This is my response
to Jesse Jackson writing into the Chicago Tribune and saying that Barry Bonds’
achievements should not be minimized
In last weeks Other
Views column, the Rev. Jesse Jackson conveniently failed to examine all of the
facts before asking the readers to pay homage to the feat Barry Bonds is about
to accomplish. He constantly referred to the pre-1947 era, but Bonds is about to
pass Hank Aaron’s record, not Babe Ruth.
Aaron played in an
era with some of the greatest players of all time including Willie Mays, Ernie
Banks, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, and Bob Gibson. In his
argument, Jackson mentions that the game is truly international now and Bonds is
playing against the best pitchers in the world.
What he fails to
mention is that there are also thirty teams now compared to sixteen for a good
part of Aaron’s career. That means there are 350 more players in MLB today than
there were back then. Even though there is a bigger field to select from, are
they really better today? When you consider that the Major Leagues today
consists of only 8% Black American ballplayers, you have to admit that a lot of
the best athletes are going into football and basketball, two sports that were
not nearly as popular in the fifties. The best players then generally played
baseball.
You also have the
changes made in the game that have favored the hitters ever since the mound was
lowered in 1969. Quoting Billy Wagner, he said, “I do think we’ve gone so far to
help the hitters in this era.” “They’ve lowered the mound, shrunk the strike
zone, built all these new hitters’ parks, let guys wear armor all over their
bodies so they can lean over the plate without worrying about getting hit, and
pretty much took away the inside pitch.” That’s not how the game was played in
the past.
Let’s also examine
the Rev. Jackson’s claim that Bonds has passed all of the tests. Until a few
years ago, there were no tests. There still is not a test for HGH, a substance
that Bonds is believed to have used. Bonds also admitted using the “cream” and
the ‘clear,” although supposedly unknowingly. How long did he use it and isn’t
that cheating?
One of the benefits
of HGH is improved vision, something that would definitely help a hitter. It
also helps you to recover faster and slows down the aging process. Perhaps
that’s the reason that Bonds is probably the only athlete in the history of
sports to not only get far more muscular after the age of 35, but also far
better than he was in the prime of a likely Hall of Fame career. Looking at his
numbers, he was nowhere near the player he became after his body increased to
mammoth proportions.
In the final
paragraph, Jackson says that Bonds accomplishment should not be minimized.
Perhaps he would never have reached those figures had he been minimized. As for
the Rev. being there when Bonds breaks the record, that’s not a surprise. There
are cameras present, aren’t there?
