While I'm off-topic
Whatever "topic" means in this forum, I appear to be off of it, so I'll continue on (off?) that vein for a moment.
I'm not a rabid baseball fan, I enjoy playing and watch the odd game, but I would say that I have my eye on the sport passively. Barry Bonds is very likely going to surpass Babe Ruth's career home run total in the next couple of weeks, and might well get Hank Aaron's overall career record before he is done.
Here is my question to you: If Bonds sets a home run record, should it count? Should it be "asterisked"? If you are a ball fan, do you consider his feats valid or are they tainted by the drugging allegations?
I'm not a rabid baseball fan, I enjoy playing and watch the odd game, but I would say that I have my eye on the sport passively. Barry Bonds is very likely going to surpass Babe Ruth's career home run total in the next couple of weeks, and might well get Hank Aaron's overall career record before he is done.
Here is my question to you: If Bonds sets a home run record, should it count? Should it be "asterisked"? If you are a ball fan, do you consider his feats valid or are they tainted by the drugging allegations?
I remember when Hammerin' Hank was going to go 715 in 1974. Back then the controversy was one of hope - it was a black man about to break a white mans record just 30 years after the colour barrier had been crossed.
I was 7 and was rooting for him, even though I was an Expos fan (yay Rusty Staub!). Baseball back then was still a wholesome untarnished sport, where controversy usually was due to booze or outside influences (racism against Aaron, the Black Sox of 1919).
Today, after strikes by millionaires, cheating with steriods, lying to Congress, baseball has lost its lustre and the fans are cynical and jaded.
In the spring of 1974, even with Viet Nam still going on, Watergate and the OPEC embargo, most evening news casts would report on every hit Hank got, counting down to 714 and eagerly awaiting 715 on that first day of the season.
Yesterday, I found out that Bonds was 1 hit away from 714, not because of fan fare or count down, but because he was robbed of that magic number by a Cubs outfielder. It was an "in your face Bonds!" announcement rather than a "Go Barry!" liek I remember from 74.
I think America is a lot more angry and a lot less forgiving than they were 30 years ago.
Pity.
Posted by
Mike |
Thu May 11, 03:14:00 PM