Mike Celizic

Barry Bonds has decided to remove himself from the World Baseball Classic, and I’m neither disappointed nor unhappy about the decision. In fact, I’m glad.

He made the announcement on his Web site, citing concerns about both his health for the coming baseball season and, as so many athletes say when they do something that might be unpopular, for his family.

How not playing in the tournament makes his family safer and more secure, I don’t even want to consider. It’s nothing but a red herring, anyway, an attempt to deflect your attention from the truth. The proof of that is his family never enters the conversation when things are going well for him, just when he needs to try to bleed a little sympathy from a public that has long since seen him for what he is.

And the truth is that it couldn’t and shouldn’t be any other way. From Day 1 in the big leagues, Barry Bonds has been about himself. For him to go out any other way would be a disservice to a magnificent body of selfish accomplishment.

I was surprised when Bonds said he would play in the international tournament, so surprised I foolishly allowed myself to contemplate engaging a neuron or two in generating a smidgen of a sliver of respect for a man who would risk his shot at breaking the most hallowed record in sports just to represent his country against the world.

This, I thought, was Bonds’ chance to have one redeeming moment in a career, one moment in which it wasn’t about Barry but about something bigger than even the enormity of himself, something that would gain some measure of redemption in the eyes of the public.

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Of course, he thought better of it. He has dedicated a decade to pursuing the ghost of Babe Ruth and the legend of Hank Aaron, doing we’ll-never-know-what to his body to make himself bigger and stronger so that he could accomplish that goal. Given all the things he’s suspected of doing to break Aaron’s all-time home run record, why in the name of Louisville Sluggers would he even consider doing something that might put his health in jeopardy?

The decision makes perfect sense. He wants the record. The best way to do that is to concentrate on the regular season and to avoid anything that might cause injury.

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The record means more than respect or popularity or admiration. He’s already shown that innumerable times during his misanthropic career. Why would he change now?

There’s something even grand about his exiting the classic and the graceless way he did it, without ever directly facing the public. When his career is done, whether that’s one homer short of Ruth or 100 clear of Aaron, at least there’s one thing we won’t be able to accuse him of. In nothing else, Bonds isn’t a phony. The selfishness isn’t an act; it’s unadulterated and pure.

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