Bonds' gift to Bryan Stow's family

[pretendastronaut]

Say what we will about Bonds, this is pretty extraordinary;

 

But one quiet gesture has especially touched Stow's family, something that will affect his two children years down the line.

 

Former Giants star and embattled figure Barry Bonds has volunteered to pay for the college education of 12-year-old Tyler and 8-year-old Tabitha.

 

"It was extraordinary of Barry Bonds, I thought," Stow family attorney Thomas Girardi told NBC Bay Area KNTV. "He didn't say anything about it to the press. This was just a gift he gave the family because he knew that it was going to be pretty important to the kids."

 

According to KNTV, Bonds spent an hour with Stow on April 22, when the 42-year-old paramedic was still at Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center. Stow was moved May 16 to San Francisco General Hospital, which is closer to his family and where he remains in critical but stable condition under heavy sedation to prevent seizures caused by the traumatic brain injury.

 

Full Text

[Invader3K]

Good for him. Definitely a very nice gesture from Bonds.

[PrinceEatMeat]

Very nice of Bonds to do that. Classy move right there. It would be nice if more athletes did stuff like that.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Sadly, the cynic in me sees this as a possible attempt to just paint himself in a nicer public light.

 

Regardless, it's great for the kids, and you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, or so they say.

[TooLiveBrew]

Sadly, the cynic in me sees this as a possible attempt to just paint himself in a nicer public light.

 

Regardless, it's great for the kids, and you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, or so they say.

This is almost literally word for word what I was just thinking. Very kind gesture from Bonds.

[DocLuna7]

Props on this to a guy I don't normally have a ton of respect for. Even it was done just to paint himself in a nicer light the bottom line is those two kids will get a college education without having to take on years of debt and loans. Good story.

[MJLiverock]

Sadly, the cynic in me sees this as a possible attempt to just paint himself in a nicer public light.

 

Regardless, it's great for the kids, and you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, or so they say.

This is almost literally word for word what I was just thinking. Very kind gesture from Bonds.

The article I read said he just made a promise to the family over a month ago and their attorney just now is telling the press. It isn't like Bonds held a press conference to announce it to the world.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Barry-Bonds-will-pay-college-bills-for-Bryan-Sto?urn=mlb-wp7656&bcmt=11396974#mwpphu-comment-11396974

 

[PrinceEatMeat]

I really don't think he did it to paint himself in a better light. It said he specifically didn't report it to the media. If he wanted more people to know about it, he would've done that. I really think he just did it out of kindness.

[prophet]

I never really thought Barry Bonds was an unkind person. He seems to appreciate his fans, and especially always seemed kind to the young fans. He detests the media (all media), and unlike other athletes he never hid his disdain for the media. He took steroids. Big deal, he was one of many that took steroids and lied about it. He lied to a grand jury. Big deal, that grand jury should be using there time do a lot of other things, then persecute baseball players to preserve some records that, in the grand scheme of things, or completely meaningless. I mean Babe Ruth never had an asterisk next to the home run record when he owned it, but like Daniel Tosh says, "how many homers would Ruth have hit with Jose throwing a 92 mph slider at his dome?". So, in my eyes, records are just numbers and really mean absolutely nothing. And spending taxpayer money to go after the "steroid problem" in baseball is worthless. Let him enjoy retirement, let him have peace and stop wasting my money on these stupid court cases.

 

But, to get back to the thread, great thing that Barry Bonds did, and I'm glad that the Stow family is having at least a little bit of their burden removed from their shoulders. God bless those kids, God bless Barry, and I hope the good karma gets paid back to him somehow.

[mtrebs]

I really don't think he did it to paint himself in a better light. It said he specifically didn't report it to the media. If he wanted more people to know about it, he would've done that. I really think he just did it out of kindness.

I don't know if Bonds did this for kindness or for some other reason, but it is a nice gesture. However I could see an athlete/celebrity doing this for more selfish reasons since the donation, while life-changing for an average person, is just a drop-in-the-bucket of how much money they have. Also, a person could donate this money and "request" that it isn't reported to the media, knowing that it will eventually come out and be announced...say a month later. This way you can donate, helping someone else, and still appear humble, increasing others' opinions of yourself. Brilliant. Again, I'm not saying that's what Bonds did in this case, but it is a good idea...win-win for everyone involved.

[Gobias Industries]

I never really thought Barry Bonds was an unkind person. He seems to appreciate his fans, and especially always seemed kind to the young fans. He detests the media (all media), and unlike other athletes he never hid his disdain for the media. He took steroids. Big deal, he was one of many that took steroids and lied about it. He lied to a grand jury. Big deal, that grand jury should be using there time do a lot of other things, then persecute baseball players to preserve some records that, in the grand scheme of things, or completely meaningless. I mean Babe Ruth never had an asterisk next to the home run record when he owned it, but like Daniel Tosh says, "how many homers would Ruth have hit with Jose throwing a 92 mph slider at his dome?". So, in my eyes, records are just numbers and really mean absolutely nothing. And spending taxpayer money to go after the "steroid problem" in baseball is worthless. Let him enjoy retirement, let him have peace and stop wasting my money on these stupid court cases.

 

But, to get back to the thread, great thing that Barry Bonds did, and I'm glad that the Stow family is having at least a little bit of their burden removed from their shoulders. God bless those kids, God bless Barry, and I hope the good karma gets paid back to him somehow.

Well said.

 

I've been an unabashed supporter of Bonds since day 1, so I'm definitely biased. But I just love how this shows Bonds doesn't care AT ALL what the media or casualfan.jpeg thinks of him.

[MVP2110]

I thought this was a great thing of Bonds to do, and the fact He didn't bring the media to it. Honestly I think him and all the other steroid players deserve to be in the hall but thats off topic. I've never been a Bonds hater and this just made me actually like him instead of having no opinion

[snyttri]

Although Bonds seems to be cold and ambitious I think he has showed that he is a multi-dimensional person who can be warm and generous.

[NievesNoNO]

Wonderful gesture from a guy I really don't like. I guess maybe it shows that most everyone has some goodness in them. Just because you might be a jerk in many areas of your life doesn't mean your a jerk in all areas I guess. Again, very nice to see! It's unfortunate that a person can't so something nice for somebody without having his motivation questioned. In this instance, I'm not questioning his motivation. I'm still baffled how someone gets beat within an inch of their life in a parking lot full of people with nobody stepping in. Kind of a sad society we live in.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Hey, like I said, regardless of Bonds' motivation (which none of us can really know), there's no doubt it was a great gesture. Regardless of how inconsequnecial the amount is to Bonds, it's obviously a very big deal to the Stow family.

 

This doesn't change my opinion that Bonds is a lying jerkface, and my opinion is still that this donation was self serving in some regards, but the fact remains, he didn't have to do it, and it will positively affect these kids' lives. So.....kudos to you Mr. Bonds.

[gregmag]

Although Bonds seems to be cold and ambitious I think he has showed that he is a multi-dimensional person who can be warm and generous.

I like "multi-dimensional" -- that seems spot-on to me. People are very complicated.