Acromegaly

Barry Bonds is going to die.

Well, we all are. But especially Barry, and not because he's receiving death threats. OK, there's a chance he may die because he's receiving death threats, but he'll more likely die because he's a Big Giant Freak. Literally.

From SI.com:

You hear all that noise from the Bonds camp and yet most conspicuous is the silence on challenging the facts of the case. Shadows succeeded because it couched nothing and stood unchallenged. My favorite fact: the authors detail in their afterword the freakish growth of Bonds' body parts in his years with the Giants: from size 42 to a size 52 jersey; from size 10 1/2 to size 13 cleats; and from a size 7 1/8 to size 7 1/4 cap, even though he had taken to shaving his head.

"The changes in his foot and head size," they write, "were of special interest: medical experts said overuse of human growth hormone could cause an adult's extremities to begin growing, aping the symptoms of the glandular disorder acromegaly."

I went to a Mets-Giants game a few years back, and two things stood out to me. One, Jennie Finch, the softball player, threw out the first pitch and she's a lot taller than I thought she was and two, Barry Bonds' head somehow seemed bigger than Jennie Finch.

This is my memory of that day.