Letters to the Editor
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Not much to add..
Farnsworth said it all. How can it possibly be about race when the current record holder is black?
It is about being a total ass-bag and a cheater, not necessarily in that order.
Anyway, here is hoping ARod smashes the record in a few years. ;)
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Aaron v Bonds
I am not clear on the details, but I seem to recall Aaron being referred to as an Uncle Tom at the time of his dogged pursuit of Ruth, criticisms that he wasn't vocal enough in what it meant to pass the ultimate white hero. As another poster pointed out, pere Bonds was certainly not shy about criticizing either the black or white establishment, and his son would be anything but an Uncle Tom, real or perceived.
I think this whole thing comes down to sportswriters who legitimately don't like him and they are then able to pass their jaundiced view of Barry to whoever is listening or watching. I am not saying he hasn't cheated, or brought the hate as part and parcel of his acrimony with the press. Aaron wisely avoided saying too much to the press, and of course was taken for being a dullard or even mentally slow because of it. His reputation as a stellar front-office exec with the Braves and game ambassador have shown him to be anything but for any who bought this line of racist crap. I believe that the lens though which both were/are viewed during their career was heavily and negatively influenced by media who wanted them to be something they were not.
I think the baseball and its media ought to stop wondering why black Americans are increasingly turning it off.
I agree 100% with Bukka that despite everything, Bonds is a one of the all-time greats and deserves it as much as Cobb or Williams - guys with toxic personalities, and unbelievable talent and egos to match, and a will to excel that drove them to be a law unto themselves.
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polls
Wes, no all I'm saying is that i don't understand statistics well enough to be confident in almost any polling. That's not to say that I don't revel in Bush's 28% or whatever the freefall has hit lately. I just think that perhaps all these so-called scientific polls we all rely on to make our arguments aren't really that reliable. Calling 900 people doesn't seem to be a fair way to represent the feelings and opinions of 300 million. There are vast differences in our opinions based on geography, race, socio-economics, etc, and I'm not confident that these 900 people are particularly representative of the nation as a whole.
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The Question
According to KK, the question "Do you think Bonds did or did not knowingly use steroids?"
Had the following answers:
Blacks: 37 percent yes
Whites: 76 percent yes
The only problem with this is that it's not a yes/no question. Think about it.
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Bonds represents his era
I used to be upset about Bonds breaking the career home run record, but no longer. The records Bonds will hold when he retires will simply reflect the times he played in. No more no less.
It will be unfair if the MLB investigation singles out Bonds, and no doubt it will not. It seems increasingly apparent that steroids+ were widespread (in the sense that there was no shortage of players stupid enough to use them) and part of the culture of baseball from whenever up to the moment that anonymous person sent that Balco syringe to the Feds. I don't know about the Feds now -- is it a perjury investigation or what? I doubt most fans can distinguish between the two.
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Bonds?? What about The Rocket?!
King,
How can you have nothing to say about Roger Clemens today?
Who really cares about Bonds, anyways? He's a waste of space in my opinion.
-jd
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Thank you!
I've resented that the Giants have become all about this disagreeable person and his apparent cheating. I've grown tired of the club's refusal to turn over the roster and build a new, exciting team ready for the future because it can't afford to have a rebuilding year while the Bonds home run golden goose is still alive.
As a lifelong Giants fan, that says it all. Step one was getting rid of Felipe Alou. Step two will be getting in some younger players in order to build for the future: a roster that can gel together and play for years to come, seasoned by some of the finest veterans around.
While I find Bonds' personality abrasive, I'd have to say that I am definitely hoping he breaks Aaron's record, and does so in San Francisco. Whether Bonds' was "juicin'" or not is largely immaterial in my view: Major league baseball had not banned the use of "performance enhancing substances" (what a great euphemism) during the time in question, and Bonds was still slugging the crap out of everyone else who was firing themselves up.
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Cheating
It seems to me the main difference between whites and blacks in this poll is that the former believe that Bonds made a conscious decision to take steroids, and the latter don't (maybe he was tricked). There don't really seem to be a whole lot of respondents who both believe Bonds knowingly took steroids AND who don't hold it against him. It looks like about 16% of whites and 19% of blacks fit into this category (assuming there are very few who are the other way around). Once the doubt over his guilt is gone, blacks are just as likely to hold that guilt against him.
I.e., it's not so much about the particular case of Barry Bonds, but rather the willingness of whites to proclaim a black man guilty, and the willingness of blacks to defend that man from the court of white public opinion. (And like some of your other commenters, I would be interested to see whether the poll differentiated between the level of fan interest in the matter and the opinion of Bonds' guilt.)
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Note on stats
i ....the overall percentages of fans who are rooting against Bonds (52 percent), who think he should be recognized for the home run record (57 percent) and who think he should be voted into the Hall of Fame (58 percent).
It should be noted that these percentages are relevant only if you accept the pollsters assumption that baseball fans are 25% black and 75% white. I doubt that this is accurate, especially since hispanic and asian fans are excluded. I think that the construction of the poll certainly skews the data in Mr. Bonds' favor.