I remember where I was on September 8, 1998.
If you are wracking your brain trying to figure out why, it was the day Mark McGwire hit his sixty-second home run of the season, breaking a record that Roger Maris set thirty-seven years earlier. It was a magical moment, and though McGwire would only hold the record for three years, it was a season to remember because until that day in September it was a race between Mark and Sammy, two very loveable sports heroes, in their own very different ways.
I was at home that afternoon, working on my computer. The television was on, and I watched the screen with one eye. When the home run left the park, it was the shortest four-bagger that Mr. McGwire had hit that year. He would go on to hit eight more, but none was so exciting as that record-breaker.
I will remember where I was on August 6, 2007.
I’ll be honest, I do not even remember Bonds breaking McGwire’s record in 2001, and I have not watched a lot of baseball this year, but this evening I am sitting in a hotel room in Houston, Texas, working on my computer, watching the game with one eye. I did sit back and watch the round-trip, the festivities, and the speeches... and then I went back to work.
Like many of you I do not particularly like Barry Bonds. Let me revise that... like many of you, his teammates, his coaches, umpires, and baseball writers. I do not know what we all suspect – he probably has used performance-enhancing substances... substances that were not around when Hank Aaron hit 755 (there were steroids but not the same level), and were certainly not around when George Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth hit 714. But the honest truth is I have swung the bat enough times to know that steroids or not, home runs are hard to hit.
Babe Ruth is well known to use performance enhancing substances. You didn’t know? It is a well known fact that the Babe used hot dogs to help him hit home runs... actually a very scientific combination of hot dogs, cigars, and beer. The Babe was never an athlete, he was a baseball player. He was also reputed to be one of the best guys you would ever want to know.
That is an accusation that has never been made against Barry Bonds, but the fact of the matter is that no matter how he did it he now holds two of the most coveted records in the game. There is a debate about the record book, should they be denoted with footnotes about steroids? Will these records be tainted?
They probably will be tainted, but there is very little that can be done about it. Asterix or not, it is his name in the book.
I wish it were not so but it is. Barry is not a team player. The Giants’ organization has probably kept him around because everyone was paying to watch him hit homers, but take the money out of it and what has he contributed to the betterment of a last-place team? Could they have replaced him with a better player, a more selfless player, to put them into a playoff race? Probably, but rookies don’t draw 96% attendance, and neither do last place teams... unless you are the 2007 Giants, or for that matter the 1998 Cardinals.
Until the Great Betrayal by the demons ho currently own the Florida Marlins I was a fan of the Montreal Expos. Throughout the ages with few exceptions that has not been an enviable title to hold. As such I have not seen a lot of historic moments up close. I watched two perfect games (one for, one against), I watched Gary, Andre, Warren, and Tim come of age and then leave for greener pastures (Warren went to Japan, the rest won World Series’ elsewhere in the Majors). But what I enjoyed most about watching the Expos – especially through the 1990s especially under Felipe Alou – was the selflessness. There was always a great team spirit in Montreal, and win or lose, they did it as a team.
Barry Bonds may wear the uniform of the San Francisco Giants, but he seems to be playing for himself. I don’t care about the allegations, but I cannot forgive the selfishness.
Congratulations Barry... I hope you enjoy the record; you may be a lot of things, but you will never be a Babe or a Hank... or a Roger Marris or Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa or Gary Carter. You are a crowd favourite only because of the bandwagon. You may have their admiration, but you will never have their love, and that is nobody’s fault but your own.