It's about steroids not race

Here is a very annoying Palm Beach Post article. There are people out there, besides the article's author Carlos Frias who think Bonds isn't getting the recognition for his homerun records because of his race. What a bunch of bull crap. I shouldn't be surprised the Post publishes nonsense like this. If you accuse a Black person of anything unethical, its about race.

It's Bonds steroid use. He cheated to get to where he is. Can you tell me what sane person believes Bonds' denials? That's what is about, and the people who claim its about race should be ashamed of myself.

I watched Hank Aaron when I was young. Either on television, or when I saw the Mets play the Braves at She Stadium in 1970. Aaron is one of the greatest players of all time. I do remember still watching him break Babe Ruth's homerun record. My family was in Florida on Spring Easter break and I watched the game in our hotel room.

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America is holding Barry Bonds up to the light.

They poke and prod, scrutinizing everything from his demeanor, to his personal life, to his alleged use of steroids in hopes of answering one question:

Is Bonds worthy of passing Babe Ruth?

Ruth remains an icon, still considered by many the mightiest of home-run hitters. Never mind that the "Bambino'' hasn't been the career leader for 32 years.

Hank Aaron, who passed Ruth with his 715th homer in 1974, almost is forgotten in conversation as fans fixate on Bonds' pursuit of Ruth's 714 mark.

And that fact, say several people who study the issue of race in America, is the clearest sign that Bonds is correct: Race is playing a role in Barry vs. The Babe debates.

"Babe Ruth hasn't owned that record in 30 years and people are still talking about passing Ruth as the measuring stick," said Bob Kendrick, marketing director of the Negro League Museum in Kansas City, Mo. "Passing Hank should be the bar. Passing Ruth is a milestone."

Race was an overwhelming issue when Aaron surpassed Ruth. Aaron endured racist hate mail and chants, daily threats on his life and even was snubbed by then-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who didn't travel to see Aaron break the record as a member of the Atlanta Braves.

Some believe the issue of race, while more subdued, exists as Bonds closes in on Ruth.

Katheryn Russell-Brown, the director at the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations at the University of Florida, said many African-Americans wonder if race has played a part in the steroid scandal surrounding Bonds.

Mark McGwire admitted to using androstenedione, a supplement at the time banned in other sports and eventually in baseball, Russell-Brown said. Yet fans embraced McGwire as he pursued and erased Roger Maris' single-season home-run record in 1998.

"It's palpable that it's out there," Russell-Brown said of the bias. "African-Americans may wonder how Barry Bonds has become the poster child for bad boy behavior in baseball."

Russell-Brown, a professor of law at the University of Florida, has studied the role of race and fame in public scandals. She said there is a long history of African-American athletes being discredited because of their race.

In one famous example, boxer Jack Johnson became the first African-American to capture the heavyweight title in 1910, sparking race riots across the country, and he later was convicted of transporting a white woman across state lines for immoral purposes. He had sent his girlfriend a train ticket to come visit him.

Some African-Americans fear Bonds is being targeted to keep him from being on equal footing with Ruth, Russell-Brown said.

"Because we're so uncomfortable talking about race, we talk about other things: steroid use, personality, the integrity of the game," she said. "We're much more comfortable talking about these things than race."

Richard Lapchick, who publishes the University of Central Florida's annual Racial and Gender Report Card on Major League Baseball, said African-American athletes' achievements often are underplayed in comparison to their white counterparts.

Lapchick recalls that when the discussion arose whether Joe Paterno or Bobby Bowden would retire as college football's winningest coach, few stopped to mention Grambling State's Eddie Robinson, who retired with 408 victories, because those came at the Division I-AA level.

The bias only increases when great accomplishments come from a player as confident and controversial as Bonds, Lapchick said.

"If an African-American athlete is standoffish, he's considered arrogant as opposed to a white athlete, who they might call shy," said Lapchick, the only white member of the Black Coaches Association. "We use softer descriptions."

Bonds has faced the issue of race head-on.

Last spring, he said that the reason Ruth is idolized and he is vilified is that "Babe Ruth was white and I'm black."

Bonds resented that Ruth so often was discussed ahead of Aaron.

Three years ago, Bonds visited the Negro League Museum, director Kendrick said. He was supposed to look around for about a half-hour, but the tour lasted nearly two hours as Bonds pored over the exhibits. He was moved to tears.

Later, from the museum gift shop, he called his godfather, Hall of Fame slugger Willie Mays. "You've got to come see this place,'' Kendrick recalled Bonds saying to Mays.

Mays had played in the Negro Leagues and often has shared his memories with Bonds. But seeing the exhibits, reading how Cooperstown Hall of Famer Josh Gibson hit 84 home runs in one season and is thought to have hit 900 career homers, made Bonds realize history was ignoring the achievements of many of his African-American predecessors.

A month later, at the 2003 All-Star Game, Bonds talked about his own home-run chase — and not just about surpassing Aaron's 755.

"Seven fifty-five isn't a number that's always caught my eye,'' he said. "The only number I'm concerned with is Babe Ruth's. As a left-handed hitter, I can say I wiped him on that. To the baseball world, Babe Ruth is baseball, but from what I hear, you have to go back to the Negro Leagues, too.

"I got (Ruth) on slugging percentage (in a season), I got him on on-base, I got him on walks, and then I can take his home-run record and that's all — you don't have to talk about him any more.

"Hank Aaron, to me, goes back to history and I am the next generation of Negro League ballplayers. He can keep his 755 home-run record."

Some interpreted Bonds' statement as racist. Others said he was putting Ruth's and Aaron's achievements in perspective.

"Traditionally, No. 2 has been forgotten, but not in the case of Babe Ruth," Kendrick said. "I mean, who was the second guy to walk on the moon? When have we focused on who's No. 2 as much as in this particular instance?

"Hank is the guy we should be talking about, and that was Barry's point."