridding themselves of the Big Hurt, the Jays say they want nothing to do with Bonds, which could put the nail in the coffin that is his Hall of Fame Shame career.
He even told his bat boy to put those maple sticks he loves so much in storage, adding, “I don’t know if I’ll need them.”
That’s how bad it’s become for Bonds, who still managed to hit .276 with a .480 on-base percentage and 28 homers for the Giants last season. But the home run king would be such a PR nightmare, there isn’t even an AL team interested in his services as a DH any more.
All of which means we’re probably more likely to see Barry Lamar Bonds on a milk box rather than in a batter's box this season.

Have you seen this man? Bonds illustration by BSlim.