Asshole.com was already taken...



....but www.barrybonds.com is coming soon. From the Associated Press :

Barry Bonds plans to chat with fans this season on his personal Web site that will launch once the season starts.

Beginning next month, Bonds will log on to www.barrybonds.com about once a week. The slugger believes many people get the wrong impression of him and don't really know him or understand him.

"It'll be up in April," Bonds said Sunday before the Giants played the Anaheim Angels.

Whether or not this Web site will improve Bonds' image is anyone's guess. He rarely talks to the media.

Earlier this spring, reporters approached him to ask about his troublesome back and Bonds responded by saying: "Don't bother me when I'm bothered. I'll chew your head off."

Since Bonds' father, Bobby, died last season, Hall of Famer Willie Mays has been mentoring Bonds. Mays is third on the career home run list with 660, two ahead of Bonds.



(Barry -- back in an era in which being rude to the fans could only happen in person)

Mays, Bonds' godfather, has encouraged the 39-year-old slugger to be more personable late in his career.

"I think this is a time in his life he needs to talk to you guys with a smile rather than saying to you guys 'I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that,' " Mays told reporters last month. "I think with the passing of his father he's begun to realize there's life beyond baseball. I think he understands you guys have a job to do daily and he's part of the job. He's part of the Giants. And when he's part of the Giants, who else are you going to talk to?"

Bonds will offer memorabilia of his likeness on the Web page. Some T-shirts will feature Bonds and Mays with a 660-homer logo.

Presumably, nutritional supplements will not be available from the bonds.com storefront.

I'm confident that Barry's decision to launch his own site --- which would've been newsworthy in say, 1996, will improve his public image just as much as Terrell Owens' site has done for the newest member of the Philadelphia Eagles.

I doubt that either of the above websites will be as ferociously boring as Mark Cuban's blog , but I look forward to watching them try.

Posted: Sun - March 28, 2004 at 04:40 PM      

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