Bonds breaks his silence … pushes to play again

Sunday, August 10, 2008 | Feedback | Print Entry

Until Saturday, Barry Bonds had let his agent speak for him, and what Jeff Borris had said, over and over, was that Bonds still wants to play, he was preparing to play and that he had contacted every team in the majors in the hope that he could find a job for the slugger.

But we all understand that it's the responsibility of agents to represent their clients, and so there were always lingering questions for me about how much Bonds wanted back in the game when it was clear that so many folks in the game don't want him around.

Without any obligation to speak to reporters, and with a pending legal matter, Bonds has generally remained behind the Wizard of Oz curtain, right up until the moment that he stepped out from behind the left field wall at AT&T Park on Saturday.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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