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Shut Up, Barry
Yes, yes, I know the sports world has been clamoring for someone, anyone, to write a column about Barry Bonds. Especially someone who has never met him, and has never met anyone who's ever met him.
Here's the thing: I don't really like the idea of jumping all over athletes for things that they say. We all say stupid things. If you took some of the things I've said to my friends at work and put them in the newspaper, any number of institutions would immediately call for my ouster. Fistfights would break out at press-conference podiums over who would get to be the first to denounce me officially, on behalf of "all decent people everywhere."
The idea that Barry Bonds' comments about Babe Ruth during last week's All-Star festivities ("That's it -- 715," Bonds was quoted as saying. Bonds is approaching his godfather Willie Mays' career home run total of 660, and next up is Babe Ruth, in second place with 714. "Because as a left-handed hitter, I wiped him out," Bonds said of Ruth. "I'll take his home runs, and that's it," Bonds is quoted as saying. "Don't talk about him no more") caused a stir was somewhat mystifying to me. Bonds is widely thought of (fairly or unfairly, I don't know) as a big jerk, and I've never heard him described as being particularly knowledgeable about baseball history (although I'm sure he soaked up some stuff growing up, since his father, Bobby, was a star baseball player).
So, he's an arrogant, ignorant jerk (so some say). His comments made him sound like... an arrogant, ignorant jerk.
Big deal.
I could sit here and point out that with the way baseball records are falling these days, the only fair way to compare the greatness of players from different eras is to measure how they performed against their peers (yes, I know that black players couldn't play until 1947, so major leaguers before then weren't facing necessarily all of the best competition. There were also half as many teams then, so it's probably a wash. I mean, imagine if Barry Bonds, every at bat, was facing one of the fifty or sixty best pitchers in the National League. He'd still be great, undoubtedly, but his offensive numbers might be merely excellent, not mind-boggling). I could go on to point out that Ruth won 12 home run titles, by an average margin of 17.25 home runs over his nearest rival, whereas Bonds has won two, by an average margin of 7.5. And I could point out that Babe Ruth had a .671 career winning percentage as a pitcher, that he has more career shutouts than Pedro Martinez, and that he didn't even start hitting every day until he was 24, in his fifth major league season.
But why would I go to all that trouble? To anyone who follows baseball, the idea that Barry Bonds will make people forget about Babe Ruth -- indeed, the idea that Barry Bonds is a better baseball player than Babe Ruth -- is silly, and the comments reflected little more than Barry's ignorance of the game.
I had a friend at work named Warren. He doesn't know baseball, like (evidently) Barry Bonds. Unlike Barry (apparently), he's not a jerk. He does have an extensive knowledge of certain players from the late '70s-mid '80s, based on his years of amassing baseball cards (his collection of Pete LaCock memorabilia is second to none), but he knows little of the history of the game. So when I (for reasons that are lost to posterity) drew up my list of the top five starting pitchers of all time (Walter Johnson was first, quite obviously. Second through fifth, alphabetically since I can't remember the order, were Dizzy Dean, Sandy Koufax, Pedro Martinez and Christy Matthewson. Shut up; it's my list), he said, "what about Nolan Ryan?"
Now, anyone who knows baseball knows that although Nolan Ryan was an all-time great pitcher, a Hall of Fame pitcher, he doesn't sniff the top five (ESPN.com's Rob Neyer recently had a good article about why; I'd link to it but I don't feel like it). So, the only reaction to have when someone says something like that is, "Well, they don't know their baseball." No big deal. I don't know fashion, cars or Norse mythology, it doesn't make me a bad person.
So, while I was not surprised in the least by Barry Bonds' off-the-cuff, silly comments, I was very surprised at the mini-controversy they generated. Wow, a wealthy modern athlete isn't smart enough to have even an inkling of perspective about the rich history of the sport he plays.
Stop the presses.
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