Tuesday marked the 10th anniversary of Barry Bonds' 762nd home run, the last he would hit in his career.
In a tribute last month celebrating his passing of Hank Aaron’s 755 career home runs, Bonds reflected:
“I should have played one more year, I should have had the chance to,” Bonds said. “It’s all right, though. Those 22 (years) were still good. I wish I could have gotten to retire better”
He was being polite.
After his 2007 season, Barry Lamar Bonds was blackballed by Major League Baseball.
We need to state this truth without qualification.
Lack of legal validation has never stopped sports writers from printing that Bonds used Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs), so why do we play dumb on behalf of owners? Any other conclusion is dishonest.
The blackballing of Bonds was even far more blatant than Colin Kaepernick's blackballing.
All the evidence anyone needs is that Bonds’ ban came after his 2007 All-Star season where he posted a 1.045 OPS and a .480 on-base percentage.
How amazing is a .480 OBP?
It has not been reproduced since, even by Mike Trout - this decade’s undisputed heir to Bonds' throne as baseball's best player.
How historic is a .480 OBP?
It has been matched only once by any other player in the last 54 years (Frank Thomas' MVP season of 1994).
That’s right. Bonds accomplished a twice-in-a-half-century feat, and he was STILL blackballed.
The history of sports ownership does not bode well for Colin.
Amazingly, all the cognitive dissonant mental gymnastics used today to justify denying Kaepernick an NFL job was also used against Bonds.
Bonds' media critics charged: Barry could no longer play defense (despite DH in American League); his pending federal trial would interfere with season (it was postponed); he was a “distraction”; his “toxic” personality; his salary demands (he made none); “the integrity of the game”; fans wouldn’t stand for it, etc., etc., etc.
While Barry and Colin’s stories and personalities are very different, they basically share the same crime: they are both Black, unapologetic, and refuse to kiss white mainstream media's ass.
The Blackballing of Bonds is the forgotten historical injustice of The SteroidsEra Hysteria”.
In 2007 and 2008, Twitter was still an embryo. While Kaepernick has received more mainstream media support in the age of social media, consistent support for Bonds came from only a handful of mainstream voices, alternative outlets, and unpaid web writers with limited followers.
Somewhere lost in historical was my favorite baseball writer -- the late John Brattain.
The Blackballing of Bonds is the forgotten historical injustice of The Steroids Era Hysteria”.
No writer fought against the blackballing of Barry Bonds as vigorously as Brattain, who wrote for The Hardball Times, and a variety of other baseball websites. After complications with heart surgery, Brattain unexpectedly died in 2009 at the young age of 45.
If Brattain were alive today, there is little doubt he would be railing against the treatment of Colin Kaepernick. His past words on Bonds are as relevant as ever, and in Brattain’s honor, we will recount some of his words here.
As Bonds approached Aaron’s record, Brattain named media’s affliction:
“Treating Barrynoia”
“Can we get a grip, please?” implored Brattain. “Yes, Barry Bonds has most likely used performance-enhancing anabolic substances. He’ll most likely eclipse Hank Aaron’s major league record of 755 home runs. It will not trigger the apocalypse — I promise. You wouldn’t think so by reading some of the things written about Bonds, the All-Star Game and “the record.” It boggles the mind.”
Barrynoia would spread like wildfire. In a sweeping column, Brattain addressed MLB’s hiring double-standards of “nasty people” that echo Kaepernick today.
Bonds as “Baseball’s Greatest Villain”
“In recent years, there have been players that have been busted for tax evasion, dealing cocaine, abusing women, being polygamists, making death threats against their family (including children), having sexual relations with underage girls, using steroids, getting ticketed for DUI, being drug addicts and felons, being accused of sexual assault and rape, being vocal racists etc.”
Does any of this sound familiar?
Brattain, sifted through example after hypocritical example of MLB looking the other way while reminding readers of owners' track record.
Owners Hiding Behind Alleged Opinions by Fans
“MLB has over the last 15-20 years all but ignored the common fan…However, they feel that they must protect the fans’ sensibilities and keep Bonds away. They were more worried about how fans would react to seeing Bonds again play in the big leagues than they were about the reaction to canceling a World Series.”
Please read his entire column, and tell me exactly which part doesn’t apply to Kaepernick today?
Hypocrisy of Commissioner Bud Selig
Brattain was a baseball historian who constantly refocused back to owner and then-Commisioner Bud Selig. In “Those Who Do Not Learn from History”, he writes:
“Selig and Co. weak-kneed ignoring of the PED issue was what caused the record book to be rewritten in the first place. The final part of Barry Bonds’ career is the bastard child of MLB of which Selig refuses to acknowledge paternity”.
Nice sentence John. One can only imagine the blistering columns a still-living Brattain would write about Selig after Bud’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017.
The NFL’s Roger Goodell has still not been held to account for Kaepernick, but that has not stopped fans from protesting his blackballing outside of the NFL offices in New York City.
Bonds as “Distraction”
“What makes [Bonds] a distraction are the media hordes going around asking about whether Bonds’ presence is a distraction. They want Barry Bonds — he is their Holy Grail. He is also their great white whale — the one they want to sink their harpoons into for 20 years of mutual disrespect. It becomes a guaranteed self-fulfilling prophecy”.
Brattain correctly frames the time-tested “distraction” excuse for it has always been: media exercising its own power and control, and in Bonds' case, “helping Selig implement an agenda.”
Mediacrity
In “Maybe it Should be Called Mediacrity”, Brittain placed mainstream media in historical context:
“This is not about Barry Bonds. This is about the media, period… Whether it was pre-1947 or the Peter Ueberroth era, collusion could not happen without the aid and assistance of the media. Before Jackie Robinson, the press toed the party line that black [players] lacked the wherewithal to compete in the big leagues.”
This is true. While the Black Press (see Wendell Smith, Sam Lacy, Joe Bostic, etc.) relentlessly railed against Jim Crow Baseball, The Sporting News, the preeminent national sports magazine in 1945, stated:
“There is not a single Negro player with major league possibilities.”
It’s true. Before Kaepernick allegedly forgot how to throw a football, Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson couldn’t quite make the grade either. None of this is new. Brattain concludes:
“The bottom line is this: collusion cannot happen absent a lazy or complicit fourth estate.”
The prolific Brattain was anything but lazy or complicit. This was one of at least 30 articles (often between 2000-4000 words) he produced debunking excuses to blackball Bonds.
A reader of Brattain might think he did not care about steroids in baseball, and they’d be dead wrong. While masses of baseball writers played dumb for a decade while their hero Mark McGwire was still the single-season home run king, Brattain was implicating McGwire and the entire sport.
Back in 2001, Brattain’s article concluded: “It's time to get illegal and performance enhancing drugs out of baseball - for everybody's sake.”
Brattain never fashioned himself as a “social justice writer”, was anti-PEDs, and thought Bonds was “a prima donna and a Grade A Narcissist”. He often clarified with baseball collusion history lessons that he was not “Not Pro-Bonds, Just Anti-Collusion”,
So what drove him?
“Hypocrisy. There is no other word for it”, he writes in “If You Wish to Bury Bonds”.
“The media knew, heck I knew that steroids were rampant in the game. Nevertheless, to deny one man employment due to actions in an era in which he participated — but did not originate — is flat out wrong.”
Brattain knew that denial of one’s employment is not some differing “opinion” – it’s discrimination.
Sports media-types who support discrimination in 1947, 2007 or 2017 should be held accountable for their complicity, and history should uplift those who fought against it (The Black Press before 1947 is a great start).
The history of sports ownership does not bode well for Colin.
Given his leading role in fighting for Bonds' right to employment, his early position on steroids, and his overall brilliant baseball analysis, the historical record should uplift John Brattain. Historical correctness is important, and Brattain spoke truth to power – not for power.
Without hyperbole, I can state Brattain was the finest baseball columnist of his time.
As for Bonds' 762 home runs, the legendary Hank Aaron has stated. "It belongs to Barry.” “No matter how we look at it, it's his record”.
In addressing the blackballing of Bonds, Brattain goes a step further:
“It may be tempting to think that collusion in this instance is justified to protect the integrity of the game and its records, however, what will happen is exactly the opposite — it will permanently mar some records.”
In reducing Bonds' career totals, that is exactly what happened.
“I was what, 38, away from 800?” Bonds reflected on his MLB-shortened home run total.
What Bonds did not add is that MLB owners robbed him of 3000 hits (65 away), and 2000 RBI (only 4 away) as well.
While Bonds expressed great love for the San Francisco community and fans, he admitted his abrupt end still bothers him. "It always will eat at you in a way, always, because it just wasn't right the way it was done.”
With Kaepernick in 2017, the critics' song remains the same.
Last month the 83 year old Hank Aaron told BlackAmericaWeb.com he believes Kaepernick is being blackballed by NFL owners.
"I think he's getting a raw deal," Aaron said. "I'd love to see some other players stand up”.
Unlike Bonds, the final chapters of Kaepernick’s career are still not officially written, and we should all stand for Kap.
If he were still alive today, I know that John Brattain would.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/bonds-blackballed-kaepernick-excuses-article-1.3472570
In a tribute last month celebrating his passing of Hank Aaron’s 755 career home runs, Bonds reflected:
“I should have played one more year, I should have had the chance to,” Bonds said. “It’s all right, though. Those 22 (years) were still good. I wish I could have gotten to retire better”
He was being polite.
After his 2007 season, Barry Lamar Bonds was blackballed by Major League Baseball.
We need to state this truth without qualification.
Lack of legal validation has never stopped sports writers from printing that Bonds used Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs), so why do we play dumb on behalf of owners? Any other conclusion is dishonest.
The blackballing of Bonds was even far more blatant than Colin Kaepernick's blackballing.
All the evidence anyone needs is that Bonds’ ban came after his 2007 All-Star season where he posted a 1.045 OPS and a .480 on-base percentage.
How amazing is a .480 OBP?
It has not been reproduced since, even by Mike Trout - this decade’s undisputed heir to Bonds' throne as baseball's best player.
How historic is a .480 OBP?
It has been matched only once by any other player in the last 54 years (Frank Thomas' MVP season of 1994).
That’s right. Bonds accomplished a twice-in-a-half-century feat, and he was STILL blackballed.
The history of sports ownership does not bode well for Colin.
Amazingly, all the cognitive dissonant mental gymnastics used today to justify denying Kaepernick an NFL job was also used against Bonds.
Bonds' media critics charged: Barry could no longer play defense (despite DH in American League); his pending federal trial would interfere with season (it was postponed); he was a “distraction”; his “toxic” personality; his salary demands (he made none); “the integrity of the game”; fans wouldn’t stand for it, etc., etc., etc.
While Barry and Colin’s stories and personalities are very different, they basically share the same crime: they are both Black, unapologetic, and refuse to kiss white mainstream media's ass.
The Blackballing of Bonds is the forgotten historical injustice of The Steroids
In 2007 and 2008, Twitter was still an embryo. While Kaepernick has received more mainstream media support in the age of social media, consistent support for Bonds came from only a handful of mainstream voices, alternative outlets, and unpaid web writers with limited followers.
Somewhere lost in historical was my favorite baseball writer -- the late John Brattain.
The Blackballing of Bonds is the forgotten historical injustice of The Steroids Era Hysteria”.
No writer fought against the blackballing of Barry Bonds as vigorously as Brattain, who wrote for The Hardball Times, and a variety of other baseball websites. After complications with heart surgery, Brattain unexpectedly died in 2009 at the young age of 45.
If Brattain were alive today, there is little doubt he would be railing against the treatment of Colin Kaepernick. His past words on Bonds are as relevant as ever, and in Brattain’s honor, we will recount some of his words here.
As Bonds approached Aaron’s record, Brattain named media’s affliction:
“Treating Barrynoia”
“Can we get a grip, please?” implored Brattain. “Yes, Barry Bonds has most likely used performance-enhancing anabolic substances. He’ll most likely eclipse Hank Aaron’s major league record of 755 home runs. It will not trigger the apocalypse — I promise. You wouldn’t think so by reading some of the things written about Bonds, the All-Star Game and “the record.” It boggles the mind.”
Barrynoia would spread like wildfire. In a sweeping column, Brattain addressed MLB’s hiring double-standards of “nasty people” that echo Kaepernick today.
Bonds as “Baseball’s Greatest Villain”
“In recent years, there have been players that have been busted for tax evasion, dealing cocaine, abusing women, being polygamists, making death threats against their family (including children), having sexual relations with underage girls, using steroids, getting ticketed for DUI, being drug addicts and felons, being accused of sexual assault and rape, being vocal racists etc.”
Does any of this sound familiar?
Brattain, sifted through example after hypocritical example of MLB looking the other way while reminding readers of owners' track record.
Owners Hiding Behind Alleged Opinions by Fans
“MLB has over the last 15-20 years all but ignored the common fan…However, they feel that they must protect the fans’ sensibilities and keep Bonds away. They were more worried about how fans would react to seeing Bonds again play in the big leagues than they were about the reaction to canceling a World Series.”
Please read his entire column, and tell me exactly which part doesn’t apply to Kaepernick today?
Hypocrisy of Commissioner Bud Selig
Brattain was a baseball historian who constantly refocused back to owner and then-Commisioner Bud Selig. In “Those Who Do Not Learn from History”, he writes:
“Selig and Co. weak-kneed ignoring of the PED issue was what caused the record book to be rewritten in the first place. The final part of Barry Bonds’ career is the bastard child of MLB of which Selig refuses to acknowledge paternity”.
Nice sentence John. One can only imagine the blistering columns a still-living Brattain would write about Selig after Bud’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017.
The NFL’s Roger Goodell has still not been held to account for Kaepernick, but that has not stopped fans from protesting his blackballing outside of the NFL offices in New York City.
Bonds as “Distraction”
“What makes [Bonds] a distraction are the media hordes going around asking about whether Bonds’ presence is a distraction. They want Barry Bonds — he is their Holy Grail. He is also their great white whale — the one they want to sink their harpoons into for 20 years of mutual disrespect. It becomes a guaranteed self-fulfilling prophecy”.
Brattain correctly frames the time-tested “distraction” excuse for it has always been: media exercising its own power and control, and in Bonds' case, “helping Selig implement an agenda.”
Mediacrity
In “Maybe it Should be Called Mediacrity”, Brittain placed mainstream media in historical context:
“This is not about Barry Bonds. This is about the media, period… Whether it was pre-1947 or the Peter Ueberroth era, collusion could not happen without the aid and assistance of the media. Before Jackie Robinson, the press toed the party line that black [players] lacked the wherewithal to compete in the big leagues.”
This is true. While the Black Press (see Wendell Smith, Sam Lacy, Joe Bostic, etc.) relentlessly railed against Jim Crow Baseball, The Sporting News, the preeminent national sports magazine in 1945, stated:
“There is not a single Negro player with major league possibilities.”
It’s true. Before Kaepernick allegedly forgot how to throw a football, Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson couldn’t quite make the grade either. None of this is new. Brattain concludes:
“The bottom line is this: collusion cannot happen absent a lazy or complicit fourth estate.”
The prolific Brattain was anything but lazy or complicit. This was one of at least 30 articles (often between 2000-4000 words) he produced debunking excuses to blackball Bonds.
A reader of Brattain might think he did not care about steroids in baseball, and they’d be dead wrong. While masses of baseball writers played dumb for a decade while their hero Mark McGwire was still the single-season home run king, Brattain was implicating McGwire and the entire sport.
Back in 2001, Brattain’s article concluded: “It's time to get illegal and performance enhancing drugs out of baseball - for everybody's sake.”
Brattain never fashioned himself as a “social justice writer”, was anti-PEDs, and thought Bonds was “a prima donna and a Grade A Narcissist”. He often clarified with baseball collusion history lessons that he was not “Not Pro-Bonds, Just Anti-Collusion”,
So what drove him?
“Hypocrisy. There is no other word for it”, he writes in “If You Wish to Bury Bonds”.
“The media knew, heck I knew that steroids were rampant in the game. Nevertheless, to deny one man employment due to actions in an era in which he participated — but did not originate — is flat out wrong.”
Brattain knew that denial of one’s employment is not some differing “opinion” – it’s discrimination.
Sports media-types who support discrimination in 1947, 2007 or 2017 should be held accountable for their complicity, and history should uplift those who fought against it (The Black Press before 1947 is a great start).
The history of sports ownership does not bode well for Colin.
Given his leading role in fighting for Bonds' right to employment, his early position on steroids, and his overall brilliant baseball analysis, the historical record should uplift John Brattain. Historical correctness is important, and Brattain spoke truth to power – not for power.
Without hyperbole, I can state Brattain was the finest baseball columnist of his time.
As for Bonds' 762 home runs, the legendary Hank Aaron has stated. "It belongs to Barry.” “No matter how we look at it, it's his record”.
In addressing the blackballing of Bonds, Brattain goes a step further:
“It may be tempting to think that collusion in this instance is justified to protect the integrity of the game and its records, however, what will happen is exactly the opposite — it will permanently mar some records.”
In reducing Bonds' career totals, that is exactly what happened.
“I was what, 38, away from 800?” Bonds reflected on his MLB-shortened home run total.
What Bonds did not add is that MLB owners robbed him of 3000 hits (65 away), and 2000 RBI (only 4 away) as well.
While Bonds expressed great love for the San Francisco community and fans, he admitted his abrupt end still bothers him. "It always will eat at you in a way, always, because it just wasn't right the way it was done.”
With Kaepernick in 2017, the critics' song remains the same.
Last month the 83 year old Hank Aaron told BlackAmericaWeb.com he believes Kaepernick is being blackballed by NFL owners.
"I think he's getting a raw deal," Aaron said. "I'd love to see some other players stand up”.
Unlike Bonds, the final chapters of Kaepernick’s career are still not officially written, and we should all stand for Kap.
If he were still alive today, I know that John Brattain would.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/bonds-blackballed-kaepernick-excuses-article-1.3472570
