The Amazing, Vanishing Barry Bonds

You have to love Barry Bonds. How can you not? Barry is now officially the only athlete (or, for that matter, President) we believe when he says he "doesn't read the paper."

We mean, what is the one thing that Barry Bonds could do that would make people hate him even more, the one thing that would silence his defenders and make sure everyone in the world was absolutely positive that he had done steroids and was now off of them?

"I'm going to be skinny," Bonds says. He is carrying a few extra pounds around his middle and vows to spend the offseason bringing his playing weight down from more than 228 pounds to about 200.

Yep, that's what he said. Never mind that Jason Giambi and Sammy Sosa and Ivan Rodriguez and countless other suspected steroid users came back visibly skinnier (and less powerful) this year than last. Never mind that a massive weight loss, in lieu of a trustworthy testing system, is the new way to convict a player in the public eye. Not only is Bonds going to do that in the offseason, he's going to tell you he's going to do it. It's so crazy, it just might work!

Bonds Realistic That Career Is Winding Down [MSNBC]