Bonds undeserving of HR record
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
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Hank Aaron sometimes needs to find a chair at baseball receptions held in his honor. At 72, he has to take a load off his feet. That’s fair because he has carried his share of the sport’s weight for more than 50 years.
Aaron’s smile is still gentle, his manner reserved yet accommodating. Nevertheless, there has always been pain in his face. And there’s more now.
In recent years Aaron has buried five siblings and attended many more funerals of old friends. He muses quietly about those things, painful as they are, because they’re part of life.
However, he falls silent, diplomatic and noncommittal when Barry Bonds is mentioned. Compared to steroids, BALCO, "the clear" and "the cream," death is an easier topic.
Nobody in baseball, including Aaron, wants to think about Bonds stepping to the plate with a chance to hit a 756 th home run. It is the sport’s nightmare. For millions of fans, Aaron represents the apogee: a modest superstar and complete player.
Jackie Robinson endured more, but for Aaron the pursuit of Babe Ruth’s home run record was terrible enough with its hate mail and death threats. Perhaps no American athlete ever broke a more significant record under greater social pressure with such consummate grace.
For that, Aaron get tons of credit. And, frankly, he deserves better than to watch a guy such as Bonds, whose achievements have been tempered by suspicions that he used performanceenhancing drugs, break the career home run record. Aaron wouldn’t even switch leagues and become a designated hitter until he had passed Ruth’s record with plenty of home runs to spare.
Does Bonds understand? Does he grasp that Aaron defined himself as much by the dignified manner in which he broke Ruth’s record as by the record itself? Does he grasp that he could define himself, and show his true character, by graciously declining the crown of Home Run King?
For two years, with hints here and there, Bonds has tested the waters, trying to feel his way toward the most difficult decision of his career. Now it’s starting to look as if Bonds might do the right thing — for baseball, Aaron, and, most of all, himself. Whether you like Bonds or not, root for him to be wise.
On Sunday, Bonds gave one of his periodic whiney, self-centered I’m-the-victim interviews (in USA Today) that have so damaged his credibility and popularity. Few people are so tone-deaf to their own voice. Bonds said he is tired of baseball. It isn’t fun for him anymore because of "all the crap going on. . . . Thank you for all your criticism. Thank you for dogging me."
Besides, Bonds added, he has no cartilage remaining in one knee. "I’m bone on bone," he said, which has led him to ingest pain pills and sleeping pills. Bonds has said his father was an alcoholic and that he has a brother with drug problems, so flirting with dependencies should be a hereditary red flag. So, Bonds said, he would retire after the 2006 season. If he did, he would presumably hit the seven homers necessary to pass Ruth, but not the 48 needed to surpass Aaron.
"I’ve never cared about records anyway," Bonds said, likely prompting laughter from 20 years of teammates.
Later Sunday, Bonds did what he usually does. After calling the maximum amount of attention to himself, he reversed field. Why? To keep his options open and call maximum attention to himself.
"If I can play (in ’07), I’m going to play. If I can’t, I won’t. I’m playing psychological games with myself right now," Bonds said. "So I go back and forth every day. . . . This is what I’m struggling with."
For his whole career, Bonds has sabotaged himself whenever possible. Now, out of respect for Aaron, a contemporary of his father, Bobby, and his godfather, Willie Mays, will Bonds finally find some common sense?
If Bonds retires with more homers than Ruth, but fewer than Aaron, he might be amazed at the gratitude the sport affords him. Most fans are awed by Bonds’ achievements, no matter how they were accomplished. But those same fans are not suckers. Nobody has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Bonds knowingly took steroids to boost his power. But what about "beyond a reasonable doubt?" For many fans, he’s already way over that line.
Bonds’ love of the game is genuine, his feats gargantuan. He deserves a place near the top of the sport, but not at the very apex. If he settles for what he deserves, he might find his records, and his reputation, age quite well despite all the doubts that surround his methods.
But if he is determined to take down Aaron’s record, if he grabs for what so many skeptics he has earned, then his sport and even his society might extract a lifetime of subtle retributions.
Thomas Boswell is a sports columnist for The Washington Post .
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