The High Court

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The Big Gavel—Cheers

Just in case you hadn’t heard…Barry Bonds is back.  Bonds hit his 705^th lifetime homer (his 2^nd since his return began earlier in the week) on Sunday afternoon, and the home crowd in San Francisco cheered him heartily as the Giants defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers.  And that cheering was probably the cause of great pain for Yahoo sports columnist Dan Wetzel.  Wetzel, you see, had penned a terribly passionate column on Thursday taking the fans in San Francisco to task for welcoming their slugging star back to town.  In Wetzel’s humble (yeah…sure…) opinion, every fan cheering Bonds was a “naïve bumpkin”, an imbecile, or someone who should be ashamed of themselves for embracing Bonds just because he could help the Giants win.  After reading that, I was faced with two questions:  Am I a bumpkin or an imbecile?  And how in the hell does an idiot like Dan Wetzel get a job as a national columnist with anybody?

 

Not that I haven’t written this column already…oh yeah…I have.  But that time it was about Bonds’ right to return to chase Hank Aaron’s home run record, and this time it is about Bonds’ right to return, period, and the fans right to cheer him if they so desire.  Getting right to the point, the answers are yes and yes.  Yes, Bonds has every right to return, and the fans have every right to cheer him if they like.  Just like they have the right to boo him if they so choose.  But I have news for everybody, Dan Wetzel included…Barry Bonds won’t give a damn.

 

And that is exactly why he comes back at 41 years of age and starts hitting home runs (one every eight at bats so far) like he hadn’t missed nearly the entire season.  He is completely unaffected by what you, me, Dan Wetzel or anybody else thinks.  He isn’t like Jason Giambi or Rafael Palmiero or Mark McCrier…they tear, but he has no fear.  Palmeiro heard boos; Bonds will hear none, not even when the Giants leave the comfortable confines of their home park.  His focus is unmatched, even among the greatest players in the game, and it is what has allowed him to continue to hit the baseball as well as anyone who ever lived, regardless of the distraction.  The swirling controversy of BALCO is nothing new.  Barry has been dominant all while he has been surrounded by rampant speculation and suspicion.  His father was stricken with cancer and passed away, and Barry was dominant.  He has played on crippled knees, and he has still been dominant.  So when he comes back and people boo…he will still be dominant.  The only things that can stop Barry Bonds are health and time.  Time will eventually win, Dan Wetzel and the boo birds will not.

 

My favorite (sarcasm alert) part of Wetzel’s column is his suggestion that Barry hasn’t “earned” the things he has achieved in his career.  Now that is truly laughable.  Even if you believe that Bonds knowingly used HGH (and I think that is a fair thing to believe), perhaps Wetzel should check in to how steroids work.  They aren’t a magic potion.  You don’t automatically morph into a superhuman home run hitting machine while sitting on the couch.  Bonds has worked tirelessly in the gym to get his body into the kind of shape it has been in.  He was, by the way, already a Hall of Famer well before the home run binge that made him a target for all the Woodward and Bernstein wannabes.  So to make comments suggesting that Bonds hasn’t earned his achievements is more than a bit asinine.  He didn’t win Gold Gloves and multiple MVP awards in Pittsburgh because of the cream or the clear.

 

Wetzel also makes the assertion that Bonds owes fans an apology for being a fraud and getting them all excited about a “silly” (Wetzel’s word…remember that) home run chase.  Well now, if that home run chase was so “silly”, then why is Wetzel bothering with the column.  Because that is what this is all about.  Home runs.  Remember, Bonds is a two-time batting champ.  He has set and re-set one walk record after another.  Those achievements have nothing to do with being a bulked-up home run hitter.  McGwire was a bulked-up basher, and he could not hold a candle to Bonds as an all-around player.  But he is in the steroid cross-hairs, too.  And just because he impacted the MLB home run list.  Think I am wrong?  Think this is about the moral high road, about calling out cheats?  Then you tell me when a national columnist writes a column castigating fans for cheering Ryan Franklin, Michael Morse, or Juan Rincon.  Because they all have one more positive steroid test on their record than Bonds or McGwire.  But we all know we won’t see that column.  Wetzel and his national media brethren won’t be wasting their precious time on that column because it isn’t news.  Wetzel’s axe isn’t wielded because he really believes in morality and fans making a statement about cheating; it’s wielded because he knows what will bring him attention.  It is purely talk show-style tripe and could have just as easily been produced by Sally Jessy Raphael.

 

I have no idea how a guy like Wetzel gets into a position where he has a national forum as an opinion-maker.  He has no idea what it takes to hit a baseball.  That, of course, has nothing to do with whether or not Bonds knowingly used HGH or whether or not it is right for him to have done so (it isn’t, by the way).  What it is relevant to is this:  Every single writer or broadcast journalist who talks about the steroid issue ties it to home runs.  That does two things.  One, it overvalues the home run.  And two, it undervalues the talent it takes to hit them.  Any student of hitting can tell you that home runs are the result of bat speed and ball-striking (and countless other components).  Size has very little to do with it.  To toot my own horn, I can tell you that at age fourteen…when I was about 5’7” and 145 pounds…I homered over a wall 330 feet away.  Bat speed and contact, not power.  I can only be glad that it was 18 years ago.  Had it been 18 days ago, I probably would have been asked for a specimen…

 

Mark McGwire, as pointed out by Wetzel, is due for a rare public appearance in a couple of weeks in St. Louis.  He will be in town to help the Cardinals celebrate the final days of Busch Stadium.  Wetzel looks at it as a referendum on morality and suggests that it will answer the question of whether or not St. Louis is truly America’s best baseball city.  His inference is this:  Boo McGwire and condemn him for the dastardly steroid cheat he may be, and you Cardinal fans are baseball’s best.  Cheer McGwire and embrace him for hitting all those chemically-driven bombs for the home squad, and then you Cardinal fans are both shallow and stupid.  Quite a difficult situation, eh?  Well, Redbird Nation, here’s a little free advice from the Chief Justice himself.  If you feel like booing Mark McGwire, you boo him.  If you feel like cheering him, you cheer him.  And if you happen to feel like an imbecile either way, don’t worry. You aren’t alone.  You’ll always have Dan Wetzel for company.

 

Court is adjourned.

 

 

 

 

Contact The Chief Justice at chiefjustice@thehighcourtofsports.com