I don’t know about anybody else, but I was well and truly sickened by the headline on the banner story on the front page of yesterday’s Racist Jentinel (“712 down, 3 to go”). The story itself, by Tom Haurdicourt, is a fair story on Bonds’ pursuit of home runs.
The 715th home run by Barry Bonds will not tie or break:
- The major league record of 755 held by Hank Aaron
- The National League record of 733 held by Hank Aaron (he has 22 as a Milwaukee Brewer in the American League)
- The American League record of 714 held by Babe Ruth (all of Bonds’ home runs came in the National League)
- The San Francisco/New York Giants’ record of 646 held by Willie Mays (Bonds as a Giant is currently 110 home runs behind)
In fact, Commissioner Bud Selig sums up best what Bonds’ 715th home run means: “Hank Aaron already broke Babe Ruth’s record. We don’t celebrate second place in anything. We never have. Now, should Barry break Hank Aaron’s record, that’s a different story.” (Side note; MLB DOES celebrate 2nd in one division of each league in the form of a wild-card playoff berth.)
What it does represent, at least to the headline-writer and copy editor at the Jentinel who decided this deserved a cheerleading, prominent headline in yesterday’s fishwrap, and the presstitutes trolling around the Giants like Pavlov’s dogs:
- A second player, both of whom are black, eclipsing Babe Ruth, who was white.
There is no way that if, say, fellow (likely) ‘roid monster Mark McGwire were still playing baseball and came to Milwaukee with 712 home runs, that particular headline/story placement would happen. Indeed, I rather doubt that if Jeff Bagwell, about whom I haven’t heard any allegations of steroid abuse, were to suddenly come up with 263 home runs to reach 712 before Bonds came up with 3, then come to Milwaukee with his team, that particular headline/story placement would happen. For those who don’t know the color of McGwire’s and Bagwell’s skin, it’s about the same as Ruth’s was.
Wake me up when Bonds threatens to reach 733 or 755. Personally, I hope he either retires or suffers a career-ending injury before then because many of those homers, including his single-season “record” of 73, came while he was allegedly (IMHO, drop the “allegedly”) taking steroids. (Side note part 2; I also do not consider McGwire’s 70 homers in 1998 or Sammy Sosa’s 66 the same year as legitimate for the same reason. Of course, I’m not commissioner of baseball, so I can’t either strike them from the record books or append them with the asterisk that Roger Maris had for years and years.)
