Barry Bonds is in the news again and it doesn’t have to do with his knees, his homeruns or even steroids. It does show, however that his reputation with the media may be justified.
A quick summary of the story:
Ron Kittle, former outfielder, has claimed in a tell-all book that Bonds once denied him an autograph back in 1991 because “I don’t sign for white people”.
Now I’m not going to get into whether this is true or not. I have my doubts, though with Barry, anything is possible.
However, consider the following comment to the media by Bonds in response to Kittle’s book:
“Who is Kittle? How long did he play? He played in our league?”
Ok, call me a baseball purist but the fact that he doesn’t remember or know of Ron Kittle, a former rookie of the year who hit 176 homers in his career, bothers me. Jeez, they both played together in the majors for 6 years.
Or worse, he’s feigning ignorance with a macho in-your-face attitude.
Get a clue, Barry.
As for Kittle (emphasis mine):
“It’s the truth. I don’t lie,” Kittle told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday. “I tell it as it is. It’s unfortunate it happened. And I didn’t bring it up to sell the books.“
Riiight.
Is the idea of performance enhancers anything out of the ordinary for Major League Baseball? Hardly. Especially if it wasn’t illegal at the time. Do you realize that pitchers sneaked vasoline and threw spitters? That umps called balls and strikes for the catcher and rewarded the catchers with favored calls? That coaches and managers steal signals? That players hit many homers with rubber in their bats? That players like George Brett used pine tar to high on the bat? This idea of gaining an advantage is not only the norm in baseball, it is almost as traditional to baseball as hotdogs, peanuts and beer.
it’s interesting that you bring up Brett. I see the villification of Sosa because of his corked bat episode and think back to Brett. I dont think he suffered anything like that.
I’m no Sosa fan but i hear the Cub fans beat him with insults while forgetting what he did for the team.
It’s all about perspective.