Editor’s note: 40 DIESEL comes through and drops his thoughts on MLB Opening Day 2007 and the national game of racism of which America wears the World Championship rings.
I got no beef with Barry Bonds. If he breaks Hammerin’ Hank’s record I’ll stand and salute that man. In fact I’ll start scouring eBay for a 6XL Giants jersey to unmercilessly flaunt. Am I a fan of Barry? Hell I’m not even a fan of baseball. I roll with Barry because he’s about to snatch the crown of the biggest “Eff You” a brother has pulled off in a while. Ray Lewis? Nope, because they expect us to kill each other. Kobe Bryant? That broad was lying from jump. In fact, Barry might even be bigger than OJ because technically he’s done nothing illegal. I’ll get to Barry & Orenthal in a minute.
Baseball to me has always been a microcosm of America. I mean hell they don’t call it “America’s Game” on accident. Baseball in a sense was the first Hip-Hop for many people looking to advance themselves in the socio-economic realm through entertainment in America. It was the sport that with talent and luck you could move yourself out of the sticks and start that life for your family and generations after you if you handled your money right. It didn’t involve a college education or some predestined place on the class hierarchy, it was a bat, ball, glove, and a field to play. So with that Americans flocked in mass to baseball over the last 125 years, causing a financial boon for the owners, players, and leagues way before the other major sports in the United States were able to gain an economic foothold on the entertainment landscape.
Knowing they had a good thing and the desire from owners and players to preserve that the professional leagues of baseball quickly moved from a national intramural league to group of well run franchises who worked with each other to provide the finest athletic entertainment possible for their fans. With no real competitors, American baseball transcended just what went on on the field but ingrained itself in the growing forms of media that provided the American poplace with its news, entertainment and other information. You didn’t have to be at the park anymore, you could follow stats in the boxscores listed in local newspapers, the birth of “the sports writer” came into play, for a nickel you could go see a game replayed on a movie reel, and when the advent of affordable radio came in the American home baseball was there. With every new form of media that grew in America baseball took steps with it, and to keep its fan base – baseball needed to reflect America.
If the knock on steroids is that if gives players an unfair advantage over the other competitors then lets start with the earliest form of it. Good ole institutional American racism (America’s “other” game). Now I’m not about to start on some maudlin solioquy about “The White Man” but sports experts across the board agree that alot of the records of segregated baseball would not have existed or had the duration they had if the game was integrated. There are many schools of thought that can academically argue that everyone would be chasing Josh Gibson not George Ruth for the home run record. There are also schools of thought (including some of his contempararies) that the Babe himself would flunk a DNA entrance exam to MLB. Conspiracy theories aside the fact of the matter the playing field was not level and it would never be when you really examine the practices of Major League Baseball.
But is anything ever fair? Does America really have a right to pull a holier than thou on anything? Baseball like America has always been corrupt from the White Sox and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, the trials of Jackie Robinson, the coked up ’80s, Pete Rose gambling, to the steroid era of today. I would go as far to say that baseball encourages controlled cheating as much as insider trading on Wall Street and supplying rebels with inner city drug profits. Cheating IS America, from Peter Minut’s $24 land grab of Manhattan on down its what we do as a country, its how we got to the top. They say behind every fortune is a crime, well we wipe our collectively wealthy asses with our rap sheet. There is a loophole though – its NOT cheating if you’re not being blatant about it or you’re part of the preapproved cabal that’s in on the scheme. So with this logic firmly in-tow you can develop huge amounts of corruption knowing as long as everyone involved knows the eye-winks and secret handshakes and the brotherhood mulitplies and they all enjoy the spoils of war. Great stats, great careers, and most importantly BIG CHECKS FOR EVERYONE!!!
Then like every other shadowy organization someone gets too big, and draws the suspicions of the outsiders and authorities. People get nosey, participants get itchy and either the transgressor(s) is internally silenced, or becomes public enemy #1 of the other side. The watershed moment happens when someone who’s NOT SUPPOSED to benefit from the gentleman’s agreement winds up not only benefiting but excels and destroys the old guard of the current system. I had mentioned Barry & OJ and how their trials and tribulations are alot more similar than one would care to realize. The Juice used his GREEN to up end the legal “gray” space of “black-white” litigation. He was charged for offing some American Glory, and got away with it. UNPRECEDENTED. Now we have B Dubbz B who has killed off another American institution and will get away with it because he did it within the parameters of the rules that were designated “legally” by MLB. So what does this lead to? Public outcry and they both become the Frankenstein’s monster chased by the torch waiving national sports media. So now that the agreement has been tampered with the gentlemancy goes along with it.
In my mind Barry B is a steroid using curmedgeon who’s terseness with the media has come back to haunt him. Does that warrant a complete invalidation of what he’s done and asterisking every record from here on out? Hell to the no. Is he an asshole? Probably. Misunderstood? Maybe. Evil? Doubt it. Smart? Better believe it, and history proves they got away for dealing with the smarty-arts. Had this been McGwire or Sammy Sosa (his Tattoo) would this be an issue? Not so much. This has become a new age lynch mob determined to get our generation’s Jack Johnson. So with the 60th Anniversary of my hero Jackie Robinson’s Major League debut, lets reflect on where we REALLY stand with blacks and America’s Pasttime. I dare not even sully Jack Roosevelt Robinson’s (and his regal wife Rachel) legacy by equating his struggles with Barry Bonds but it makes me ask have the jeers and slurs from the stands been replaced by media outlets and reporters?
Barry ain’t gotta do nothing but hit homers, stay black, and die. Pretty easy order if you ask me. Hammerin’ Hank, I ask that you and Willie Mays hold down your youngin’ when he breaks the record, because we know Bud and the MLB Good Ole Boys Club are gonna try and distance themselves as much as possible. Funny how things change, 10 years ago America was crapping its pants over Big Mac and Sosa surpassing Maris. Now they’re crapping their pants because Barry is gonna pass them all…
REST IN PEACE EDDIE ROBINSON. You don’t get enough credit as a builder of men for all those years!
