Roid Raging To The Record Books

“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain, but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.” –Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie never met Barry Bonds.

Major League Baseball now has a new name on top of the all time homerun list. And the name Barry Bonds will inspire millions of people to criticize, condemn, and complain. And if we are to believe the mounds of evidence which states our new “Homerun King” took steroids, then understanding and forgiveness will be scant.

And how can we not believe Barry Bonds took performance enhancing drugs? Look at how he began to magically hit more homeruns after turning 34. Read “Game of Shadows”. Read the SF Chronicle archives:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/08/MNGAKHKF371.DTL

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/12/03/MNGGFA0UDU65.DTL

Barry Bonds was a great ballplayer before he “allegedly” began juicing in 1999. With 3 MVP trophies and eight Gold Gloves, the guy was a sure thing first ballot Hall of Famer. But does that mean we should ignore all the steroid evidence? Should we just shrug and say, “well, everybody was doing it”?

You could . . . if the sky in your world is made of syringes and clouds of candy human growth hormones.

But regardless of what we think, Barry Bonds’ 756 (and counting) homeruns are in the books. Hammering Hank Aaron is now second all time, whether you like it or not. So what can you do if you love baseball and respect its history and tradition?

You can curse Donald Fehr and the MLB Players Union for fighting like rabid dogs against mandatory steroid testing. You can flip a big fat bird to the owners, who could only see the mysterious spike in homeruns as dollar signs. And we as fans can surely throw an L up to our forehead for cheering blindly for Sosa & McGuire in ‘98 and Mr. Bonds in 2001. From 1961 until 1991 only 3 players hit 50 homeruns in a season, but 66, 70 & 73 didn’t even raise a red flag? Those kinds of stats should have been baseball bats to the back of our heads.

But it’s a lot of fun to see records fall. Being with a group of fans and witnessing history is a pure thrill. When McGuire hit #62 I remember exactly where I was and high-fived total strangers in a packed bar. Even this year, with all the evidence and a complete disdain for Barry Bonds, I was at the game when he hit career HR #750 and I was on my feet and clapping. As a fan it’s easy to get caught up in the feeding frenzy of The Moment. . . especially after seven beers. That is why I don’t have any issues with the 43,154 at AT&T Park and the thousands (millions?) of fans at home who applauded Barry Bonds becoming MLB’s All Time Home Run Leader.

But there’s The Moment and there’s History, and I think you need to separate the two.

I can walk into a Freak Show and cheer for a dwarf doing Shakespeare and a tattoed giant with one ear. But I’m not going to confuse them with Marlon Brando or Vincent Van Gough. And neither am I going to mistake Barry Bonds for Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, or Willie Mays.

Records are not going to tell me who the greatest ballplayers are. I don’t even rely that heavily on statistics. You have to look at how individuals helped their team win. How they made everybody around them better. People like Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Jimmy Foxx, Bob Gibson, Joe DiMaggio, Ernie Banks, Nolan Ryan, Roberto Clemente, Bobby Doerr, Tony Gwynn, Carl Yastrzemski, Tom Seaver, and Cal Ripken. There are many other greats who have played the game over the last 100 years who have not hit 756 homeruns and who did not take steroids. I will choose to recognize their achievements as the history of the game.