The John Oates/Andrew Ridgely/Jim Messina connection
As a small corollary to Jackson's excellent post I feel an obvious point must be acknowledged. As with all instances involving the media (ANY media) and circumstances involving black people, when left to stew a few days and gather steam, the ugly head of racism inevtibaly rises. In some cases it can be a baseless assumption, but more often than not a shred of it holds truths which the majority of us try to ignore.
Many parties truly do have it in for Barry Bonds, and his "assault of Ruth's record," as has been stated daily on the ESPN baseball site and in newspapers around the country. The baseball media definitely has a grudge against the superstar player that won't give them what they want and how they want it; a man who refuses to DAILY answer the same questions asked non-stop. Though the questions have changed over the years ("What about your relationship with Leyland," "How is the knee"..."Did you take steroids"...) the constant barrage must seem Groundhog Day-like to Bonds.
But the point not to overlook in gauging a basis for racism is in the dissection of the term "assault on Ruth." Not only does this stoke the "Whitey fear" by implying that the big black evil man is going to "hurt the Babe," but that to a large amount of the country, it is Ruth that still has the record. The great Hank Aaron is a footnote in most articles, as people revere the second-place finisher as the icon who is being defiled. Nevermind that this icon was a crude womanizing gonnorheac side-show of gourmandism, he could whack that tater better than almost anyone in the history of the game. Does it matter that, as referenced, homers were a different animal in his day? He was often so tanked or hung over that he didn't even have to run out his dingers.
But back to the crux of my whining rant. In what other situation has the man gunning for second-best been so studied and vilified? Did the press get up in arms when the reprehensible Ty Cobb moved past Honus Wagner to claim second on the all-time list for most triples? How much ballyhoo was raised when Rickey Henderson walked past the Babe for #2 on the bases-on-balls list? How about when the "Big Train" Walter Johnson blew past Christy "Minstrel" Mathewson on the all-time strikeout tally?
Perhaps my perspective is skewed, as I live in San Francisco and am subjected to a graphic of the pug-faced Babe every goddamn day. But I do believe that this not-too-subtle implication of domesday scenario for the innocence of the pastime is not only injust, but carries an underlying tone of "our white heroes are being taken from us."
posted by Kevin Chanel at
9:20 AM
2 Comments:
You make some great points, and though I declined to touch upon the points of racism in my last post regarding Bonds, let me chime in with my two cents:
The fact that Bonds has to deal with the same type of honky dipshits that Aaron did is, in the words of Mike Myers in Wayne's World, "both sad and bogus." I mentioned that the sport of baseball is greater than the people who play it, and therefore can endure the players' polemical behavior. However, the issue of blatant racism--and the fact that it still exists in 2006--is a problem that relates to our society at-large and all of humanity--far more dire than any controversy relating to any game.
With no segue, my second comment is in regard to this: "In what other situation has the man gunning for second-best been so studied and vilified?" Well, I can't see why it surprises anyone that Bonds's vying for second-best is being so carefully watched. Babe Ruth is the most iconic historical figure in the sport considered our national pastime, and we're talking about home runs here--no one cared about Henderson walking past Ruth because the average Joe on the street doesn't give a shit about bases on balls.
However, why is he "vilified" in the media for merely approaching Ruth's home run total? Would he be vilified so much if he were a white man? I'd have to imagine not: the catch-phrase when McGwire was approaching Maris was "Chasing Maris"--not "Assault on Maris." But...had McGwire been the center of steroids controversy in 1998--and not post-retirement--things would possibly have been very different. There is nothing more you can do than speculate.
Outside of New York, Giambi and Sheffield (a white man and a black man) are jeered for their BALCO connections. Rafael Palmeiro (Cuban-American) was shamed into oblivion for his steroid use. John Rocker (whiter than Christmas snow) couldn't even make the Devil Rays roster after he was villainized for being a xenophobic dumbass. African-American History and Sociology professors Leonard Moore and Harry Edwards (simultaneously referenced in a sloppy blog post by Paul Finebaum) each made sweeping generalizations about "White America" that ignore all other aspects of America's distate for Bonds.
Obviously, arrogance and ignorance no know racial boundaries. Racism is a major problem--but not for a second, in this instance, does it distract anyone with a semblance of sensitivity and logic from the problems at the center of the "Bonds Fiasco."
And to elucidate, so I myself don't somehow come off as subtly trying to dismiss the problem of racism--"Bonds and Racism," and "Bonds and Steroids" are two totally separate issues that have both been conveniently tossed underneath the umbrella of "Bonds Vs. Ruth." I stand on the same side of the fence with Bonds on the first issue, and against him on the second, all the while considering him as "Bonds The Asshole."
I attributed a quote to Bob Gibson in my high school yearbook (from a button above his locker in the '68 World Series), and I'll quote him again here: "I'm not prejudiced; I hate everybody."
(Postscript: Two things to add: first, if you want to read a great study of racism in baseball in one of the harshest cities in America, check out Shut Out by Howard Bryant.
Lastly, if you want to talk about severe and blatant racism, "Red Sambo" is still alive and well, simply because Americans generally don't give a shit: NCRSM.)
4:54 PM
And that's all great. Excellent points. I did merely post in response as a corollary (is that even right, spelling-wise? just cuz I was an English major...21 years ago...doesn't make up for the bad spelling or grammar later in the game), but with the perspective added...well, yeah...we haven't complained about anyone passing Bob Cousy's so-called records, Dan Marino's passing records, or even Gordie Howe's records. So why "The Babe"s (and I swear, I always THINK I am gonna know how to punctuate correctly, but I never learn) SECOND BEST stat?!?! I'm not saying, or implying directly, that it has to be racism, so please don't accept it solely on those points, but damn, almost--if not all--of the Babe's records have been broken, so really--fuck the Babe. Fuck the Babe's so-called records, his legacy, his fat-ass everyman son-of-a-whatever Baltimore trainyard crap. He is as irrelevant as Bob Cousy, George Mikan, Bobby Hull, Don Over-rated Mattingly, O.J. Simpson, Johnny Unitas, and all those other cocksoldiers of the fifties-to-seventies era. They played in the shitty ballparks, in the snow, on the warped parquet, on the choppy infields of yesteryear... and that's adorable.
It's over. The Babe is over. His records are gone. Barry, as reprehensible as he reportedly is, played in an era where the current home run king had been cross-examined for nothing more damnable than Androstendione. Baseball looked the other way, and Barry just happened to be in SF while BALCO was thriving.
It just worked out that way.
8:59 PM
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