Looks like Barry Bonds will own the Major League Baseball home run record any day now. Unfortunately, two of his most recent homers took place against the Cubs in my neck of the woods. (Ah, but the Cubs still won the game.)
I personally think it’s unfortunate that Bonds’s achievements will forever be stained by the possibility (likelihood?) that he was aided by steroids or some other performance-enhancing substance. There’s no way to get around the fact that Bonds—along with Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Jason Giambi, and others—will always have asterisks (whether literal or figurative) next to their names in the history books.
There has long been a racial angle to the home run record story, in part because of the racism Hank Aaron faced from angry, white baseball fans as he was breaking Babe Ruth’s original record, and partly because Barry Bonds has gone on record about the racist hate mail he has received from angry fans. Though Bonds’s circumstances are complicated by the steroid issue, I’m sure there’s still an element of racism involved.
Recently, the Rev. Jesse Jackson irritated his critics (as usual) by chiming in about the Bonds controversy. On the topic of whether MLB commissioner Bud Selig should celebrate Bonds’s accomplishment once he hits the record-breaking homer, Jackson suggested Selig should be there. If you can’t prove that Bonds did steroids, Jackson said, then you should embrace him.
I’m not sure I agree with Jesse on that, but he went on to suggest something that I’ve been thinking about ever since I heard comedian Chris Rock talk about it on The Late Show with David Letterman: If you’re going to put asterisks by players’ names for cheating with steroids, then what about the players, like Babe Ruth, who set records when the game was still segregated by race? Should asterisks be put by those records because those white players benefited from not having to compete against blacks? Chris Rock’s bit on this is hilarious, but as is the case with a lot of his humor, it challenges you to think.
Chicago Tribune sports columnist Rick Morrissey reacted to Rev. Jackson’s comments in an interesting piece a few days ago. He flipped the script and asked, does this mean that the records set by the black players in the Negro leagues are also illegitimate? He writes, “The problem with Jackson’s thinking is that it minimizes, rather than celebrates, the accomplishments of people on both sides of the color line.”
Morrissey challenged me to think, as well.
Still, I find myself leaning more towards the gist of Rock’s and Jackson’s argument. Am I just “showing my color” on this one, letting my allegiance to my race cloud my judgment? Honestly, I’m not sure. What I do know is that our nation is so haunted by the specter of Racism Past, that not even America’s great pastime is safe from its reverberations.
I agree with you on the racism stuff. Ive never really thought about some of those old records and how they were set when the league was segregated. Good points for sure.
Kyle – Thanks for your comment. I’m actually still trying to figure out what I think on this one. Meantime, Jesse Jackson has chimed in again with a response to Rick Morrissey’s column. It clarifies his position a bit. You can find it here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-views21jul21,0,2137263.story.
Meet Reconciliation Blues
A lovely post on Ed Gilbreath’s Reconciliation Blues reminds me why his excellent blog must roll in the list on your left. (Meet his About page, and his passion to reconcile the races in Christ) Ed says to give Barry
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I only wrestle with the timing of the issue of the steroid scandal and the asterisk on his record. Being a native Californian and a fan of the Oakalnd A’s during the late eighties and early nineties many of us talked about Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco (a.ka. the bash-brothers as the were affectionately called) were on the world’s stage of the three consecutive world series (they lost two and won only one) was never publicly scrutinized. Anyone could see these two were as big as football players! Now in the hood and what not we loved those guys casue that was our team, but we thought they were on steroids.
Fast forward to the single season home run record that was between Mark McGwire (still looking quite huge) and Sammy Sosa no one talked of steroids until Mark Gwire retired.
Two years after he set the record it was broken by Barry. At neither time did the press report steroid use. Barry was embraced and even cheered for during the world series one year after setting the single season homerun record.
I really don’t want to put the race card out there, because after these great events in baseball the steroid controversies jumped on all three players. It just appears to me that Barry’s is most signiifcant because he’s knocked baseball’s biggest record down. Two reporters (illegally obtained) went public on Barry when it appeared that he was closing in on Babe Ruth, and the homerun record he has since broken. Coupled with the fact that his mistress (adultery) went public to say that he was jealous of the previous two players (McGwire and Sosa’s) performance.
Whatever the case may be I have seen far more than race involved, and I have seen and heard whites and blacks bring up everything under the sun except the deep immorality, with the exception of the fact that a man probably cheated.
Now I know the sports media won’t give than angle but I hope to hear more African Americans not defend this man, but view the issues objectively and if he’s found guilty call a spade a spade.
The worst thing Barry Bonds could do is listen to those who already have him tried and convicted, based on allegations, and no proof, nor Barry admitting to anything. I’m not even a fan of Barry Bonds, and think he should have stayed on the field for the fan party held to celebrate his record breaking Home Run; however that’s a separate issue, and it’s plain to see that the Government is using the tired old Martha Stewart ploy of acquisition of perjury with the hopes that Barry Bonds will now recant what he testified to earlier at the Grand Jury. Barry needs to keep consistent with his earlier Grand Jury statements to the tee, and he’ll be home in time for dinner. If he changes one thing he said previously, than he’ll be getting three hots and a cot for a long long time. Remember… the government and others can think what they want about whether Barry took steroids or not, and I’m not even sure if he did; however proving whether he did or not, is quite another thing. If Barry where taking various legal vitamin regiments while maintaining that he was not aware that he was taking any illegal substances, than it’s game over for the governments case, as it’s weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, to the point of being almost laughable; however it’s humorous to see how the media is buying into the governments trap and treating Barry like he lied when that’s not been proven one iota. No matter how much documentation, appointment, calendar paperwork the government has, it could apply to all the legal substance appointments that Barry and others kept, which would make his Grand Jury testimony sound, unless he were stupid enough to change it for any reason. P.S To Barry; learn some etiquette and treat your fans better, and although this fan is unable to give any legal advice, and none of the above is to be construed as such, your legal team might wish to read this post A.S.A.P. Good Luck …
Someone last summer brought up the point about records not being legitimate when MLB was segregated. It was honestly one that I had not considered. I think it’s largely because I’m a white person who does not have to deal with race on a minute to minute, day to day basis.
It’s definitely a point to consider on both sides, because a league that had both the best white and black players of that era would have provided stiffer competition than either MLB or the Negro leagues had to offer.
We as sports fans want things tied up in a nice package and to be able to compare accomplishments in different eras seamlessly. This is impossible for many reasons, whether it is segregation, steroids, differences in training, workouts, supplements, etc.
However, I think what makes the situation with Barry Bonds and other steroid offenders different is that most view steroid use as cheating, even though he and McGwire, Canseco, etc. did it before it was technically prohibited in MLB. No one in the segregation era had any control over who was allowed to play in the league; they could only play the competition put before them.
I originally thought that race wasn’t a major issue in how Barry Bonds was treated compared to other players who obviously took steroids. I still think it’s mostly because of the home run record and just that most people think he’s a jerk. But one thing that bothered me is that very few people until recently suspected Roger Clemens of steroids when I became suspicious a few years ago. People just oohed and ahhed over his stamina and conditioning, and this after most of us woke up to the issue of steroids in baseball. Because Roger isn’t the nicest guy either, and he got a pass until very recently.
Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa will ALL lose their records when everyone understands that they cheated, unless the fans suddenly feel that Ben Johnson should have his Olympic Records restored to him, even though he used steroids too, huh? That would be the beginning of a new Steroid Era if that happened, and baseball would be continuously stained with scandals. People WILL NEVER FORGET and more and more people shall soon side with people like myself on this issue. All slugging records from 1995 to 2004 that were set with steroids and other performer-enhanced drugs need to be stripped, then younger generations need to be taught, without opposition, that those records are fake and that all performer-enhanced drug use in sports is wrong.
However racism is completely wrong too. That’s why all performer-enhanced drugs, plus steroids, do not discriminate, and the temptation to use them doesn’t discriminate either.
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