Griff vs Barry

I held out a phenomenally long time.

Barry Bonds hasn't been proven to be guilty of anything.

Until he is, we have to say he's innovent of everything that people say he's done.

They have no proof, and I certainly wasn't there, so I'm not going to assume that he's guilty.

By this point, however, I have to admit that I'm all but convinced that there's got to be some sort of fire behind the smoke of Barry Bond's freakish physical transformation and his late-career renaissance.

A recent ESPN article looks at things a little differently, exploring not the steroids and homeruns but rather the inverse transformation that took place with Ken Griffey, Jr.

Where Bonds has - without a doubt - gone from joyous to sour as he has aged and has - it appears - taken hard-core steroids, Griffey has gone the opposite way having his phenomenal physical gifts fade with age while he has become more joyous and treasuring of those gifts.

It's a nice counterpoint to all of what's been written about Barry Bonds in the past few years.