MLB: Barry Bonds & the ethos of a hero

Regardless of their achievements, some people in this world simply aren’t destined to be heroes. Roger Maris was one of those players: sure he hit the then-magic 61, but people resented him for doing it (why couldn’t he have given five homers to Mickey Mantle?), his career faded within a couple of years… and Maris simply was uncomfortable with icon status. Ron Santo, Bert Blyleven, and Al Oliver are in the same boat: add Dave Winfield’s personality and late career penchant for being in the right place at the right time and all of them would probably be Cooperstown bound.

At a higher level, we can officially add Barry Bonds to that list.

Did I miss something or was Bonds’ run at 500 homers (up to the last four days or so) one of the most under-reported milestones in recent memory? I clearly remember seeing months of daily tables charting Wade Boggs’, Tony Gywnn’s, and Cal Ripken’s assaults on 3,000 hits, but were there any Bonds-O-Meters in your local (non-Bay Area) newspaper? I like to think of myself as being reasonably baseball literate (appropriate pause for derisive comment), but I wasn’t even aware over the winter that Barry was THAT close to the big 5-0-0.

How could this have happened? How could we have so completely overlooked such a feat from a man who arguably was the greatest player of the 1990’s? Well, let’s list the possible reasons:

1. 500 HOMERS ISN’T THAT BIG A DEAL ANYMORE. We’re in an era (or, pending the impact of the expanded strike zone, have just closed out an era) in which people like Greg Vaughn and Cecil Fielder are hitting 50 dingers a season, Eddie Murray made it to 500 and the oft-injured and non-caring Jose Canseco may yet clamor over the top. Thus, 500 career taters from a man whose never hit 50 in a season may not seem that big anymore.

Of course, only 17 other guys in the history of the game have duplicated Bonds’ feat, but never mind that. Let’s also consider that..

2. BONDS ISN’T THAT WONDERFUL A GUY. The 1990 run-in with Jim Leyland (captured for posterity by ESPN) established Bonds’ reputation as a problem child, his periodic complaints about his contract, injuries, and those around him cemented the impression, and his National Enquirer-style divorce proceedings in the mid-1990’s encased it in concrete. Then again, plenty of other great players who made it to the milestone numbers weren’t particularly beloved either, but…

3. BONDS IS STILL PERCEIVED AS BEING IN HIS PRIME. Though every baseball fan in his heart of hearts knows that 500 homers is a big number we still think that Barry has plenty of round-trippers in his future, as opposed to the poignancy that is normally attached to the old pro staggering towards the finish line. The Boggs – Gwynn – Ripken marathon was like that: we all knew that they were through (yes, I know that the latter two are still active, but that’s more due to the desperation of their respective teams than anything else) and the 3,000 hit barrier was as much an excuse to give these hardy old pros a final cheer as anything else.

That factor kind of interlocks with…

4. BARRY HASN’T BECOME OLD OR DISCREPIT ENOUGH TO BE PERCEIVED AS LOVABLE. This was an angle that Reggie Jackson played to a T. Reggie, for those who weren’t around at the time, was anything but a beloved figure in his prime – think Albert Belle without the criminal intent and you’ve got the general idea. Through the end of his Yankee days Mr. October was reviled by 75% of fans and teammates alike… but then Jackson caught the biggest break of his life:

He became mortal on us.

After his first season with the then-California Angels Reggie slipped badly at the plate and mounted only one true comeback season over his last five campaigns. That made him vulnerable, a downed man who it would be inconsiderate (if not politically incorrect) to kick. What’s more, we all discovered to our surprise that Jackson actually had a sense of humor about himself and his ego. Those factors combined with Reggie’s continuing dedication to the game morphed the quintessional 1970’s anti-hero into baseball’s version of George Patton: terribly flawed, perhaps, but somehow honorable despite it all.

Bonds isn’t like that - at least not yet. While he’s beginning to have trouble hitting lefties it hasn’t appreciably impacted his overall stats so far, and if Barry has a sense of humor he’s done a remarkably good job of concealing it from practically everybody on the face of the earth thus far.

In short, Barry Bonds’ lack of recognition relative to his accomplishments may not be fair, but then again baseball has a remarkable penchant for not being equitable to its participants. Perhaps Bonds is going to end up in the Goose Goslin class as a player who will look better as the petty squabbles that surrounded him are forgotten. Or, perhaps he’ll be closer to Rickey Henderson: a guy who will go into Cooperstown with everybody holding their noses.

Either way, Barry will probably never be the hero in his own time that he should have been, and that’s a shame…

… Or maybe it isn’t.