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The Daily OrangeBound to Bonds
ESPN reporter known for shadowing Barry Bonds speaks at Syracuse
By Andrew Sagarin
Posted: 2/12/08, 1:43 AM EST Section: Feature
Pedro Gomez will not vote Barry Bonds into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The journalist, most famous for reporting on the controversial baseball star for ESPN, and also a newspaper reporter for more than a decade, spoke last night in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse III in an event put on by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ).
Gomez fielded questions about Bonds, performance-enhancing drugs and the journalism business from Syracuse NAHJ President Sarina Morales for approximately 30 minutes and then answered questions from the audience for another half an hour.
The ESPN reporter, who has a Hall of Fame vote every year as a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, responded to a question about Bonds and the Hall of Fame with a definitive statement about his position on the issue.
"I personally will not vote for anyone who I believe used performance-enhancing drugs," Gomez said. "And I believe he did."
Additionally, the baseball reporter was quick to admit that he accepts his link to Bonds.
"I have grown to believe that it will probably be in my obituary," Gomez said. "That I was the guy who followed Barry Bonds for three years."
He stated multiple times during the event that he felt steroids have damaged the integrity of the game, and that they will have a lasting effect on the history of the game.
But, at the same time, Gomez still loves the game.
"I don't think you can hide or cover up what has happened in the game over the last 20 years," Gomez said, "But the game is so strong. Despite what anybody could try, I don't think you can kill the game."
Aside from Bonds and steroids Gomez stressed being professional as a journalist. Gomez would go to jail if needed to protect a source, but he added he has a better solution. Though he hopes shield laws - laws that help reporters protect sources - will be enacted on a national level.
"You might think that since player X is asking you a favor not to write an article about something that later he'll come back with a story," Gomez said. "There is no later. You have to write that story."
He provided examples of times when he ripped former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling and manager Buck Showalter while he was a columnist for the Arizona Republic. He said that both times when he went in to the clubhouse the day after the article ran, players came up to him and shook his hand for "telling it like it is."
Audience members also liked Gomez's style.
"I think Pedro was very solid in his points," Perry Miles, a senior broadcast journalism major, said. "I think he was right on."
"As a newspaper guy, it was great to hear how a guy like Pedro made it," David Baer, a freshman newspaper major, said. "It's really inspiring."
Despite the controversies he's been involved in and ethical dilemmas he's faced, Gomez still hasn't grown tired of the job he's been doing for the last quarter century.
"I've been doing this for 25 years," he said. "I feel like I haven't worked a day in those 25 years."
aksagari@syr.edu
The journalist, most famous for reporting on the controversial baseball star for ESPN, and also a newspaper reporter for more than a decade, spoke last night in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse III in an event put on by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ).
Gomez fielded questions about Bonds, performance-enhancing drugs and the journalism business from Syracuse NAHJ President Sarina Morales for approximately 30 minutes and then answered questions from the audience for another half an hour.
The ESPN reporter, who has a Hall of Fame vote every year as a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, responded to a question about Bonds and the Hall of Fame with a definitive statement about his position on the issue.
"I personally will not vote for anyone who I believe used performance-enhancing drugs," Gomez said. "And I believe he did."
Additionally, the baseball reporter was quick to admit that he accepts his link to Bonds.
"I have grown to believe that it will probably be in my obituary," Gomez said. "That I was the guy who followed Barry Bonds for three years."
He stated multiple times during the event that he felt steroids have damaged the integrity of the game, and that they will have a lasting effect on the history of the game.
But, at the same time, Gomez still loves the game.
"I don't think you can hide or cover up what has happened in the game over the last 20 years," Gomez said, "But the game is so strong. Despite what anybody could try, I don't think you can kill the game."
Aside from Bonds and steroids Gomez stressed being professional as a journalist. Gomez would go to jail if needed to protect a source, but he added he has a better solution. Though he hopes shield laws - laws that help reporters protect sources - will be enacted on a national level.
"You might think that since player X is asking you a favor not to write an article about something that later he'll come back with a story," Gomez said. "There is no later. You have to write that story."
He provided examples of times when he ripped former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling and manager Buck Showalter while he was a columnist for the Arizona Republic. He said that both times when he went in to the clubhouse the day after the article ran, players came up to him and shook his hand for "telling it like it is."
Audience members also liked Gomez's style.
"I think Pedro was very solid in his points," Perry Miles, a senior broadcast journalism major, said. "I think he was right on."
"As a newspaper guy, it was great to hear how a guy like Pedro made it," David Baer, a freshman newspaper major, said. "It's really inspiring."
Despite the controversies he's been involved in and ethical dilemmas he's faced, Gomez still hasn't grown tired of the job he's been doing for the last quarter century.
"I've been doing this for 25 years," he said. "I feel like I haven't worked a day in those 25 years."
aksagari@syr.edu
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