Another day, another batch of riskay photos of Barry Bonds’ daughter, Shikari Bonds.
The Sports Culture received these new pictures last night after yesterday’s discovery that the underage home run diva* loves herself some Smirnoff vodka.
Blame second-hand roid rage. Call it Bonds on Bonds. Either way, there’s really no explanation required — TheDirty has obtained a few less-than-parent-friendly photos of Shikari Bonds, daughter of the home run king*, feeling a little loose with the Smirnoff vodka and Jack Daniels.
Our intelligence also tells us she can’t be older than 15 years old max — this USA Today article in 2006 says she’s 12 years old.
(Hey Matt Leinart, can we get an age check, isle five?)
In effort to provide breath of fresh air from non-stop Olympic and Favre coverage, we’ve got an Animal Planet-esque photo essay to remind sports fans that Major League Baseball still plays regular season games this time of year.
Our buddy Kevin, a surviving SF Giants fan, recently paid his respects to Cooperstown and snagged us a few shots of Barry Bonds’ history-murdering No. 756 home run ball.
Aside from a few god awful mock simulations, this is the first I’ve seen of the actual ball on an actual display.
Evidently, Marc Ecko, a fashion designer who bought the ball, didn’t fuck around with Sharpies.
Ecko marked the ball with a “five-pronged asterisk dye-cut into the cowhide, from stitch-to-stitch where `Major League Baseball’ is printed,” according to the NY Daily News.
You’ve read why they’re Not the athletes of today, now you must vote for TSC’s second round match-ups of “Who’s Not Now.” Eight athletes remain, you decide who went downhill the longest.
No. 1 Barry Bonds vs. No. 9 Sammy Sosa
Like most conventional brackets, the No. 1 and 9 seeds matchup for an always-interesting bracket. (Two years ago, I thought No. 9 Arizona would upset No. 1 Florida. Damn, I’m a fool).
By now, their stories are well recognized — especially with these two higher seeds. Bonds juiced, and Sosa corked. As Major League Baseball did best during the late 90s and early 2000s, scandals rocked the league and gained full control of the sketchy-athlete spotlight, or SketchLight.
So, who’s in a worse position at this point. Bonds or Sosa? VOTE NOW!
Welcome to The Sports Culture’s Who’s Not Now. We’ve created the bracket of 16 athletes and figures of the sporting world who took the wrong paths in life, and now must face humiliation on this blog. We’re breaking them down. You decide Who’s Not Now.
No. 1 Barry Bonds, MLB free agent vs. No. 16 Danny Almonte, now college baseball player
Why Bonds is Not Now: Just one calendar year ago, most could fairly assume that Barry Bonds would take the unanimous top seed in a contest like this. But even with the skyrocketing stocks of Roger Clemens and Michael Vick, Bonds still held his ground atop the polls, earning No. 1 seed in this year’s “Who’s Not Now” tournament. There’s really not much more to Bonds’ story than the fact that his entire Wikipedia page mainly revolves around the “Controversy” category. Bonds first went under fire in 2003 during the BALCO Scandal, and from that point forward, The Home Run King went downhill. The book Game of Shadows alleges “Bonds used stanozolol and a host of other steroids.” Now, the all-time home run leader remains a free agent, since MLB clubs fear the PR nightmare and baggage Bonds brings to cities outside of the Bay Area — he’s arguably the most despised athlete of this century.
Why Almonte is Not Now: Let’s face it: A 16 seed has never beaten a No. 1 seed. And it won’t happen here, due to the isolated controversies that shook the Little League world. Unlike Bonds’ endless PR catastrophe, Almonte only limited his controversies to one point of his life — a time when pre-teens feel funny in their privates. Or at least, that’s what we thought. Almonte mowed down the 2001 Little League World Series field as a 16-year-old. (Per LLWS rules, players over 12 are just too old to compete in Williamsport.) The result? A whole slew of backlash, including comments from the LL prez, who said, Almonte and his teammates “used … in a most contemptible and despicable way” and that “millions of Little Leaguers around the world were deceived.”
TSC’s Pick: Duh, Barry Bonds.
But we don’t make the choices. YOU must vote on the right-hand column for who you think is “Not Now.”
Voting ends Saturday at 7 p.m.
Terrell Owens got flack for not answering phone calls from the NFL, which was trying to set up a random drug test last week. Was it just a coincidence that the phone calls came on the same day that Owens agreed to a contract extension with the Cowboys worth a guaranteed $13 million?
Once he was able to get to the phone, he passed the test and has reportedly never failed a drug test before.
But maybe it wasn’t just the contract extension that was keeping TO busy. Now we really know where TO was and why he couldn’t get to the phone. He was chillin’ with his boy Barry Bonds, who is currently out of a job and can’t pass a drug test.
