out-effin'-standing take on bonds...

[shockey]

by selena roberts today (apologies if it's a pm):

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/sports/baseball/05vecsey.html?ref=sports

 

[Dave Kindred]

Shockey:
HR on Selena, error on link...here she is....


http://select.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/sports/baseball/05roberts.html?ref=sports

 

[The Big Ragu]

It is an outstanding take. I am a huge fan of her writing. Always have been... It reminded me of the excellent feature Tom Verducci did in SI two weeks ago about Aaron, which contrasted his character to Bonds'. Verducci's quote from someone that stuck with me was ""You'll have the standard and the standard bearer. Then you'll have the record and the record holder. For the first time ever, they broadly will be acknowledged to be two different people."

 

[JayFarrar]

Aargh, I didn't realize the sports columnists were behind the paywall.

 

[jaredk]

By SELENA ROBERTS
An identity theft has just unfolded. In the crushing instant when Barry Bonds matched Hank Aaron’s legend in the second inning last night at Petco Park in San Diego, there were suddenly two Home Run Kings in baseball lore: one a vainglorious impostor, the other an authentic icon.

With the two standing side by side, Bonds is the sultan in the costume jewelry crown, his 755 home runs written into the books with the penmanship of a fabulist.

His distorted immortality is lab made. Aaron was self-made. He was a modest player drawn from reality, with everyman features, extraordinary talent and a social conscience.

So it seems like simple math to vilify Bonds and exalt Aaron in a split screen by the numbers, with one Brave’s consistency measured against a Giant’s synthetic spike.

But the heist of baseball’s most sacred record is a more complicated fraud. This was a journey to deception replete with passive accessories (Bud Selig), obfuscating co-conspirators (Don Fehr) and ham-handed federal investigators who never rounded the bag in time to stop Bonds.

The scam happened, as we knew it would. And nothing — not the two authors from “Game of Shadows” or a chatty mistress named Kimberly Bell or pennies tossed in a wishing well — could save what was real from betrayal.

A record alone wasn’t swiped, but also a time and a place and a belief linked to Aaron that will now be supplanted by a high-def vision of Bonds as the Home Run King.

Out with April of ’74. In with August of ’07. Out with the famous replay of Aaron that binds Baby Boomers and Gen Xers to a social transition in American history. In with an image of toy syringes and Magic Marker asterisks and steroid chants that tie disillusioned baseball fans to Bonds’s protesters, who, oddly enough, would ransack a nun’s habit to grab a homer by the antihero.

In with Bonds, who takes without feeling debt service to the game. Out with Aaron, who gave knowing what he meant to the game.

Different men, different worlds. The night Aaron passed Babe Ruth, with No. 715 in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, the home run unfolded on television just as chromatic dials became a regular feature on Zeniths.

Black and white was so ’60s, except in skin tones. Aaron received nearly a million pieces of mail during his pursuit, many of them containing death threats and salutations that began with the word “Dear” and a racial slur. Where else could he be more vulnerable to racists than in a batter’s box with walls made of chalk? But where else could his visibility have so strongly conveyed respect as an equal opportunity?

The visual of Aaron’s courage maintains its meaning. Always will. But as that reel is tucked into film vaults, as the new clips are loaded with Bonds as the symbol of grandeur instead of Aaron, the next generation will lose out on a ’70s scene that remains a necessary education.

Aaron prompted dialogue about race and politics and provided a tale of inspiration. And for many Americans, he meant relief from the oppression of daily burdens. In 1974, sports were still a diversion, whether from Watergate or the Patty Hearst kidnapping or even the divorce of Sonny and Cher.

The at-bats of Bonds aren’t an escape. For almost four years, baseball has longed for a diversion from Bonds. The game has never gained distance from the issues that revolve around him, including Balco and steroid investigations and George J. Mitchell and baseball officials who enabled a doping culture by clapping along as the league cashed in on the long ball during the mirage of power in the late ’90s.

If the past had to offer a nod to the present, why did Bonds have to be the one who took the bow? Maybe Bonds isn’t a villain as much as he is a funhouse mirror to a supersized nation, where distortion is bottled and sold, where silicone body parts are purchased like new tires.

There are many good folks playing baseball, but Bonds represents a culture of skepticism in sports and the modern-day mantra of achievement: Whatever it takes. Faking it seems wrong. And yet we dine on phony baloney. The Giants’ owner, Peter Magowan, recently said Bonds’s marks “will stand the test of time,” and, he added, “be looked back upon as important and good.”

Perspective is all local. But in a way, Magowan is right. Bonds’s record route will be revisited in perpetual highlights. He is now the go-to clip.

It’s on to a new identity for baseball. Aaron’s presence as Home Run King begged everyone to ask, What was the social value of his achievement? Bonds leaves all to wonder, What is the monetary worth of his home run ball?

The meaning of a record has been stolen. What remains? Many fingerprints and one counterfeit King.

 

[TX Writer]

Thanks, JaredK

 

[sirvaliantbrown]

Yo, you just stole that...

 

[Eagleboy]

Goodness. I've got as big a vocabulary as anyone, but that was just unnecessary. It seems like she replaced every word in her original story with a synonym straight out of Microsoft Word and made the extra effort to include similies and metaphors that were just mind-bending. I didn't even bother finishing it.

I hope she made a good point. But she turned me off right away.

 

[soontobegrad]

I'm not sure I enjoyed the piece. There's no doubt Selena is a tremendous writer, but I think her writing in this story was a little too overwhelming for me. Or maybe I'm just a poor and lazy reader.

What do the rest of you think?

 

[Pete Incaviglia]

Way overwritten. And several points that have been made a million times before:

Barry cheated. Barry's a jerk, Hank's not. Barry doesn't deserve the record.

Yet no one goes after Selig, the GMs or other steroid/HGH users.

The more I read about how bad Barry is, the more I start to like the guy.

 

[Eagleboy]

The more I read about how bad Barry is, the more I start to like the guy.

Ditto. That's kind of shaping up to be the way I see it. It looks like the fans might be thinking about it as well, because there are quite a few more cheers anymore.

I bet nearly everyone in attendance will cheer for 756.

 

[shockey]

The more I read about how bad Barry is, the more I start to like the guy.

Ditto. That's kind of shaping up to be the way I see it. It looks like the fans might be thinking about it as well, because there are quite a few more cheers anymore.

I bet nearly everyone in attendance will cheer for 756.

sure, 'cause he'll do it in san fran.

 

[Songbird]

It's interesting. I won't knock the writing, but I felt all the way through that this piece was months in the writing and put in the bottle and uncorked last night for print.

To be honest, I'd rather read something that was written the day a record such as this was broken, having the writer write the piece with his/her emotion and perspective of the moment.

 

[king cranium maximus IV]

like grant farred, selena needs to own up to the duke rape hoax before her stuff is worth reading.

 

[The Big Ragu]

It's interesting. I won't knock the writing, but I felt all the way through that this piece was months in the writing and put in the bottle and uncorked last night for print.

To be honest, I'd rather read something that was written the day a record such as this was broken, having the writer write the piece with his/her emotion and perspective of the moment.

This could be true. But when she was covering the Knicks, she did some of the best writing on deadline I have ever seen. She amazed me with her ability to turn a phrase on a tight deadline. The woman can clearly write -- whether you agree with the point of view of this column or not.

 

[Songbird]

I don't doubt she's a pro on deadline. I've read some of her things. I just think this has been in the can a while.

I guess I'm indifferent to the column. It didn't move me, but it was readable.

 

[KP]

Isn't Balco really an acronym and be spelled out as BALCO? Style issue?

 

[GB-Hack]

Isn't Balco really an acronym and be spelled out as BALCO? Style issue?

The NYT goes lowercase on some acronyms, for example Nascar instead of NASCAR.

 

[rpmmutant]

That was one of the best writing I've seen from a sportswriter in a long time. Give her credit for having strong writing skills and an even stronger vocabulary. It's nice to read something that elevates the language and doesn't write to the lowest common denominator.

 

[Write-brained]

I enjoyed the story. It's a good read. And Xan, I agree it sounds like it's been bottled up inside of her for a while, but I don't think it's a bad thing at all in this case.

Good job, Ms. Roberts.