Wednesday, August 08, 2007

More context for Barry Bonds

Here's a little more context for Barry Bonds' feat (he hit #757 tonight; perhaps more will come more easily with the pressure off). We're reminded that for all its protestations of purity baseball has had scandals aplenty throughout its history. I'm especially pleased that we're reminded of the McGwire-Sosa race to beat the single-season home run record, cheered on by MLB depite the near-certainty that both were juiced and everybody winked and nodded. (Some say it was disgust over the attention that contest got in the same year he became the first to exceed the 400-homers-400 steals mark and was ignored that helped Bonds decide to juice himself. Not that anything has been proven.) But the McGwire-Sosa contest was cheered by the league because it restored fan interest after the disastrous strike of 1994.

Spare me the prissiness over Barry.

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