Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post has decided that controversy sells papers. That or the altitude and lack of oxygen have eaten his brain. That's the only explanation for this post. Watch what happens four sentences in:
Go ahead. Name an American sports hero at the top of his game more despised than Barry Bonds.
When the boos rain down on the slugger as he steps to home plate, what do you hear?
I hear racism.
Oh SNAP! There it is, ladies and gentlemen. Cover the eyes of any impressionable youth around you. The Race Card has been played.When the boos rain down on the slugger as he steps to home plate, what do you hear?
I hear racism.
Now, I've seen the Race Card played in regards to Bonds before, but never in such an ignorant and loopy manner as this.
Bonds hits our town with 707 home runs to his name. Roll over, Babe Ruth. The king of baseball's asterisk era has your hallowed statistic dead in his sights.
And White America hates it.
Never you mind that Hammerin' Hank "I could've swore I was still black" Aaron is actually the record that Barry's chasing. Never mind that plenty of baseball writers see that as the record that would be tarnished by Barry Bonds.
And White America hates it.
The same baseball poets who wrote odes to Mark McGwire cannot wait to tar and feather Bonds as a cheater.
Bigots who buy tickets heckle Bonds, until the boos are stifled with awe for the next moon shot launched from his bat.
(For the record, the baseball poet you're currently reading wrote this about McGwire.)
Bigots who buy tickets heckle Bonds, until the boos are stifled with awe for the next moon shot launched from his bat.
Nobody regards the anger inside Bonds as racist. He is a confused ballplayer afraid to trust the applause and a lonely son wishing his deceased father could see him now.
WTF!? Mark Kiszla is in love with Barry Bonds!
Cheater or not, Bonds is the only hitter I would pay to see. Yet I have felt the drop-dead glare Bonds offers the media horde when cornered in the Giants' clubhouse, maybe because he has been bitten too often to give strangers the benefit of the doubt.
Bonds is easy to hate only because pity is so much more work.
We're supposed to "pity" Barry Bonds? That's really amazing. This is the most amazing Barry Bonds defense I've ever read. It must be a joke. If you were to believe everything in this post then you would have learned that:
Bonds is easy to hate only because pity is so much more work.
- It's not OK to boo a cheater if he or she is black.
- Booing a black athlete is a demonstration of racism.
- It doesn't matter if you lack morals as long as you entertain the masses.
- Barry Bonds deserves our pity because... Ummm.. Cause... Hrmmmm...