Get those hate letters ready, baseball purists. Work on those boos, National League fans across the country. Keep your summer schedule busy, Mr. Selig.
The treasured home run record is going to be broken this year, and I'm probably one of five people outside of San Francisco who is happy about it.
With Barry Bonds just 21 home runs from eclipsing Hank Aaron's all-time career home run record, most of the sport's fans ' and even its commissioner ' are dreading the day Bonds hits No. 756.
On a number of occasions, it has been reported that Selig is not planning on attending the game in which Bonds hits his historic blast. And that Bonds' fellow Giants won't enthusiastically come out of the dugout to greet him at home plate.
Can someone tell me why unproved allegations that Bonds used steroids draws such hatred toward him?
Go back and show me where it says he's guilty of using steroids. There is proof that he did, right?
Oh, wait ' there isn't. So much for that innocent until proven guilty thing.
And even if he did use steroids, here's a news flash: so did a lot of other stars at the time.
Sammy Sosa is looking thinner these days. Mark McGwire got caught with his pants down in front of Congress. Even Rafael Palmeiro couldn't say no to steroids. Bonds shouldn't be blamed for keeping up with the times. McGwire and Sosa were adored for the show they put on in 1998; not even 10 years later, Bonds is getting crucified for doing the same thing.
The point is, if you're going to try to pretend the steroid era never happened, you better wipe out everything ' and I mean everything ' from said era, even if it means going back and saying that Roger Maris' 61 homers in 1961 have been re-established as the new record. Too lazy to go through and wipe the slate clean? That's fine too, but the bickering has to stop.
Most of the hatred for Bonds comes from the way he deals with the media, which can be considered as anything but friendly. But if anyone else had to deal with questions about their integrity on an everyday basis, they'd get just as angry.
What Selig and the rest of the anti-steroids crowd needs to do is realize that it was guys like McGwire, Sosa and Bonds who saved baseball after the strike of 1994. Without the home run chases and the drives to break records, casual fans would've turned their backs on the game by now.
Barry Bonds deserves to go out with the recognition he has earned. The man has been at the top of his game for almost two decades, long before steroids became part of the vocabulary of baseball fans and writers everywhere. Breaking the record would be a fitting ending to such a big-league career.
Here's my dream scenario: With Selig in attendance in San Francisco, Bonds comes up in the bottom of the ninth and blasts No. 756 into McCovey Cove to win the game for the Giants. After crossing home, Bonds, grinning, salutes the commissioner with a couple of obscene gestures, grabs a microphone and announces his retirement as a player.
AT&T Park descends into a silence, the commissioner's syncopating heart leaps into his tight throat, and Bonds walks away, getting the last laugh even though we were told cheaters never prosper.
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Jason Fazzone
