Nothing Personal
Okay, last week FF featured a “smack down” between Earl Ofari Hutchinson and me—theoretically on Yvonne Burke’s legal residency. To me it wasn’t a smack down but two views of two different parts of the issue. I wrote about the intent of the law on residency (A law I think pretty silly) and Early Ofari Huchinson wrote about the good job she was doing for her district. This I do not dispute.
This week, we may however have a real difference of view—and that too is normal because we view Barry Bonds from two different traditions. I was at the game Thursday and there was indeed booing and catcalls, raspberries and other assorted vulgarities. I almost thought I was at a Raiders game. People were into it and enjoying themselves. The animus was a mile wide but only an inch deep.
When Bonds came up to the plate, the crowd got loud and every camera came out, turned on and the flashes started going off. You could have killed the stadium lights (Note to parking lot guy: This could save money) and there still would have been enough light. Everyone in the stands wanted him to hit the homer. Hell, hitting two would have been great. Wanting to see it and be there for the swings tying and breaking the record was the not so secret prayer of all.
It is impossible to deny that race may play a part in some of the animus, because race plays a part in everything. My sense however is the Barry Bonds makes the trifecta before even considering race. He is a difficult, not user-friendly, person; he is assumed to have cheated—an assumption and conviction also made about Mark McGwire—the whitest guy in baseball. Finally, he is a Giant. There is tradition at play here.