Barry and the Level Playing Field

Barry Bonds is four homers away from the all-time career home run record. So he's an Issue again. Because he used steroids as part of a bulking up program, it is alleged, he's had an unfair advantage. His career was not played on a level playing field. To which I say: hey, Ump--are you blind?

The points that Jonathan Cohen made in the Nation last month about the SI all time team are relevant here. They add up to this: what level playing field? He points out that the SI team is largely composed of players from before 1947--that is, from when black athletes like Bonds were banned from major league baseball. Without athletes of color even permitted, and in particular so many demonstrably superior black players, what are those records really worth? Where was the level playing field then?

What constitutes a level playing field anyway--what gives this metaphor a real meaning? The U.S. population has doubled since Babe Ruth, and it's probably a third larger than since Hank Aaron. What about the number of teams? The influx of players from Japan, China and Europe, as well as the recently higher number of Latin players as contrasted with African Americans? What about the average height and weight? What about ball parks? (San Francisco's is beautiful, but one of the harder ones to hit homers in.) What sort of mountains or molehills in the playing field does any of those produce?

While steroid use is often illegal and against the rules, and also harmful, the fact is that various products containing such substances have been used in recent years by a number of players, including pitchers that Bonds faced, and hitters whose records are not currently being questioned. Where's the level playing field exactly? Maybe it is level--everybody in the game today is competing against some players who have used some banned substances to some degree, and some who haven't. And does anyone claim Barry Bonds is using such substances now?

Keith Olbermann did a piece on Bonds and the record tonight. He clearly thinks Bonds has cheated (and sorry, I don't find bigger shoe size compelling evidence), but he told the sad story of previous players who approached such a record: Roger Maris was vilified, and so in fact was Hank Aaron--where the tone was often decidedly racist. You'd have to be as blind as an umpire not to see that some of the violent emotion behind criticism of Bonds is racist.

Maybe it's because I've been watching Barry Bonds since he broke into the league with my Pittsburgh Pirates, and hit his first major league home run on my birthday. But I'm rooting for him. I'll let others measure the tilt on the playing field.