In Defense of the Pampered Superstar

Dr. X posts this from last place in the National League West:

"The time for a worldly ambivalence has passed. I leave equivocation and casuistry, masquerading as nuance, to lawyers, Jesuits, and talk radio. I say it here, clearly and without qualification of any kind: Barry Bonds is a great baseball player, probably the greatest hitter who ever lived, and deserving of honor for his impending achievement of hitting more home runs than any other baseball player who has ever played in the Major Leagues. He deserves election to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, and no asterisk should be placed beside his name in the record books.

"As Eliot remarked in another context, "you cannot look on it steadily", but great achievement is almost invariably disfiguring. From Picasso beating Dora into unconsciousness, to Bill Romanowski's destruction of the face and career of Marcus Williams, to Bobby Fischer's insane rants, to Bobby Knight's outrageous tantrums, to Ty Cobb's unhinged pistol waving and (maybe) murder, society has made a fetish of overlooking the personal failings of great achievers. I almost wrote 'American' society there, but this (for once) is not a neurosis unique to us.

"It is not unusual for heroes to have flaws, or for great heroes to have great flaws. It is the norm. It is the natural manifestation of an utterly uncompromising personal ethic, one which forgives no failure (however small), one which drives the elite performer to spend an extra hour on the ice after even the coach has given up an gone home, one which quietly whispers in the ear of the superstar: 'if you don't win tomorrow, you will be nothing.' To imagine that a person possessed by such a demon can be 'healthy' by any rational standard is beyond credulity.

"A fair and balanced psychological assessment of the New York Yankees, for example, would likely turn up Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Delusional Disorder, and a host of Addictive Sexual Disorders.

"And that's just Alex Rodriguez.

"So enough of this role model bullshit. Ty Cobb is in the fucking Hall of Fame. Here, from the unimpeachable historians at Maximonline, is a brief resume of Cobb's achievements off the field:

1907: Slapped a black groundskeeper; when the man’s wife protested, he grabbed her by the neck. 1908: Assaulted a black laborer; shoved a black chambermaid down the stairs. 1909: Slapped a black elevator operator for being “insolent.” When a night watchman (also black) broke it up, Cobb slashed him several times with a knife. Fined $100. 1912: Pistol-whipped a would-be mugger to death; pummeled a crippled fan. 1914: Threatened a butcher with a gun and pistol-whipped his black assistant. Babe Ruth said it best: “Ty Cobb is a prick.”

"Here, by contrast, is what Barry Bonds did: he took a drug that made him stronger.

"He took a performance enhancing drug that virtually every power hitter in the league was on, with the tacit approval of the management of his team, the ownership, and Major League Baseball. For any of those people to now claim they had no idea what Barry Bonds and the late Ken Caminiti, and Mark McGwire, and Jason Giambi, and Jose Canseco were up to is a flaming pile of horseshit.

"In the first five years of his career, Bonds had a lean build and a slugging percentage of .478. From 2000 through 2004 he had a body like an NFL linebacker and slugged .784. What the fuck do you think he did? What's the big secret here?

"And now, Bud Selig, the Commissioner of Baseball, may choose not to attend when Barry hits his home run. Now Hall of Fame voters are saying, maybe we won't vote for Barry Bonds.

"You hypocritical fucking whores.

"Here is the difference between Barry Bonds and Bud Selig. Bud Selig is an empty suit. A board meeting iron butt. Or, as e.e. cummings might have said, 'an it that stinks excuse.'

"Against that gladhanding shitwad, you have Barry Bonds. A man who has played baseball as well as it can be played by a human, for 21 years. A man who will not relent for one second in his quest for excellence. A man who will not compromise if it destroys his marriage, or if it offends the press, or if the drugs he puts into his system destroy his health or (God forbid) drive him to kill another human in a chemical-induced rage. He will do what it takes to be the greatest home run hitter who ever lived.

"Sure he is a horrible person. (Try Googling "baseball" plus any phrase describing a bad person - Barry Bonds will be right there.) But so what? That is what a champion looks like. We don't honor people in baseball, we honor achievements. Barry Bonds is on the threshold of the dream of every child who has stood on a sandlot, bat in hand, mumbling quietly - 'bottom of the ninth, two out...' He is there because he was immensely talented, mentally tough, personally driven, and was willing to risk everything to get there.

"How sad then, that after running those risks, there is some question as to the judgment of history. How sad that now, at the culmination of this two-decade run, the sport that brought you the Gaylord Perry spitball, the sensitive sentiments of John Rocker (who was also on steroids, by the way), and the wife-beating escapades of Steve Garvey, has suddenly decided that there must be a character test. (Perhaps a melanin test would be more appropriate?)

"It is all lies and bullshit. The achievement is beyond category. You must applaud it, or renounce the game. It is not wrong to renounce the game - it has done nothing for you but take your money and break your heart. But if you ever loved baseball, I say, as Marc Antony said over the body of Caesar: 'You all did love him once, --not without cause: '

"What cause withholds you, then, from defending him now?"