Don't tell me I have to... | The Lowdown

A reporter on sports radio this morning was discussing Barry Bonds skipping the Homerun Derby, which is just Bonds latest dissing of baseball fans. That reporter honestly said, "I'm disappointed, but I'm glad he's playing in the All Star game because you have to celebrate Barry Bonds."

Uhhh...no, I don't.

Hall of Famer Willie McCovey has defended Barry Bonds, saying: "He has never been tested positive [for steroids]. We're supposed to live in a world where you're innocent until proven guilty..."

Respectfully, Mr. McCovey, no, we don't. We live in a country where the courts are supposed to treat you as innocent until you are proven guilty. I don't have to wait for a judge or jury to tell me I have a right to the opinion that Bonds is a great big cheat.

To say we must cheer for Bonds because he's innocent until proven guilty is like saying if I find a man standing in the middle of broken glass, late at night, in my house, carrying a television and wearing all black clothes that I don't have a right to chase him away, because it hasn't been proven that he's a burglar.

I am supposed to cheer for Bonds because he is an all-time great ballplayer.

I acknowledge Bonds' greatness, but I don't have to root for him any more than I would have to like working for a boss that does great things for our company but treats his employees with disdain. (That's not my boss by the way. He's done wonderful things, and everybody likes him.)

Others argue that Bonds is just the beneficiary of playing in an era when steroids were commonplace, just the same way that Babe Ruth benefited from not having to play black athletes, right?

Wrong. Ruth did not personally bar the door to black athletes. Major League Baseball did that. Maybe we can argue that Ruth should have done more to encourage the league to admit black players, but he cannot be held personally responsible the same way an athlete who (allegedly) used steroids should be held responsible for their actions. Bonds picked up the bottle of "flaxseed oil," and applied it himself. Commissioner Bud Selig didn't do that.

And the "everybody was doing it" excuse never carried much weight with me. Outside of Jose Canseco, I can't recall anyone even claiming that a majority of ballplayers were juiced, let alone all of them.

There are those who tell me that the backlash against Barry is racially motivated, and I can't deny there are morons out there who haven't quite joined us in the 21^st Century.

But Bonds is approaching the record of another black man. And African American ballplayer Ken Griffey, Junior led the NL in All Star votes this year. So forgive me if I believe that Bonds would be hated even if he were purple.

The bottom line is: I don't have to celebrate Barry Bonds, which is good, because-in my mind-there's not much there to celebrate.