Tom Glavine's back with the Braves, and I couldn't be happier.
Braves fans -- many of whom felt betrayed when Glavine left for the Mets -- seem ready to forgive and forget (as they should):
With Tom Glavine returning to the Braves, will Atlanta fans forgive him for bolting to the Mets after the 2002 season?Yes: 83.37% 5581
No: 16.63% 1113
Why even bother placing odds on whether Barry Bonds will claim to be a victim of racism? You know it's coming. Bonds is without shame.
Whether he should've been indicted is one thing -- if people want to destroy their bodies, that's their business. Not that he shouldn't be punished ... by Major League Baseball. Make that, should've been. But baseball's inept commissioner looked the other way. Everything the sport is doing now comes 10 years too late.
I do wish the feds had moved faster, if only to have kept Bonds from breaking Hank Aaron's HR record. No doubt there should be an asterisk by Bonds' name now.
For more on the cheater and the Hammer, check out my post from a few months back.
A Mets fan laments the team's historic collapse.
Not only did Elvis die, but Babe Ruth also passed away on this date. They rank pretty much first and second on a list of iconic figures of the 20th Century. To even mention Madonna -- born Aug. 16 -- in the same breath is blasphemous.
I didn't see Barry Bonds' record-breaking home run last night. I haven't watched the replay, either. Eventually I will, minus any enthusiasm. (MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, however, should be forced to watch it on continuous loop. The Steroid Era bloomed under Bud, and he did nothing about it until Congress and the public shamed him into action.)
It's sad to see the greatest mark in sports -- one set by an American hero -- broken by a cheater. There's really nothing else to say, save this: Hank Aaron remains the all-time home run king to real baseball fans, regardless of what Nancy Pelosi says:
"Tonight, Barry Bonds etched his name into baseball's history books and took his rightful place among sport's immortals."
So one can become immortal by cheating? Screw standards. Fuck ethics. All that matters in today's culture is the end result. How you get there is irrelevant.
It's the new American Way.
I prefer Hank's way.
This week's Sports Illustrated features a most-deserving cover subject: Hank Aaron. Partly because of where he played (Milwaukee and Atlanta) and partly because he wasn't flashy, the Hammer was grossly underrated throughout his career and since its completion.
Within the SI article, Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson crowns Aaron "the people's home run king." Well said. As Barry Bonds is on the verge of breaking Aaron's all-time homer record (a feat he may well accomplish against either Milwaukee or the Braves, San Francisco's next two opponents), now is the ideal time to celebrate the game's greatest-living player. No disrespect to Willie Mays, or Stan Musial, but SI scribe Tom Verducci includes a stat about Aaron that makes the case:
Aaron was such a masterly hitter that he would have passed 3,000 hits even if he had never hit a home run. Pick any star who ever played the game and give him 180 additional homers, and Aaron still would have more total bases.
For those who don't follow baseball closely, 3,000 hits is a hallowed mark in the game, one that has certified Hall of Fame membership to all who've reached it (save for Pete Rose). Total bases are calculated thusly: one base for a single, two for a double, and so on. When you leave the likes of Babe Ruth and Ted WIlliams in the dust, you merit recognition as the greatest.
More importantly, Aaron was a model of class, a player who, as Verducci writes, "did as much for the racial integration of the sport as any man who followed Jackie Robinson."
The sublime Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully said it best in his call of Aaron's 715th home run: "A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking the record of an alltime baseball idol."
I'm not big on heroes, but Hank is mine, even if his career concluded before I came of age. While his greatness may be overlooked, no one's more revered in the sport I love, or in the city I call home. Those who dare criticize him for choosing not to watch Bonds -- a cheater and an asshole -- break his record better not speak those words in my presence. Face, meet spit.
Cheers to SI for recognizing Aaron's brilliance as we endure Bonds' trek towards immortality, er, infamy. The Hammer might've even gotten a mention on ESPN -- perhaps even a shout out on local sports talk radio -- had it not been for a certain quarterback who plays in Aaron's adopted hometown.
Michael Vick is everything Hank was not. He's also innocent until proven guilty, although that shouldn't prevent the Falcons from suspending him until he clears his name (don't hold your breath). Imagine what would happen if you were accused of such atrocities? I wouldn't count on paid leave.
Astonishingly, some consider that unfair, but how can anyone pity Vick, a multimillionaire who's been coddled at every turn, regardless of his behavior? It's not a black thing, nor a ghetto thing; many athletes have followed Vick's path -- from the projects to stardom -- and they lead dignified, admirable lives.
Men such as Hank Aaron:
While he was born in a section of town referred to as "Down the Bay," he spent most of his youth in Toulminville. Aaron grew up poor and his family couldn't afford baseball equipment so he had to hit bottle caps with sticks.
Worse, he grew up in the segregated South, where his career took off despite a steady diet of vitriol.
In 1953, at age 19, only one year removed from hitting cross-handed for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro leagues, he was one of five players thrust into the integration of the Class A South Atlantic League, in the heart of Dixie. (The major leagues, which Robinson had integrated six years earlier, still played no farther south than St. Louis and Cincinnati.) Aaron could not eat in the same restaurants, sleep in the same hotels or drink from the same fountains as his white teammates. Fans heaped racially charged insults at the teenager. A white teammate, Joe Andrews, bat in hand, would escort him out of the ballpark after games. And lo, Aaron hit .362 and was named the league's MVP.
Dixie was still awakening from its racist fog some two decades later as Aaron approached the Babe's record. For nearly a year, Aaron endured countless death threats and a torrent of hate mail. He was afforded around the clock police protection. SI recorded the period thusly:
Is this to be the year in which Aaron, at the age of thirty-nine, takes a moon walk above one of the most hallowed individual records in American sport...? Or will it be remembered as the season in which Aaron, the most dignified of athletes, was besieged with hate mail and trapped by the cobwebs and goblins that lurk in baseball's attic?
The shame about Bonds is that he's the greatest player I've ever seen. In his prime he had no flaws, at the plate or in the field. Without steroids, he still would've ranked among the pantheon of baseball greats. I could overlook the sour personality -- Joe DiMaggio was a prickly control freak, and Ty Cobb was a racist thug (term advisedly used). But neither cheated. Nor did Pete Rose.
I may be rambling, but Hank deserves the ink. Even Bonds deserves a little -- he's one of hundereds who juiced while baseball looked the other way. If he wasn't breaking Aaron's record, I wouldn't care if hit 1,000 homers.
Unfortunately, Vick is going to receive more attention than both. Hank's been there, done that (appearing on only three SI covers.) While he's demonstrated some justifiable bitterness over the years, I think Aaron has found comfort in the shadows. He deserves the peace, and the eternal respect of every American, whether you care about sports or not.
I understand there are many Boston transplants in the ATL. But 20,000, all at Turner Field tonight? Don't think so. While I have no problem with those who stick by their home team (I remained loyal to the Braves when I relocated to LA), I have zero tolerance for those who pick their favorites based on trendiness.
Unfortunately, most of those people live in Atlanta (for basketball fans, they are the losers who show up at Hawks games wearing Kobe Bryant jerseys).
I hate them all. I want to punch them. Particularly when they cheer loudly for a visitor to beat their hometown team. Particularly when they are as obnoxious as Red Sox fans (bandwagon or otherwise).
They have no shame. I want to punch them.
Thus, I won't be going to the Ted the next three nights. I should be there, standing up for the Bravos, but I can't stomach the infiltration of Red Sox nation. Watching the Braves lose is bad enough; watching the Braves lose while a third of the stadium cheers is even worse.
Former Chicago White Sox slugger Dick Allen enjoys a smoke between innings. Ah, the good old days.
(Speaking of smoking, my first dental hygienist used to light up as she cleaned teeth. Ashes would collect in the drool bib, yet I don't recall anyone complaining.)
According to a new poll, a quarter of black baseball fans say Barry Bonds is disliked because of his race. Nearly three quarter want Bonds to break the all-time home run record, as opposed to 28 percent of whites.
Need I remind them that the current mark is held by an African-American? One with class. One who didn't cheat to reach 755. And one who endured real racism en route to breaking Babe Ruth's record.
Fans (mostly white fans, it appears) aren't rooting against Bonds because he's black. They're rooting against him because he's a cheater, and an asshole.
I'd be even more opposed to fellow cheater Mark McGwire breaking Hank Aaron's record, as the former Cardinal was a one-dimensional player. Bonds, even with the steroid cloud hanging over his head, remains the greatest player in my lifetime. It's a shame that he'll be remembered not for his brilliance on the field, but for his deception off it.
It's an even biggeer shame that race is being injected into this debate. Hank Aaron deserves better.
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