Bonds’ 715 embarrasses baseball

Atlanta Journal Constitution ^ | 05/28/06 | Jeff Schultz

[Pokey78]

Barry Bonds was in Milwaukee recently and the commissioner of baseball wouldn’t make the 10-minute drive from his house to watch him. So it follows that Bud Selig wasn’t in when Bonds moved past Babe Ruth on the home run list.

Nor were any of Ruth’s children. Nor any high-level officials. Nor anybody whose presence screamed, “I’m important, so I’m here.”

Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run Sunday. But every overblown ESPN news break-in couldn’t drown out the sad reality of the moment. It was as awkward as it was historical. Some wanted to watch. Most wanted to cover their eyes.

This wasn’t a player punctuating greatness. This was the most vilified sports star we’ve ever seen affirming his place among the five darkest moments in baseball history.

Count them. Like plagues:

1. Eight members of the Chicago White Sox are banned for conspiring to throw the 1919 World Series.

2. Pete Rose, the game’s greatest hitter, agrees to a lifetime ban for betting — on baseball.

3. Baseball cancels the 1994 World Series, not because of natural disaster but rather mutant labor negotiators.

4. Congress holds steroid hearings. Among the Murderers Row giving testimony: Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Jose Canseco — who ironically turns out to be baseball’s shining light.

5. Bonds passes the great Ruth and closes in on the great Hank Aaron. But he’s the poster child of the steroid era, and his baggage and personality have led him to become the sport’s greatest pox instead of ambassador.

This is a sport that embraces its heroes and statistical achievements. Numbers are dipped in gold. 56. 61. .400. 714. 755.

Now here comes a man who puts up incredible numbers and few outside of San Francisco want to celebrate. Selig said weeks ago he wouldn’t show up for 715. Hold the pomp, shelve the circumstance. Selig would close his eyes and pretend it didn’t happen. There’s an old country-western tune that applies here: “If the phone don’t ring, you know it’s me.”

The NFL had a vested interest in helping reshape Ray Lewis’ image after his Atlanta murder trial. The NBA needed Kobe Bryant to be a smiling pitchman again after rape charges were dropped.

Baseball isn’t moving to resuscitate Bonds. His image couldn’t be saved by “House.” He is impossible to like. A fan catches a home run ball. Bonds refuses a request to sign the ball but asks the fan to sign a release so he could use his likeness on his TV show. This is the sport’s ambassador?

Frogs, locusts, diseased cattle.

Gambling, strikes, steroids.

It’s all relative.

Embarrassment: The “Black” Sox scandal is still debated 87 years later. It has kept “Shoeless” Joe Jackson out of the Hall of Fame. Rose was never accused of throwing a game. He just gutted its integrity by betting and lying about it. The all-time hits leader was thrown out and isn’t in the Hall.

Embarrassment: Fans have learned to hate two words: collective bargaining. But nothing in the long, inglorious history of labor woes equals the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. Owners and players couldn’t figure out how to divide millions.

Embarrassment: Steroids have tainted this entire era of players. Bonds just happens to be the leader in the pharmacy. For baseball to strip him or any player of their statistics is nonsensical. What of the steroid-using pitchers Bonds homered off of? Do two druggies cancel each other out? How to determine which homers were drug-aided and which weren’t? It’s a futile exercise. But we know what steroids have done to the record book. Not players. Steroids.

Bonds says he doesn’t care what people say or think. If that were true, he wouldn’t be trying to reshape his image on TV. ESPN was only too happy to sell itself out, giving Bonds a time slot and a blank script for a weekly 30-minute soliloquy called, “Bonds on Bonds.”

My wife and I watched the other night. There was tape of Philadelphia fans booing Bonds as he stepped to the plate.

“Why are they booing him?” my wife asked. “There’s steroids in hot dogs and Babe Ruth ate those.”

My wife. Funny girl.

Bonds juiced because he was jealous. Relying on interviews, documents and grand jury testimony in the book, “Game of Shadows,” authors alleged that Bonds decided to turn to muscle drugs after witnessing the attention paid to the McGwire-Sosa home run chase in 1998.

Follow the growth. Bonds averaged 31.8 home runs from 1986 to 1999. He averaged 51.6 from 2000 to 2004, including 73 in 2001. He hit one home run every 16 at-bats in his first 14 seasons. He hit one every eight at-bats in his next five.

I know. Good hot dogs.

History views Ruth as a home run hitter. Bonds will be viewed as something far less. A lab creation.

[Polybius]

On the other hand, you would think he had killed someone given the hysteria over his passing Ruth.

No, that would be O.J.

[sully777]

I was watching ESPN the night of Bond's 715: To call ESPN a bunch of "groupies" would probably give groupies a bad name.

[sully777]

ROTLMAO. Can I use that in my trial?

[sully777]

PReach it brother!

[nonliberal]

Bonds averaged 31.8 home runs from 1986 to 1999. He averaged 51.6 from 2000 to 2004, including 73 in 2001. He hit one home run every 16 at-bats in his first 14 seasons. He hit one every eight at-bats in his next five.

That's telling.

[MinuteGal]

You misinterpreted my post. I'm not talking about Hank Aaron whom I respect.

I maintain that in the minds and hearts of baseball fans (not of teeny-bopper age) Babe Ruth will always be the Sultan of Swat and the home run chap. I don't care if a steroid-laced St. Peter had hit 715 home runs over the golden gate, the Babe would still be the legitimate holder of the home run record in my eyes.

Leni

[nonliberal]

Griffey was better then and he would be better now...

And if you look at Griffey, he is not a whole lot bigger now than when he was in Seattle. That amazing swing is still there.

[nonliberal]

Andruw Jones might end up as the best defensive outfielder EVER. He might already be there.

Puckett did some absolutely mind-boggling stuff in center.

[MikefromOhio]

The Babe doesn't hold the Homerun record, Hank Aaron does.

[MikefromOhio]

He did, but Jones is better.

He makes it look so easy that it's very easy to discount how good he is out there.

But he isn't the best ever. But he's in the top 3.

[MikefromOhio]

They blew that one up too.

[MikefromOhio]

yeah I was reading that earlier.

[MinuteGal]

You have missed my point, also. The Babe will always be the home run champ in my mind for reasons such as playing in the era of the less lively ball....only one of a host of other well-based reasons.

I know Aaron is the holder of the record, BTW. I think I know my baseball. I played first base in the pro Womens All-American League (overhand pitching) which was featured in the Madonna movie, "A League of Their Own".

Leni

[sully777]

"...[Sadaharu Oh] led his league in home runs fifteen times (and for thirteen consecutive seasons) and also drove in the most runs for thirteen seasons. More than just a power hitter, Oh was a five-time batting champion, and won the Japanese Central League's batting triple crown twice. With Sadaharu Oh at first base, the Yomiuri Giants won eleven championships, and Oh was named the Central League's Most Valuable Player nine times and to the All-Star team eighteen times.

Sadaharu Oh retired in 1980 at age 40, having amassed a Japanese baseball record of 2,786 hits, 2,170 RBIs, and a lifetime batting average of .301. Moreover, his record of 868 career home runs is 113 more than Hank Aaron's Major League Baseball home run record of 755.

His hitting exploits benefited from the fact that, for most of his career, he batted third in the Giants' lineup, with another very dangerous hitter, Shigeo Nagashima, batting fourth

Oh's legendary career has led baseball fans in many countries to wonder how well he could have done had he played in Major League Baseball. While the differences between Major League baseball and Japanese baseball are pronounced—the parks in the Japanese leagues tend to be far smaller, the season is shorter, and, typically, managers during Oh's career used a three-man starting rotation..." (Source: Sadaharu Oh from Wikipedia.com)

[Revolting cat!]

-- Who's on first?
-- Oh?

[MikefromOhio]

Sure, except he didn't play in the MLB.

Let's stay focused now ok?

[Al Simmons]

I agree that Bonds is washed up. His health and his stats reflect the fact that he's 'off the juice'.

I would not be entirely surprised if no AL Team wants to sign him to DH...

[N. Theknow]

Read an item in the paper this morning that the microphone of the radio broadcaster went FUBAR just as the ball was about to leave the park.

"There's a drive to deep cen..."

[sully777]

I am on point. No one is like the Babe. I'm sure Ruth would have had 3,000 plus home runs if he worked in the ballparks of today, whether here or abroad. He would have been a batter pitcher, fielder, etc. with all the advancements in equipment, sports medicine, and such.

I still remember everyone complaining about the differences in the games dynamics when Whitey Ford hit 61 HRs in a single season (well, I recall the discussions in the 1970s when I was alive) or when Aaron hit over 714, and I remember the big debates when Oh eclipsed Aaron.

Still, as T. Jefferson points out in his post, no one was like the Babe.

[N. Theknow]

How fitting that Bonds plays in San Francisco where a$$holes are an object of affection.