white america hates bonds

[smazza]

Reasons for Bonds' bad image split between steroids and racism

By Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.  They arrive with no return addresses and, of course, with no signatures.

 A young fan has a moment with Barry Bonds before the slugger signs his baseball.  

By Eric Risberg, AP

These are the hate letters San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds and his publicists say they receive each week, arriving with greater frequency since spring training began. Some are thrown away. A few are kept. Others, the ones that threaten his life, go to Major League Baseball security officials.

As opening day looms Monday, baseball prepares an investigation of steroid use in the major leagues and the letters keep arriving, a debate gathers momentum:

Is Bonds, seven home runs from surpassing Babe Ruth for second on baseball's all-time home runs list, the latest African-American athlete to suffer the effects of racism, similar to the experience of all-time leader Hank Aaron?

Or is the anger directed toward Bonds a product of mounting evidence he used performance-enhancing drugs to reach this point in history?

Or could he be paying the price for a career of surly behavior toward fans and the media?

Whatever side of the debate they take, the participants  Bonds, other major league players and observers of the game  fervently and heatedly argue they're right.

"White America doesn't want him to (pass) Babe Ruth and is doing everything they can to stop him," says Leonard Moore, director of African and African-American Studies at Louisiana State University. "America hasn't had a white hope since the retirement of (NBA star) Larry Bird, and once Bonds passes Ruth, there's nothing that will make (Ruth) unique, and they're scared. And I'm scared for Bonds.

"I think what he'll go through will be 100 times worse than what Aaron went through" when he surpassed Ruth in 1974. "I pray for him every night."

Evidence isn't going away

Those who insist race is a non-factor cite the overwhelming evidence of Bonds' steroid use in the leaked grand jury testimony and documents reported by the San Francisco Chronicle in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) investigation and more recently in the book Game of Shadows.

The mass of data includes affidavits filed by government investigators, evidence seized from BALCO and memos detailing statements of BALCO founder Victor Conte and Bonds' trainer and friend, Greg Anderson, to Internal Revenue Service special agent Jeff Novitzky.

That evidence, they say, has no overtones of racial or gender discrimination; those identified in the book as using steroids range from Bonds to former NFL player Bill Romanowski, who is white, and track star Marion Jones.

"Barry was my childhood hero growing up, and what he's going through I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy," Oakland Athletics third baseman Eric Chavez says. "But as far as this being race-related? I totally disagree. If Big Mac (Mark McGwire) was playing, he'd be in the same boat. This is a case where if there is a beast, you chop the beast's head off. That happens to be Barry. I think we all want to see the end of the story. I want the right information."

Giants managing partner Peter Magowan says: "I don't believe this is a case of racism. In fact, I think this shows how far we've come. If the media brought this up 20 years ago, they would have been considered racists."

Moore sees the grand jury testimony differently. "To black America, this is just another example of the judicial system trying to railroad an African-American male," Moore says.

The controversy has done little to slow Bonds this spring. He batted .625 and hit four home runs in 16 at-bats in Cactus League exhibition games. The lingering effects of three knee surgeries in 2005 and a strained elbow limited him to 24 innings in the field; he is expected to play in two of the Giants' exhibition games this weekend in the Bay Area.

Bonds, whose 708 home runs are 47 shy of Aaron's record 755, was reticent last week about discussing the role of race in the recent steroid allegations. He says he realizes his personality, which has led to few endorsement opportunities, plays a factor.

"I've done some fâ€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- up things, I admit it," Bonds said Friday at the Giants spring training facility. "We all make mistakes in life. But there's only one perfect person in our society, and they put him on a cross. For what? For being kind? For loving people?"

Media treatment: Is it fair?

Bonds' reluctance to nurture his public image may hinder him, says Harry Edwards, a former University of California-Berkeley sociology professor who organized the 1968 Olympic Games black athlete protest.

"Barry has never really cultivated the media and cultured the media the way Magic Johnson did and Michael Jordan did or the way Tiger Woods has done," Edwards says. "So he doesn't have the reserve of public relations capital to call upon.

"The same animosity and resentment that Hank Aaron suffered through when he broke Babe Ruth's record has been exacerbated because of the cloud of steroid suspicion. This is a visceral response to a black man (passing) Babe Ruth."

Game of Shadows, by Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, claimed Bonds began taking steroids after the 1998 season. Commissioner Bud Selig has been reviewing the matter and according to ESPN will launch an investigation of Bonds and other major leaguers. USA TODAY could not independently confirm the investigation.

Several players say Bonds' differences with the media, rather than his race, make him a target. Would the media act the same toward Derek Jeter if he were going for the record?

"I'm a big believer in karma," says San Diego Padres center fielder Mike Cameron, who is African-American. "What goes around comes around. If you don't treat people right, things come back to bite you."

Bonds, the son of former major league player Bobby Bonds and godson of Hall of Famer Willie Mays, says he never worries about diplomacy and knows he's one of the most disliked players in the game.

He caused a furor two years ago when he said he wanted to break all of Ruth's records but wouldn't mind falling short of Aaron, who started his career in the Negro Leagues. Yet when Bonds was criticized for his views, construed by some as racist, he reminded everyone that his first wife was white.

"This is something we, as African-American athletes, live with every day," Bonds said. "I don't need a headline that says, 'Bonds says there's racism in the game of baseball.' We all know it. It's just that some people don't want to admit it. They're going to play dumb like they don't know what the hell is going on."

Bonds, who insists he has never taken steroids, says he has been tested several times for steroids since 2003. Major League Baseball confirms that every test was clean. Yet the suspicions refuse to go away, particularly after the leaked grand jury testimony and documents discovered by the Chronicle in the BALCO investigation.

Game of Shadows reports that Bonds, spurred by jealousy of the attention generated by McGwire's season home run record in 1998, began taking the steroid Winstrol after that season. It says Bonds took human growth hormone and Deca Durabolin after the 1999 season and, before his 73-home run season of 2001, the BALCO-created "clear" and "cream" drugs as well as Clomid, a women's infertility drug, and Modafinil, a narcolepsy drug used as a stimulant.

Co-author Fainaru-Wada says Game of Shadows and the Chronicle investigation never were about Bonds.

"The premise that the media is going after Bonds is false," Fainaru-Wada says. "People are reporting on a federal investigation that is about steroids, in which Bonds is a major part of the investigation. We haven't had anyone characterize (the book) in any racial terms.

"But this is not a Barry Bonds book. It was born from a federal investigation in which he was a part."

Yet many African-American players in baseball believe the constant allegations can be construed as racially motivated.

"It's so obvious what's going on," Minnesota Twins center fielder Torii Hunter says. "He has never failed a drug test and said he never took steroids, but everybody keeps trying to disgrace him. How come nobody even talks about Mark McGwire anymore? Or (Rafael) Palmeiro (who tested positive for steroids in 2005)?

"Whenever I go home (to Pine Bluff, Ark.), I hear people say all of the time, 'Baseball just doesn't like black people. Here's the greatest hitter in the game, and they're scrutinizing him like crazy.' It's killing me because you know it's about race."

Going strong past 40

Before the period of alleged drug usage detailed in Game of Shadows, Bonds' career high in home runs was 46, achieved in 1993 at age 28. From 2000 to 2004, between the ages of 35 and 39, he averaged 51.6 home runs a season and hit his record 73 homers.

  Giant numbers  

A look at Barry Bonds' home run, at-bats and home runs per-at-bat totals since joining the San Francisco Giants in 1993:

Year Age AB HR HR/AB

1993 28 539 46 11.7

1994 29 391 37 10.5

1995 30 506 33 15.3

1996 31 517 42 12.3

1997 32 532 40 13.3

1998 33 552 37 14.9

1999 34 355 34 10.4

2000 35 480 49 9.8

2001 36 476 73 6.5

2002 37 403 46 8.8

2003 38 390 45 8.7

2004 39 373 45 8.3

2005 40 42 5 8.4

Bonds has gained nearly 50 pounds since his 1986 rookie season; he weighs about 235 pounds and never had a drastic weight loss once steroid testing was implemented.

"People keep talking about how he's not supposed to keep hitting homers and doing phenomenal things because he's 40-plus," says baseball agent Dave Stewart, a former 20-game winner and front office executive.

"Well, (seven-time Cy Young winner) Roger Clemens is 40-plus, too, and nobody ever brings his name up. Why not? Is it because one's black and the other is white?"

Seattle Mariners outfielder Matt Lawton, one of 12 major league players who tested positive for steroids last season, even has difficulty understanding why the guilty have been forgotten.

"If (Bonds) were white, he'd be a poster boy in baseball, not an outcast," Lawton says.

Selig and Donald Fehr, executive director of the players association, refused to publicly comment about the possible racial implications if an investigation is launched against Bonds.

Public perception is mixed. A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll of baseball fans taken this month showed 49% think Bonds should be inducted into the Hall of Fame and 43% think he shouldn't.

If Major League Baseball ever concludes Bonds is guilty of taking steroids, 52% of fans believe his records should be taken away.

"People would breathe a deep sigh of relief if he didn't break Hank's record," says Edwards, the former Berkeley professor.

"If he had the grace to step aside for Hank, I think it would get him into the Hall of Fame.

"It's sad to think that's what it would take because of all his accomplishments, but it's true."

[KnightsRule]

I am a white guy and I hate bonds. It has nothing to do with his race though.

[Velcro]

I am a white guy and I hate bonds. It has nothing to do with his race though.

Exactly.

Leave it to Smazz to turn every issue in the world into a racial one.  Reverse racism at its finest.  :

[KnightsRule]

Exactly.

Leave it to Smazz to turn every issue in the world into a racial one.  Reverse racism at its finest.  :

VG

Opening day monday. Sox staff looks great. I am going to go to a lot of games this year now that I am back living in CT. My cousin is coming in for a visit sunday and will have his world series ring with him.

[Velcro]

I think this will be nixon's swan song... Pena is looking very good and if he keeps improving... Nixon is going to start losing playing time, even if he is a fan favorite.

[KnightsRule]

Trot will be taking a home town discount or be shipped out. He is tough as nails but his body is wearing down quick. Willy Mo has tons of power and if they can cut his swing down he could be a monster. Papi used to have a lot of holes in his swing and look at him now.

[Brad]

My 7 1/2 year old white son selected Barry Bonds as his favorite player - has been for a couple years...until now.

Upon reading about the steroid allegations, he has dumped Bonds as his favorite...

I'm sure that has happened quite a bit over the years as it was clear Bonds was morphing like Mcgwire into a drug aided superhuman.

[mulheap]

white america hates bonds

[Velcro]

everyone but SF Giant fans hate bonds

[E.T.]

My 7 1/2 year old white son selected Barry Bonds ...

Watch out ... smazza will call your son a slave owner.

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