Barry Bonds: MLB Home Run King Will Never Shed Bad Boy Persona

Barry Bonds built a 22-year Major League Baseball career around being the player that everyone loves to hate. He embraced that persona like no player in professional sports, seemingly throwing his success in the world's face to say that he is better than you in every way. 

It is amazing what time, a trial and conviction for obstruction of justice and old age can do to change one's perspective on everything. 

Bonds, who was in attendance for San Francisco's game against Arizona on Monday, said that he was a "convicted felon" and did a lot of what he did on the field to feed that persona he worked so hard to create. 

From the Associated Press (h/t USA Today):

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"My (reputation) was kind of iffy anyway. I created that guy out there for entertainment only. Whether you hated me or liked me, you were there. And I only wanted you there. I just wanted you to see the show. That was it. All I ever wanted was for people to have a good time and enjoy it. It was fun to come out and people would boo or yay or whatever. They all showed up to see whatever would happen next and it motivated me to play hard."

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As odd as it is to see Bonds open about his life and career to anyone, especially the media, nothing that he says will change the way that people perceive him. Even now, sounding as contrite and humble as you will ever hear him, there is going to be skepticism around how genuine he is. 

After 22 years of being media un-friendly, not caring what anyone thinks, saying and doing whatever he wants, Bonds sounds like he is trying to change all of that. He is a lot like Hulk Hogan—you spend so much time crafting this character for the cameras, that eventually you lose yourself in that person and can't remember what it was like without the character. 

The idea that Bonds would be able to change his attitude towards everyone because of what happens to him is going to be hard for some people to believe. Perhaps this is a changed man, who wants the world to know that he is not really as bad as his evil alter ego made him out to be. 

Perception is very much reality in today's world. With so much information that gets passed around—some of it true, some of it lies, the rest is somewhere in between—everyone is free to form their own opinion on what a person is or isn't. 

Bonds, when he was playing baseball, told you what he was every single day: The best player in the world, who wants you to hate him. He made sure you hated him by being an egotist. Unless you lived in San Francisco—or didn't care about all the pomp and circumstance that comes with professional sports—odds are good you were not a fan of Bonds. 

Yet here Bonds is now, telling the world that he was just playing a part. It's a bold step for him to take, but one that is not likely to work in the way that he is hoping. 

Nothing that Bonds says is going to make people look at him in a different light. It is the danger of being so loathed for so long—when all is said and done, people are not going to believe. It could come off as a desperate attempt to get on the good side of the media in order to get in the Hall of Fame. 

Who knows what the angle is with Bonds? He plays games as well as any athlete in history, so much so that you have to dig deep to find the true meaning of what he is saying. 

We do love second chances in sports, but when fans have built up so much negative energy and hostility towards you, it is very hard to change that. 

Bonds is not an idiot. He knew exactly what he was doing when he was the best baseball player on the planet, and he knows exactly what he is doing right now. It is just a shame that he is too late to change anyone's mind about who he is as a person. 

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