That damned Asterisk!!
Tyler Snyder caught Barry Bonds’ 714th homer on the fly Saturday, snagging it cleanly with his glove. The people around the 19-year-old Athletics fan cheered wildly, with nobody assaulting or gouging him.
“I hate that guy,” Snyder told reporters before he was whisked away.
When told Snyder is an A’s fan, Bonds quipped: “I, um, forgive you. If he doesn’t like me, give me the ball.” […]
Snyder does plan to sell the ball, too, and maintained there is no way he would give it to Bonds.
“Hell no, I hate that guy,” said Snyder, who left the ballpark shortly after catching the ball.
Asked if he would not at least like to meet Bonds at some point to showhim the ball, Snyder reiterated, “Maybe. But I don’t really care for the guy.”
It is at times like this that it’s fun to tune into Sports Radio and ESPN television to guage Fan reaction. The nicety is being pushed around that the act of the Oakland As fans to give a standing ovation to Barry Bonds upon hitting the tie with Babe-Ruth for second all time in home run hits home run was (#1) a class act, what with the frequent booing the man has been receiving, and (#2) an ovation for Baseball.
Sure. Sure. We’ve been through this before. Ha ha charade you are!
So the Baseball Season of 1998 is winding down. The home run derby between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa is a sort of back-topic in my “Contemporary World Problems” class in high school. The day after McGwire either ties or sets the single season home run record, the question is asked on the daily news quiz, who hit the record home run.
I put down the answer, “Steroid-infused freak Mark McGwire”. I occassionally included such editorial filler in my news quiz answers. The teacher frowned on it, but didn’t do anything about such.
This was the home run derby that was being said to be “Saving Baseball” from the doldrums it faced from its strike, (probably the third such hyped “saving baseball” occurence), and all the while I’m pondering what it means that Steroids are what is saving Baseball. Meanwhile, the commentary on the reason for the tremendous rush of homeruns is said to be a by-product of such a thing as “Diluted Pitching”. Everyone is looking the other way. Baseball is being saved, you see. Just as Babe Ruth saved baseball after the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series in 1919. Congratulations to the World Champion Cincinnatti Reds, by the way — you constantly hear in sports commentary the phrase “Opportunistic” for a team that takes advantage of the other team’s mistakes and errors — generally it looks like a back-handed compliment, but hey! The Reds won that Championship, and have to be the most underappreciated champions in all of professional sports history.
At the start of the Seattle Mariners’s Great season of 2001, 116 wins was it?, I learned that the Mariners had picked up a fine middle of the road player by the name of Brett Boone. Plug in a hole here, and do well in the middle of the line-up, it would seem. But wait! The man has “Bulked Up!” during the off-season. And so started his career year, or career couple of years, and a mighty jump in power and athletic prowess. During this magical 2001 season, articles were written in the sports section of the local and regional papers placing Bret Boone’s season alongside other “Fluke seasons”. I watched, or had in the background, and generally followed the Seattle Mariners at the time. Whenever Brett Boone came to the plate, I meditated on a simple question, “Should I care that he’s infused himself with Steroids?” The answer is a bit surprising, “He’s probably just the most obvious.”
Bulked up, particularly when nettled next to the words “during the off-season”, is more or less simply a euphemism for “jacked himself full of steroids”.
Barry Bonds, it is said, was jealous of the star treatment accorded to Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, so went on a Full Steroid Regiment to gain that Star Attraction. Sure enough, it was 2001 when he broke Mark McGwire’s home-run record. I remember the owner of Mark McGwire’s balls, Todd MacFarlane — who used to create bad comic books until he realized that the money was in kitschy Action Figure toy collectibles for nostalgiac overgrown adolescents — said he was okay with the sudden worthlessness of Mark McGwire’s balls because of 9/11, and the need of the nation for some pleasantry. Which was the absurd thing said about Michael Jordan’s ill-advised return to the NBA. That “we need this”, if true — which I do not believe to be the case, would speak ill of America. But assuming it to be true, I follow through with the line and I think “What’s going to save America is a Steroid-infused baseball player breaking the 3 year old record of another steroid infused baseball player?” What a strange and dark metaphor for America.
I am searching in vein through the Sports Illustrated cover gallery for a cover with a giant astericks, and the simple question “Is this the Asterisk Era of Major League Baseball?” To even ask the question is to answer the question. It doesn’t have to be, in a purely technical sense. Nobody is going to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame with a strict sterisk next to their entry. You take it for what it means. It’s kind of unfortunate. A couple of years ago I was looking foward to the 100-home run hit slugger. That’s not going to materialize since Major League Baseball has clamped down on Steroids, on the behest of Senator John McCain. The pitching is no longer diluted, and there are fewer players who have “bulked up during the off-season.” In fact, a lot of players have “slimmed down” during the off-season!