Our heroes
Men's Division I college basketball has it's first openly-gay competitor. He's Derrick Gordon of the UMass Minutemen. Jason Collins was the first in the NBA, and Michael Sam stands to be the first in the NFL. Notice what the three men have in common? They're all African-American. Pretty cool.
Give these guys tremendous props, but give yourself some credit as well. The national reaction to these public coming-outs-- the standing ovation Collins got in his first game after his announcement, the overwhelming internet support for Sam-- this is what allows the door to swing wide. Affirmation from the culture at large is what the religious conservatives always feared the most. And here it is.
Now it's your turn, Major League Baseball. First, some African-Americans. Then some out players.
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And if you're "tired of having it shoved in your face," blame the people who stood in the doorway.
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Mark my words: Within two years, Barry Bonds will be the hottest thing going. His Hall of Fame candidacy will be the most celebrated and fashionable cause in sports. He'll be the new Pete Rose rebel exemplar. Barry has seemingly chilled out in retirement, and people of common sense are beginning to shake their heads at the moral arbiters that have kept him out of the Hall now two winters running.
On Deadspin, America's favorite internet website, the man's image makeover is straining not to show. "Ryan" from Wisconsin today shared a favorite story about heckling Bonds. I swear the man is starting to cross over into that "mythical old-timer" stage as the greatest baseball players always do...
April 14, 2001- Milwaukee WI. (Before we go on, it's important to remind everyone that this was "the season" for Bonds. In retrospect, I wish we had known how Bonds' season would eventually end up, because that makes this story all the more crazy about how locked-in he was, even less than 2 weeks into the season)
It's the Saturday night of Easter weekend and my family (mom, dad, 2 younger brothers) make the trip to Miller Park to check out the Brewers vs Giants. We arrive at our seats down the left field line about 20 rows up. Before the game we notice another family that we're very close with is also attending the same game, and they have seats in the front row of our section, about 50 feet from where Barry Bonds will play left field. The parents all decide, "Hey, let the boys sit together, the parents will sit in the seats further back." So you end up with 7 boys in the front row (no parents), ages 20, 18, 17, 16, 16, 13, 12.
The Brewers strike early and are stomping SF after a few innings, and with each run, we taunt Bonds a little more (nothing quite "bad," since we were simple small-town WI kids, but may be some steroid stuff, etc), but we get louder and a little more direct as the game goes on. In the bottom of the 4th, Ron Belliard (RON BELLIARD) hits a home run just over the wall in right, and one of the brothers in our group yells at Bonds something like (very liberal paraphrasing), "Top that, Bonds."
I kid you not, and swear on any family member's life, this is what happened: Bonds looks directly at us, gives a slight nod, shrugs, and then shakes his non-glove hand to gesture, "eh, that HR was so-so." The very next half-inning he comes up with 2 runners on, and destroys a pitch for a 3-run homer. The ball traveled the EXACT SAME path as Belliard's an inning before, but must have traveled 100 feet farther. Immediately we all start jumping around like 8-year-olds on Christmas: "OH MY GOD, HE CALLED THAT!"
When the half-inning ended, Bonds made his way out to left field. When he caught our attention, he pointed at the spot and shrugged again, as if gesturing, "That better?" We gave him a golf clap, did a short "We're not worthy" bow and he laughed. We didn't heckle him the rest of the night.
I've always hated Barry Bonds, but goddamn if that wasn't the most "No way that just happened" sports moment of my entire life. (Boxscore: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL2...)
Yesterday, upon the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's all-time home run record (Bonds passed Aaron in 2006, in case you didn't know), a number of national baseball observers published pieces pushing the theory that Aaron is somehow still the all-time home run leader-- "the people's champion," to quote Reggie Jackson in one of the articles.
This is crap, of course. Bonds used PEDs, but so did both Aaron and Jackson, who popped amphetamines like M&M's during the '60s and '70s. (They were literally found in bowls on clubhouse food tables.)
What we have here is a hijacking. I love me some Baby Boomers. They produced some horrible-ass politicians, but as young'uns, they stopped a war and injected the West with a moral conscience. They changed the world in a way that put their parents-- the so-called "Greatest Generation"-- to utter shame. But they've hijacked Major League Baseball. Nobody great can ever play the game as well as their heroes played it, and that mentality of theirs isn't doing Major League Baseball any favors. Baseball men invented the very concept of a "hall of fame"-- not just a sports hall of fame, but a hall of fame for anything. Now their hall is a joke. A team of players that have been blackballed could probably beat an all-time team of inducted players. And I blame this on sportswriters and baseball men of a certain age.
Who is the true King of the Dingers? Deadspin loyalist "Bloodgames" typed it best yesterday: "Bonds' 762 should have an asterisk beside it, and that asterisk should reference a note at the very bottom of the list, and that note should read '762 is greater than 755.' "
posted by CM @ 9:00 PM
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