My lost Barry Bonds article

[wisehandpoker]

So, after I got hired by the ESPN Poker Club, I figured I could use my new connections to get an article that had been banging around my head for a few months put up on Page 2. The article was rejected on the grounds that Page 2 had told its own writers to stop writing on the topic. Not wanting to sell an article to my new emplyers' competitors, I was left without a place to post it. Enjoy,

Gary


MY DESKTOP HERO by Gary Wise

In 1921, Babe Ruth hit 59 home runs. He doubled 44 times, tripled 16, stole 17 bases, batted .378 and had a slugging percentage of .846. I know these things without having to look them up, because numbers with the scope and presence like the Babe’s always captured my imagination in a way that made them important to me.

I was one of those kids who poured over the statistics that spelled out baseball history. I know I’m a bit of a geek; I can live with that. Whenever my parents said ‘no TV’ or ‘no allowance’, the Baseball Encyclopedia and later Total Baseball were always there to hold my attention for a few hours. Had they known better, they’d have confiscated the book.

Thing was, being an adolescent stat-head in the 1980’s, mythic seasons like the Babe’s ’21 just weren’t feasible any more. With baseball’s spread came parity of competition. The parity leveled out the numbers. 60 home runs, a .400 batting average…these things just weren’t a part of the modern reality any more.

To compensate, I started playing baseball simulation video games. They’d let me program in those old greats and manage a team full of them. ‘Manage’ is a loose term; fill out the lineup and let them play. I was the Casey Stengel of desktop baseball. Mostly I reveled in the could-have-been’s that would never be. At least, that’s how it felt.

Barry Bonds changed all of that. Granted, Big Mac and Sammy came first, and they each notched seasons that at least could be discussed with the Babe’s, but they weren’t the same. The home runs were the only thing that reeked of freak. McGwire walked a ton and Sammy drove more than a few guys in, but there was some link to mortality. With Bonds’ emergence in 2001 from merely the best player of baseball’s previous dozen years to best hitter in the history of the game, mortality was left at the door.

Even Mac and Sammy couldn’t approach the Babe’s numbers, but Barry smashed almost all of them. He never did reach that vaunted 17 triple plateau. His accomplishments came with the news the guy was a prick; a walking attitude with its head shoved in what director Kevin Smith would call ‘an uncomfortable place’. God knows it was tempting to buy into the gospel, but those desktop dreams wouldn’t let me.

We remember the greats not for reality, but for the way history chooses to have us remember. Babe Ruth could easily be the fat, philandering, bat-corking idiot who ate himself and the Yankees with him out of more than one season. Ty Cobb would be the murderous, racist, sadist bane of human existence who would routinely head into the stands to pummel the snot out of a detractor. Ballplayers are men who play the game; baseball legends are made by the memories the pen provides us.

Now, the pen is doing a disservice. Every day, a new article pleads with a god petty enough to care about major league baseball to stop the atrocity of Barry’s securing the record from taking place. They tell us about the steroids, the trials, the amphetamines, the racism… all of the things that Bonds has done wrong. They paint the vivid picture of the man as a sonovabitch and with the account as widespread as they are, I have to think that at the most, Barry picks and chooses who he’s not that way with. What don’t they say? Here swings the most magnificent sonovabitch to ever swing a baseball bat. Enjoy him now, because he’ll be gone soon and we’ll never see another one like him.

It’s the rough personal experiences of writers that are ruining what should be the greatest chase of my baseball lifetime. So many authors I respect have voiced this same opinion like its consequential to the game. I praise them for their heart and their expression, but they’re destroying something I love.

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”

- James Earl Jones as Terrence Mann in Field of Dreams.

That’s the baseball I know. It’s not steroids and congressional hearings; it’s the crack of the bat and the smell of the grass. That’s the game my father showed me when I walked out into Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium one night in 1978 to watch the Brewers beat my beloved Blue Jays 5-3. I still remember the darkening sky, the magnificent lights, the translucent green grass and the musky smell of spilled beer and peanut shells on the ground. What I don’t remember is the innocence. It’s been taken from me by a jaded and cynical generation of journalism that can’t allow me that innocence. I want that game back. Barry could have given it to me.

All he had to do was hit the ball. All I had to do was watch him. I still remember going to PNC Park late in 2004 and seeing him hit #697, a magnificent lined shot to deepest center field. For that one, brief moment, I was just a fan loving the game again, appreciating another magnificent swing from the greatest artist of his kind from any generation. For that moment I was happy. The next day, it was all shattered when I started seeing those articles again.

I can’t say I blame Barry for his bitterness any more. With the amount of negativity constantly being aimed at him, I think it’s amazing he musters the will to leave the house every day. Do I wish he were a nicer guy? Yes. Would it be nice if he were a better role model? Absolutely. What kind of a role model was Van Gogh, mailing assorted severed body parts on a whim? I still love to see the man’s work.

I hold no ill will towards the fans who will sit motionless as Barry circles the bases for the 756th time. I don’t hold a grudge against the men and women who have preached on the topic, voicing their beliefs and doing what they’re paid for. I just want to celebrate the achievement without having to dwell on the flaws of the man. I want my innocence back.

[XXXNoahXXX]

good read. thanks for posting.

[SL__72]

Great read, I'm right there with you.

[hanster]

GARY WISE AS THE NEW SPORTS GUY ON PAGE 2 FTW?

On a serious note, this is a very good read, just like your poker articles. Have you thought about writing a separate blog that focus on sports for fun and away from the poker scene? It's something I'd read.

[wisehandpoker]

[ QUOTE ]
On a serious note, this is a very good read, just like your poker articles. Have you thought about writing a separate blog that focus on sports for fun and away from the poker scene? It's something I'd read.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, it'd have to be just baseball since I don't follow theothers closely enough to write in anyinformed capacity, but you've got me thinking about it. A baseball blog would be a lot of fun.

[jesusarenque]

Barry = THE MAN

[hanster]

[ QUOTE ]
Well, it'd have to be just baseball since I don't follow theothers closely enough to write in anyinformed capacity, but you've got me thinking about it. A baseball blog would be a lot of fun

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes it would. Maybe gather couple of other guys and start a cool blog by the 2p2ers. Basketball is the only thing i follow closely but i'm not nearly a good enough writer to be enjoyable. Fun to read when i'm whining, though, i've heard from friends (that Bonds for Carpenter and commish effing me in the a thread)

[RedBean]

Great piece, absolute spot-on.

[ QUOTE ]

The article was rejected on the grounds that Page 2 had told its own writers to stop writing on the topic.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm guessing it was probably rejected because it doesn't bash Bonds.

[MCS]

[ QUOTE ]
I was one of those kids who poured over the statistics that spelled out baseball history.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe this should be "pored."