Throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks

Like anything else in the media world, there is a tremendous amount of competition for a limited amount of consumer attention-span and that is why perhaps it leads sports writers and columnists to say the absolute darndest things. William Rhoden who is generally solid proves himself to not be above susceptibility when it comes to ridiculous contentions and columns….. Subject: Barry Bonds, after breaking Hank Aaron’s home-run record has been sitting out this season and waiting for a call from a major league team that has yet to come. Rhoden wonders why.

Rhoden can’t quite figure out why it is that Bonds who is up on federal perjury and obstruction charges regarding his involvement with performance-enhancing drugs can’t find a job. Seriously. And he juxtaposes this against Jason Giambi, the Yankees slugger, who has received what Rhoden sees as a free pass when Giambi all but admitted he did steroids. But unlike Bonds, Giambi behaves like a decent and humble athlete towards the press and public. Besides, Giambi, for a short time was sporting one of the most excellent ‘staches we’ve seen in quite some time. That counts for something.



Rhoden, though, doesn't properly assess the American public’s spirit towards forgiving much when there is the proper amount of contrition and graciousness in the attitude displayed by the guilty(?) party. Bill, this is real easy: Bonds is a jerk with a big fat ‘roid-head who may be doing time in the slam for lying under oath to the grand jury. And what team need that trouble?

Old Chick Rules?

Just got back from Vegas and while bloggging will be light as we collect our thoughts, dirty laundry and whatever spare change between the sofa cushions we can scrounge, we will be going with some stuff we had planned but had not got around to.

Immediately on the heels of Dara Torres (41 years of age and mother of one and uhhh… Jewish, apparently) winning both the 50 and 100 meter freestyle events at the Olympic swimming trials last weekend came the whispers. How does a woman at her age coming out of a 6-year retirement accomplish what she has? Jason Whitlock reminds us of the bad ol’ days and the current realities of sports, performance-enhancing drugs and perceptions. His column here.

It Just Doesn't Matter... or Does It?

J-Red over at East Coast Bias gets to the bottom of the Spy-gate and the steroid scandal investigations and explains why they ARE that important.

* Pt. II

My old college roommate had an expression for moments like this: "I'd rather dunk my head in a bucket of ice water."

Well, it was bound to happen but, damn....

The replays of Aaron circling the bases and the two dudes sprinting in from the stands to intercept Hank between 2nd and 3rd to congratulate him.... no longer. Craig Sager and his horrible white or yellow(?) lab jacket at home plate trying to fight through a mob of adoring teammates in order to get a word with him.... Ancient history, brothers and sisters. A moment freighted with the significance of a black man breaking the most visible record in all of sports in the de facto capitol of the South.... 2nd place now.

For the foreseeable future we get Fat Head circling the bases to the wild applause of the Kool-Aid drinkers of San Fran greeted by teammates at home plate clearly behaving in a prefunctory manner before quickly retreating to the dugout. Hank Aaron, himself, on the Jumbo-tron offering congratulations... ugh. Manager Bruce Bochy in the dugout, soothing Bonds and telling him that, ".... you don't have to go back out and, you know, actually field your postion if you don't want to... Barry.... can I get you something to drink?"

...And while this joyous celebration is taking place in San Francisco, Bond's trainer, Greg Anderson is sitting in jail for refusing to testify about what he knows regarding Bonds and steroids.

Dear Lord: Please keep A-Rod healthy. Amen.

*

Nice work, Padre fans. With an opportunity to express to Mr. Bonds just what a travesty his tying the all-time home run record was they rolled over and gave Bonds a standing ovation.

(From Chris Jenkin's article in today's U-T):

"So, the answer to the question? The crowd was gracious, excited, perhaps even privileged. And, in the minority, simply annoyed.
For all the poundings that Bonds has put on San Diego in the past, the immediate response to Bonds' shot was a universal explosion of “Whoa!” A predominance of cheering followed, muffling the inevitable boos, as the Bonds circled the bases to a standing ovation."

Dodger fans did their part this past week. I mean what's so wrong with vocally expressing a little anger, discontent and, dare I say, (gasp) pique? Padre fans had the chance to forever provide the proper context and backdrop for this travelling circus and they blew it. Pathetic.

The Long National Nightmare....... still not over.

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.

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.