Tuesday, June 7, 2005
The Pen is Mightier Than the Juice
After the big news broke last week about Mark Felt's Watergate revelation, it became my journalistic duty to make the obligatory Deep Throat reference in a column. It's one of those major stories in the country that can't help but transcend the usual news barriers as it warrants coverage on all pages, like when Brad Pitt broke up with Jennifer Aniston. I thought there was only one fitting tribute to Deep Throat, and that would be to make a monumental revelation of my own. I pushed Barry Bonds off that bridge in March.
A little background for those unaware of the situation — back in March, Barry made a distraught appearance to several media types to talk about his injury. He brought his son with him and went on a tirade about how the media were responsible for his situation and how they have hurt his family. That was when Bonds broke out his classic line
"I'm tired of my kids crying. You wanted me to jump off a bridge, I finally did," Bonds told reporters in March. "You finally brought me and my family down. ... So now go pick a different person. You guys wanted to hurt me bad enough, you finally got me," he said.
Naturally, most of the media responded with witty quips about how they didn't hurt Barry's knee, about how they didn't make Barry have sexual relations with a mistress (not only that, but a mistress who couldn't keep her mouth shut, either — of course, that's what some people look for in a mistress), and about how they didn't make Barry take steroids. His accusation left me in a state of serious confliction, but at the time, I felt it was in my best interest to say nothing at all.
Over the months that followed, I began to think more about the issue. I'm always writing about how athletes should be responsible for their actions and act like real men when handling controversy. I often criticize athletes who fail to live up to the role model status they are given, so I felt that I should live up to my own standards. Unlike my counterparts, I will be held accountable for my actions and instead of rolling out a pathetic denial, I will be a man, step up and accept blame in this situation.
That's right — I'm responsible for Barry going over that bridge in March. I can't really explain what led me to do it, but I do know one thing, I am not sorry it happened. Now before you make any snap judgments about me, realize this, I don't always resort to this to settle my problems. Using logic and rational reasoning is the best way out of any issue, but in this case, I had to make an exception. I realized the only way to get through to Barry was to be forceful and hit him with some Mark Justice (which is usually reserved for pickup hockey and basketball games, but can occasionally be used to right wrongs in the sports world).
I tried to give him every benefit of the doubt, but looking at it, Barry is just kind of a jerk. Scratch the kind of, he is a jerk. I could deal with his snobby attitude. I could deal with his complaining about how hard his job was because he had to stand for three hours a day. I could even naively take Barry's word that he didn't use steroids, despite the astoundingly overwhelming amount of proof against me. Hell, I even tried to brush off his marital infidelity. What finally pushed me off the edge, which consequently resulted in me pushing him off that bridge, was his racism.
Former Chicago White Sox outfielder Ron Kittle just came out with a book that mentions a conversation he had with Barry during Ron's playing days. He had asked Barry for an autograph for a charity auction. Barry refused to sign, saying, "he doesn't sign for white people." Kittle tried to tell him that white guys weren't the only ones to get cancer, but Bonds turned his back and left. Sorry, but I simply refuse to accept racism anywhere, whether the perpetrator is white, black, red, yellow, blue, orange, pink, purple with yellow dots, maroon, or gray. That just doesn't fly.
Barry needs to realize that the fans have given him everything he has. If no one liked to watch baseball, he wouldn't be rich and famous. It just amazes me that an athlete with enough God-given ability to play the game at its highest level and get paid millions to do so could be such a prick. I needed a forceful way to get through to Barry, and hopefully this did it.
I didn't do this just because I finally had enough of his crap. I did this for all of you. I did this for my black friends who have faced racism from people like Bonds. I did this for the charity that lost out on the money his autograph could've brought in. I did this for the columnists who couldn't do it themselves, and finally, I did it for the fans, who deserve better.
I assume the next time Barry sees me (which will be the first time) that he will be cowering in fear at the columnist who took him down. And the next time he decides he's big enough to blow off a charity, I'm going to send his ass right back over that bridge again. The age-old debate is over, the pen is mightier than the juiced-up slugger.
Mark Chalifoux is also a weekly columnist for SportsFan Magazine. His columns appear every Tuesday on Sports Central. You can e-mail Mark at [email protected].