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October 05, 2001 |
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Sports Shots Bonds earned bad reputation While Barry Bonds attempts to break his single-season home run record, Mark McGwire is struggling through a year mired in injury, one that has seen his batting average hover around the Mendoza Line and his home run totals linger near the middle of the pack.That said, one must wonder why all the whining is coming from Bonds. Mark McGwire took all of America along with him on his chase. It wasn't his year, it was Major League Baseball's. We shared in his chase, we were jogging the bases with him on each home run. Even Maris' family was pulling for the man attempting to erase their father and husband's name from history. While McGwire took a country with him, all that Bonds is bringing is a chip on his shoulder. Bonds has spent his entire career trying to shake his reputation as a negative man, though he has made no effort to change that perception. Throughout his many seasons in baseball, he has spoken few words and even fewer positive ones. He keeps his mouth shut unless he has some dirty laundry to air, and it is getting to the point where no one wants to listen anymore. This was Barry's chance to shake the monkey from his back once and for all. As he has drawn closer to, and now tied, the record, more and more people have taken notice. He has been thrust via the long-ball into the limelight, more so than ever before in his career. For a man who wants to change the way people view him, you'd think this would be a golden opportunity. But this is Barry Bonds. In 30 years he will be the old man upstairs who tells you to turn your music down when your stereo is broken. He will bellyache about the weather being too hot in mid-November. And too cold in early June. He will gripe about how expensive things are in comparison to "his day," though he has enough money put away to support 200 families. Simply put, Bonds will never be happy. And because he is never happy, he will never be good at handling the media, and his record chase has solidified that point. He claimed all season, as he drew closer and closer to 60, that the most important thing was that his team continued to win. Now that he is one home run shy of immortality, he seems to be changing his tune. Bonds was walked several times Tuesday as the Giants defeated the playoff-hopeful Houston Astros. Zero home runs, but one big win again proved not enough for the cranky slugger. He complained about how the Astros had challenged Sammy Sosa, another 60-homer man, but they wouldn't give Bonds anything to hit. In a sarcastic and Bondsian tone, he bashed the Houston pitching staff for not giving him anything over the plate, after, he claimed, they had apparently been lobbing Sosa grapefruits. Fast forward all the way to Wednesday (a full night later). Bonds walks thrice, establishing a new single-season record, defeating the immortal Babe Ruth. Bonds also scores three runs to help the Giants again defeat the fading 'Stros. Was he pleased to have established a record in one of the most important and oft-overlooked categories in the sport? His words, not mine: "That's not a record you want. I signed up to participate, not observe." Bonds had just established a new standard, breaking a record that had stood since 1923. The Red Sox were only five years removed from being world champions at that point. And all he can do is moan about how is he not participating? If he scored in just one third of the times that he earned a free pass, he would have recorded nearly 60 runs. Providing your team with 60 runs without being forced to put the ball in play is not a record you want? McGwire's record-setting season came at the right time. Baseball was recovering from the strike of 1994 and needed just such a chase to regain its fading fan base. He showed the doubters that baseball was still baseball, and he gave them 70 reasons why it was great. After each round-tripper he would scoop his son (the Cardinals' bat boy) up on the way to dugout and raise him above his head. After the game he would hold a press conference in which he would answer a battery of the same questions day in and day out, with a smile on his face. It was Mark's chase. It was his son's chase. It was America's chase. Bonds had an opportunity to perhaps do even more. Due to the tragedy that struck our nation Sept. 11, there has never been a better time for a unifying event such as this. After postponing games for a week, the sporting world had the chance to be drawn together once again, to cloak the pain in shadows while admiring the bright light of a superstar chasing history. But Bonds will never let that happen. For though he remains only one home run shy of passing Mark McGwire in the home run race, he has already been eliminated from another, more important category that McGwire dominates. Class. |
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