Baseball
Bush Offers Congratulations To Bonds
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All morning, the question resonated around the White House: Would he call or wouldn't he? Turns out he would.
President Bush telephoned Barry Bonds yesterday to congratulate him on breaking Hank Aaron's home run record and then publicly hailed him as one of the game's best sluggers.
Never mind the allegations of past steroid use that still dog the San Francisco Giants star. Bush said he will leave it to others to judge whether Bonds's record will be marked by an asterisk. And while some tried to read much into the fact that the president did not immediately call the morning after Bonds hit his 756th homer, Bush quickly passed off the delay as the simple courtesy of not wanting to wake someone on West Coast time.
In a separate interview on Fox News Channel, the president skirted the legitimacy question. "My only advice for people is to just let history be the judge," he said. Asked what would happen if it were later proved that Bonds did use steroids earlier in his career, Bush said, "There will be a lot of disappointed people, and baseball and the baseball writers will have to make the determination as to whether or not he would receive the highest accolade of all, which would be to be admitted into the Baseball Hall of Fame."
But, he added, "in the meantime, anybody who knows the game will tell you Barry Bonds is a great hitter."
-- Peter Baker
