Barry Bonds, Squints Palledorous, Home Runs and Purity

Barry Bonds is only 7 home runs away from the greatest record in baseball if not in all of sports; career home runs.  As Barry creeps toward a crown only worn by the greatest of great, one question keeps surfacing……

Why doesn’t America care??

 

They don’t care because the record, when broken, will be tainted.  Everyone is aware of the steriods/HGH scandal gripping the baseball world and Bonds is at the center of that scandal.  The record will be tainted because with each home run Bonds hits, purity and innocence in sports take a step closer to extinction.

Some many people have vivid memories of sports greatest moments.  I remember the night Cal Ripken Jr. made his 5th inning trip around Camden as his record of consecutive games became official.  I can still see Jordan’s pull up jumper in game 6 against Utah to seal his 6th NBA Championship.  I grew up on Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Dale Earnhardt, Larry Bird, Tiger Woods and Pete Sampras.  I’ve had the great pleasure of witnessing the worlds best in their moment of triumph when the world of sports stood up and paid respect to its heroes. 

On the night Mr. Bonds ties and/or passes Hank Aaron, America won’t stop to pay their respects and most won’t remember where they were the night “Barry Bonds broke the career home run record.”  The sports world won’t bat an eye as boos echo while Mr. Bonds runs the bases.  Instead of remembering they’ll talk of steriods and how much his hat size grew.  Fathers won’t sit their sons down and make sure they witness Hank Aaron’s record fall.  Rather, they will complain of cheating in America’s past-time. 

In an era where lying, politics and cheating are an everyday practice in any profession, why do we hold our sports and athletes to such a high standard? 

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In a world full of greed, corruption, and selfishness, a world where morals and ethics take a backseat to money and instant gratification, the sports world still demands purity and innocence.  Deep in their soul, every sports fan longs for purity in games they love, games they grew up playing in their streets and backyards.  America needs to know that something remains pure and good in a world so stricken with the bad.

The idea that somewhere, in a gym or on a field, purity lives and goes on unfazed by a world smitten with deceit; the idea that the game is still the one thing you can trust, the one purity you always know will be there.  It’s that dying idea that has America booing Barry Bonds and has fathers complaining to their sons.

There isn’t anyone to blame for the loss of innocence in sports, just as there is no one to blame for corruption in politics.  By no means is every athlete Barry Bonds.  But as the steriod allegations grow, arrests increase, hold-outs for more money become common place and more and more heroes fall; it’s getting tougher and tougher to believe purity still lives in the world of sports.

So when Barry jogs around the bases for the first time as the home run king, there is no telling how America will react.  Maybe they will applaud, maybe they boo or stand in silence as purity and innocence take another defeat at the hands of greed and selfishness.

I only know this, when Mr. Bonds does surpass Hank Aaron I will watch and I will remember, and once he touches home plate maybe I’ll watch The Sandlot or Rudy.  Just so that night when I lay down for bed I can believe that purity and innocence still exist in sports somewhere, even if it’s only in my dreams.