Bonds should be cheered, not jeered, as Baseball’s new home-run king

Forget all of the talk about taking steroids or putting an asterisk next to his name, Barry Bonds is the new home-run king of Baseball today – having blasted his 756th homer last night on his own field of dreams in San Francisco. And nothing made this fact more indisputable than seeing the man he dethroned, Hank Aaron, personally confer legitimacy on his title as the new reigning king.

(Recall that Aaron began his reign by dethroning Babe Ruth with his 715th home run on 8 April 1974 as a player with the Atlanta Braves.)

That said, I appreciate that bashing Bonds about steroids has become a national sport. Never mind that if all players suspected of using steroids were similarly pilloried and summarily discredited, there would be few players deserving of cheers left in the game.

Indeed, it is instructive to know that many of the sports writers now criticizing Bonds, are the same ones who chastised Jose Canseco as a heretic two years ago – after he published an insider’s account of the pervasive use of steroids in Baseball in a book entitled Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big.

But the heresy was not Canseco’s revelations (and accusations); rather, it is the collective hypocrisy of all who refuse to admit that cheating to get ahead in sports (and in life) is as American as, well, Baseball and apple pie.

In fact, steroid use has flourished in Baseball (and other professional sports) pursuant to an open conspiracy amongst players and team owners to feed the gladiatorial lust of fans who want to see bigger, stronger and faster cyborgs perform for their atavistic enjoyment. And, naturally, the more fans revel in their steroid-fuel feats of athleticism, the richer players, and even richer team owners, become.

Meanwhile, to his credit (and for the record), Bonds has declared repeatedly that “they can test me everyday if they like“. And, so far, he’s batting “1000” against Baseball’s steroid-testing pitches. Therefore, despite all of the circumstantial evidence of his steroid use, Commissioner Bud Selig and the barons of Baseball are now precluded from doing or saying anything to disqualify or taint Bonds’ historic accomplishment.

Nevertheless, apropos setting the record straight, I’ve been quite unabashed in proffering my reasonable suspicion that Bonds has cheated his way to Baseball superstardom by enhancing his performance with an apothecary of steroids that would make Dr. Frankenstein green with envy. And my suspicions were only confirmed last year when his steroids regimen was chronicled in the book Game of Shadows.

But, where it’s quite acceptable to express schadenfreude over the public ridicule Bonds has been subjected to (including having steroid-size syringes thrown at him during games); it’s simply juvenile to whine over his dissembling about using steroids.

Mind you, I do not condone cheating. I just abhor the self-evident fact that fans and self-appointed Baseball purists are holding Bonds to an unequal and unfair standard.

Of course, I’m aware that this kind of discrimination (and hypocrisy) figures prominently in every facet of American life. Moreover, I appreciate that nothing defines the American character quite like sports, and that no sport is more central to that character than Baseball.

The irony is not lost on me, however, that it was Baseball – not schools, churches or places of public accommodation – that led the desegregation of American society. Yet is is Baseball that is now festering with inherently-racist calls to blackball Bonds.

But, just as the achievements of players like Babe Ruth have not been diminished even though they drank alcohol during prohibition, the achievements of players like Barry Bonds should not be diminished even though they’re taking steroids today. Besides, the following pithy observation by comedian Chris Rock brings this debate on recognizing Bonds into stark relief:

Babe Ruth didn’t play with no brothers. What is more of an advantage: steroids or racism?

So, asterisk this!!!

Barry Bonds