Barry Bond's pursuit of Hank Aaron's all-time home run record has taken on a life of its own in large part because Bonds has been sitting on 754 for weeks now. ESPN has been broadcasting about every Giant's game in which Bonds has been scheduled to play and the announcers realize that they are there not to announce a game played by the last-place Giants but to provide commentary at a potentially monumental athletic achievement. Unfortunately, the combination of the long wait and members of the media feeling the pressure to keep coming up with thought-provoking things to say has resulted in an outbreak of dementia among many of these same people.
Tuesday night, the Giants opened their series against their archrival Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. This being Dodger Stadium, the Bonds-as-villian tableau was being played out to the full extent to where the booing started before Bond's name was even announced prior to his first at-bat. The ESPN play-by-play man for this particular game felt compelled to say something along the lines of ... "It's a shame that it takes the vitriol being expressed towards Bonds for people to realize what a terrific ballplayer and human being Henry Aaron was and is...." Huh? What an incredibly self-serving thing to say. I don't know of one person who counts themselves as being at least a casual observer of baseball who has not had the utmost admiration and respect for Aaron the man and Aaron the baseball player for years. I know not a single person who woke up one morning this summer and said, "You know, that Bonds is such a jerk but that Hank Aaron... he's a swell guy." It was such a transparent attempt to establish some sort of moral high ground by the announcer by implying that he has had respect for Aaron for longer than any of the rest of us.
Next time up, los Gigantes had runner(s) on base with first base open. Despite his slump, the conventional wisdom in this situation is to intentionally walk Bonds which is precisely what the Dodgers did. This result was greeted with even louder boos by the Dodger fans. Now, over the course of two nights, I heard two talking heads (one T.V., one radio) opine that the booing of that intentional walk was proof that fans, even Dodger fans, wanted to see Bonds break the record. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. What do these people not understand about rivalries and about competition? Why were the Dodger fans booing the IW? Because there is a sense that IW-ing Bonds is not competing against Bonds. If Bonds is the villain in this real-life melodrama then an IW is letting him off the hook. Who wants to see that? This is similar to booing the punting team on 4th and short or groaning over a fullback dive on 3rd and long. These are tactical retreats in the context of a larger war. The fans get it - they understand the reasoning...... they just don't like it - and in that context, the booing made perfect sense.
Because of all the off-field shenanigans that routinely occur, particularly this past month or so, the media tends to forget that we are fans of sports because of what occurs on the field, despite all the crap off the field. That's what this booing was about. We want our guy to give his best stuff against Bonds. That's competing. Mano y mano. Let's throw all the chips down on the table and see who's the better man - that's why we love sports and that's why we are fans. Its not about Michael Vick, its not about gambling scandals, and its not necessarily about whether Bonds took HGH or not - its about Brad Penny pitching, firing a 95 mph heater and seeing if Bonds can still catch up to it. If he can't then bully for us, if he can and knocks it out of the park then, damn... he broke the record in Dodger Stadium but at least it was done in the context of all-out competition. Just can't figure out why this is such a difficult concept to grasp for people who are paid to know this.
Tuesday night, the Giants opened their series against their archrival Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. This being Dodger Stadium, the Bonds-as-villian tableau was being played out to the full extent to where the booing started before Bond's name was even announced prior to his first at-bat. The ESPN play-by-play man for this particular game felt compelled to say something along the lines of ... "It's a shame that it takes the vitriol being expressed towards Bonds for people to realize what a terrific ballplayer and human being Henry Aaron was and is...." Huh? What an incredibly self-serving thing to say. I don't know of one person who counts themselves as being at least a casual observer of baseball who has not had the utmost admiration and respect for Aaron the man and Aaron the baseball player for years. I know not a single person who woke up one morning this summer and said, "You know, that Bonds is such a jerk but that Hank Aaron... he's a swell guy." It was such a transparent attempt to establish some sort of moral high ground by the announcer by implying that he has had respect for Aaron for longer than any of the rest of us.
Next time up, los Gigantes had runner(s) on base with first base open. Despite his slump, the conventional wisdom in this situation is to intentionally walk Bonds which is precisely what the Dodgers did. This result was greeted with even louder boos by the Dodger fans. Now, over the course of two nights, I heard two talking heads (one T.V., one radio) opine that the booing of that intentional walk was proof that fans, even Dodger fans, wanted to see Bonds break the record. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. What do these people not understand about rivalries and about competition? Why were the Dodger fans booing the IW? Because there is a sense that IW-ing Bonds is not competing against Bonds. If Bonds is the villain in this real-life melodrama then an IW is letting him off the hook. Who wants to see that? This is similar to booing the punting team on 4th and short or groaning over a fullback dive on 3rd and long. These are tactical retreats in the context of a larger war. The fans get it - they understand the reasoning...... they just don't like it - and in that context, the booing made perfect sense.
Because of all the off-field shenanigans that routinely occur, particularly this past month or so, the media tends to forget that we are fans of sports because of what occurs on the field, despite all the crap off the field. That's what this booing was about. We want our guy to give his best stuff against Bonds. That's competing. Mano y mano. Let's throw all the chips down on the table and see who's the better man - that's why we love sports and that's why we are fans. Its not about Michael Vick, its not about gambling scandals, and its not necessarily about whether Bonds took HGH or not - its about Brad Penny pitching, firing a 95 mph heater and seeing if Bonds can still catch up to it. If he can't then bully for us, if he can and knocks it out of the park then, damn... he broke the record in Dodger Stadium but at least it was done in the context of all-out competition. Just can't figure out why this is such a difficult concept to grasp for people who are paid to know this.
So here's to Barry getting 755 and 756 in rapid succession here if only so we don't have to hear sports talk guy continue to make a fool of himself and so we can just go back to, you know... booing Barry Bonds.
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