So remember a couple days ago, when Barry Bonds was firmly entrenched in fourth place in the All-Star voting for outfielders, behind Ken Griffey Jr, Carlos Beltran and Alfonso Soriano?
Then, Major League Baseball announced that Bonds overtook Soriano for the third and final spot, prompting many to wonder how exactly Senor Barry managed such an improbable, last-second rally.
Well, it turns out that Bonds had some, uh, unnatural assistance:
It’s now clear Giants fans gave Bonds a performance-enhancing injection in the voting.
One group from San Jose claims to have electronically hand-delivered Bonds 600,000 deadline-beating votes. Another computer whiz says he personally added 200,000 to the Giant’s total.
There are just so many layers of humor here. It’s funny because of the angle that sees Bonds “cheating” his way somewhere, except he had nothing to do with it (orrr diiid he??). Plus, there’s the irony that Bonds–the most hated man in sports–actually won a popularity contest. Hardly anyone outside of San Francisco wants to see Bonds rewarded for his efforts.
Well done, Giants fans. Bay Area 1, Major League Baseball/Rest of America 0.
Fans admit fraud in Bonds feat [Inside Bay Area]
