Monday, May 7, 2007
The Legend of Barry Baseball
So undoubtedly you've seen hundreds of headlines about Barry Bonds' imminent breaking of baseball's home run record. What follows is usually a grumbling rant, centered somewhere on steroids and integrity of the game. The moral high ground is a crowded plateau these days.
But not here. I'm happy Bonds is breaking Henry Aaron's record. And, oddly enough, I think Bonds breaking the home run record represents the same baseball karma that Aaron's accomplishment represented back in 1973.
See, Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's record wasn't about bat-meets-ball, ball go far, repeat 715 times. It wasn't about chicks digging the long ball, and it wasn't about the greatness of Aaron as a power hitter.
It was about race. It was about a black player crashing the most significant landmark in baseball, held by the ultimate white man in the white man's ultimate game. It was about proving that a black player could achieve the highest standing in a sport that was racist to its tightly wound core.
And this is not at all to diminish Aaron as a player. In addition to the long balls, he has the most RBI in history (2297). He hit 624 doubles (10th) and was one of the most durable players ever (third-most games at 3298). He was a career .305 hitter (tied at 142nd with turn-of-the-century Boston Beaneater/American Chick Stahl for you history buffs).
But career excellence aside, when Aaron broke the record on September 29, 1973, it wasn't just about who was in what place. It was a symbolic final death to the image of the black player being less than the white player. And, in the fight against racist stereotyping, symbolism is the biggest weapon in the arsenal.
And this is where we come back to Bonds.
On a personal level, there couldn't be a bigger difference between Aaron and Bonds. Aaron was distinguished, professional, outwardly calm against the storm of controversy unfairly thrust upon him. He was class personified.
On the other hand, Bonds has been a cantankerous prick most of his career. Whereas Aaron faced the "whites only" signs with stoic grace, Bonds lashes out, whining and making himself out the martyr. If reports on his reaction to the 1998 home run race are to be believed (and I have no reason to disbelieve them), he was so jealous of the attention heaped on Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa it drove him to rage.
Henry Aaron, he is not.
So why the comparison between Aaron breaking Ruth's record and Bonds passing Aaron?
Because, just as Aaron breaking Ruth's record was a symbolic victory over the racist institution that was Major League Baseball, Bonds' accomplishments are a symbolic punishment for baseball's two-faced hypocrisy over the use of chemical enhancements.
That story has been told before. In summary, baseball was damaged goods after the 1994 strike cancelled the World Series for the first time since 1904. Billionaires vs. Millionaires. Who gives a crap?
The game returned in 1995, and Cal Ripken, Jr. broke the all-time consecutive games played record. It was a nice story, a national headliner for a day or two. But other things were more important.
Michael Jordan and the Bulls were off on their second three-peat. Mario Lemieux was back from Hodgkin's and paired with Jaromir Jagr for the most explosive scoring tandem in the NHL. Steve Young got the monkey off his back by leading the 49ers to another Super Bowl. There was Oklahoma City and O.J.
Baseball just wasn't itanymore.
But then 1998. Big Mac and Senior Sammy. The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs. It was magic. There wasn't a newspaper in the country that didn't cover that story daily for months. Every newscast in every market led with the running tally. When you woke up in the morning after a West Coast late game, that's the first thing you checked. Baseball was back.
And of course we know now the revival was chemically enhanced, built on things we really didn't know about yet, like Andro and, later, HGH. You can argue about proof, about the lack of positive tests that were never given, about innocent until proven guilty. That's all well and grand.
But, deep down, you know. We all know. And as we find out more about what really went on back then, from admissions by 1996 MVP Ken Caminiti and leaks from the BALCO case and admissions from a New York Mets clubhouse attendant, we know now there were more than a few people in the baseball world who knew back then. They knew. And they did nothing.
And so now Bonds, protected for years by the league's unwillingness to be honest with itself or its fans, is on the verge of holding the title as baseball's all-time home run king. And though the league and institutional media will disparage the accomplishment, it is just as much their responsibility for letting baseball's culture get so corrupt in the first place. Baseball is a game of karma, and just as a black man passed Ruth, so will a classless cheat pass Aaron.
And so will the Legend of Barry Baseball be written, the scarlet letter on baseball's collective chest.
Long live the king.
Seth Doria is a freelance writer and blogger in St. Louis. For more, please visit The Left Calf.