Do you think Pedro Gomez is satisfied with his lot in life? Does he feel out of place?
I saw him on SportsCenter last night, doing a little pre-game research bit for Game 1 of the world series. I just realized that for the last 3 years, up until August of this year, Pedro Gomez has only reported on Barry Bonds. Not the Giants, not big milestone home run for across Major League Baseball... just Barry Bonds.
No joke; when he first started covering the Barry Bonds saga, he had mostly black hair, with a small streak of grey. After reporting on the trials and tribulations that Barry Bonds has gone through, he's fully entered the Anderson Cooper- full head of silver hair zone. Is it total coincidence that he's reached the age of hair color transformation at the same time as this Barry Bonds era of his career, or has the Bonds drama actually stressed him? If so, what exactly stressed him: was it the lack of dignity that he suffered by going from being a sports journalist to almost a personal gossip columnist for Barry? Or did he vicariously feel the slings and arrows of the outrageous fortune that Bonds had to endure? Did he sympathize with the constant barbs and denigration that Barry had to endure from his detractors? Did the fact that Pedro and Barry's lives became so inexplicably intertwined lead to Gomez actually empathizing with him?
And how does he feel now? Is he relieved to finally be rid of the Bonds Crazy Train? Or does part of him miss it?
Right now, Pedro Gomez is in Boston, Massachusetts, part of ESPN's travel team, covering the World Championship of Major League Baseball: The World Series. To most sports journalists in the world, nay, most sports fans in the world, that is a dream come true. Is it possible that, deep down, Pedro Gomez instead wishes he was the lead reporter following the story of the tainted anti-hero of America's Pastime?
