Well, let's get over it, shall we? And while we're at it, let's get over our communal dislike for Rickey Henderson, too. Sure, Rickey's a hotdog, even at age 43. The night he broke the major-league scoring record held for 73 years by another pillar of the game, Ty Cobb, he slid into home plate for no other reason than to celebrate his personal triumph. Claiming purity, many baseball fans bemoaned the gesture. They remembered that when Henderson broke the all-time record for steals a few seasons back, he yanked third base out of the ground and held it aloft, like the bloody head of a vanquished enemy. Baseball fundamentalists hated him for that one, too.
Let's not deceive ourselves. Not every great player in baseball gives off the personal warmth of Tony Gwynn or shows the ironclad selflessness of Cal Ripken Jr. Secret: Not every ballplayer is a good guy. Pete Rose, who holds the records for career hits and career hustle, trashed his off-the-field image with belligerence and gambling scandals. Babe Ruth was a womanizing boozer who never bothered to learn the names of his own teammates. Cap Anson was a virulent racist, Cobb a mean-spirited thug who gleefully spiked opposing infielders. Hack Wilson was a drunk who regularly stumbled onto the field with a half a quart of rye inside him. The great fireballer Bob Gibson wouldn't give the time of day to a visiting batter if the poor guy's mother had just died. Instead, Gibson threw at him.
Consider Roger Clemens, who this year became the first pitcher in major-league history to win twenty games while losing just one. Is he a good guy? Not if you saw that heater he beaned Mike Piazza with last summer. Or that shard of shattered bat he threw at Piazza during the 2000 World Series. By any measure, Clemens was dead wrong in each of those acts.
But is he a bad pitcher? Hardly. Are Pete Rose's baseball accomplishments, as gaudy as his page in The Baseball Encyclopedia, diminished by his extracurricular shenanigans? Is Barry Bonds to be castigated because he gets salty with reporters or fails to invite the Giant relief pitchers to dinner on Fisherman's Wharf?
Well, yes -- as long as you're willing to adopt the Jerry Falwell view of life and moralize about every detail of humankind's sinful nature. The fact remains that the eloquence and purity of athletes resides in their bodies -- in the brilliance of their play -- and not in their utterances (which, if you've ever been in a dressing room, can be virtually incoherent), almost never in their wisdom or the bravery in their hearts. Baseball's one true, unassailable hero, Jackie Robinson, is long gone.
These days, the role-model thing works for some players -- there's plenty of it to go around -- but the peculiar American insistence that pro athletes become earthly gods is not just unrealistic, it's delusional. And a bit desperate. The real role models are parents and teachers, medical researchers and poets, protective big sisters, firemen and cops. How about the mechanic who gives you an honest price on carburetor repair instead of nailing your checkbook to the wall? Or the cocktail waitress putting two kids through school?
As for Barry Bonds, he has no obligation other than to play hard. He hits a ball with a stick. Neither he nor Rickey Henderson should be expected to otherwise inspire us.
That brings us to the most extraordinary baseball season in half a century, the season just now concluding. It had grandeur (and some folly, too), but let's put our foolish myths aside and recognize that grandeur doesn't equal heroism.
Exhibit A: Barry's Bombs. In another year, another player's quest to break the single-season home-run mark would have quickened the hearts of baseball fans everywhere. In fact, that year was 1998, and that player was Mark McGwire, the St. Louis Cardinals' overstuffed, redheaded first baseman. McGwire's seventy dingers annihilated the record 61 Roger Maris struck way back in 1961, and the national lovefest that enveloped McGwire and fellow slugger Sammy Sosa was pure Norman Rockwell stuff, all squeaky-clean and ribbon-wrapped. So when Bonds shot past McGwire's mark two weeks ago with his 73rd homer, the baseball public was in no mood to honor a new standard -- especially one set by an unpopular egotist. It had taken McGwire and Sosa 36 years to catch Maris (who had taken 34 years to catch Babe Ruth), and just like that, Bonds, of all people, turned them all into midgets. The public deflation was palpable. Little matter that our Barry is probably the greatest left-fielder in the history of the game, or that his 73 homers are likely to stand up for decades, no matter how much Flubber the commissioner injects into the ball. Or that he set another important record this season: His 177 walks surpassed the 170 free passes Babe Ruth got in 1923. Non-Giants fans and the press just can't get over the star's three lockers and his three-word replies to post-game questions. In the end, even the very ball that became number 73 produced anger and resentment: One lucky spectator gloved the record-setting shot in the left-field bleachers at PacBell Park, but he was immediately attacked by fellow fans, and the ball -- a million-dollar ball, some say -- was torn from his grasp. Look for the mess to wind up in district court, complete with video replays, while Bonds winds up with a new club next season.
Exhibit B: Rickey, Sammy and Ichiro. The aforementioned Mr. Henderson, who has been playing major-league baseball since 1979, not only passed Ty Cobb's record for runs scored (2,245), but he got his 3,000th hit and, by all accounts, pissed off his 4,000th reporter. Good for him on all counts. As for the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa, the bridesmaid in 1998's home-run chase, he hit 64 more long balls in 2001, making him the first player to belt 60 in each of three seasons. Meanwhile, the hapless Cubs blew another big lead in the National League Central and wound up a distant third behind Houston and St. Louis. In baseball, some things never change. As if to rub salt in the wound, Lou Piniella's Seattle Mariners won 116 games, equaling a record set way back in 1906 by, you guessed it, the Chicago Cubs. Seattle is a powerful, well-balanced team despite its losses, in consecutive seasons, of its three major stars: flamethrower Randy "The Big Unit" Johnson, centerfielder Ken Griffey Jr. and shortstop Alex Rodriguez. This year the team was led by a slender Japanese import named Ichiro Suzuki, who in his rookie season here led the American League in batting (.350), hits (242) and stolen bases (56). Here's the best part: Former big-league reliever Rob Dibble, an Ichiro skeptic, announced on ESPN that if the newcomer won the batting title, he would run around Times Square naked. Don't let the wind get up your butt, Dibs.
Exhibit C: On the Rox. Dan O'Dowd, captain of the Titanic, races through the North Atlantic ice fields with nary a worry for the safety of his vessel. Alas, she struck another iceberg this year. The Colorado Rockies, having undergone four major roster shakeups in two years, finished last (again) in the National League West, nineteen games back, and their latest set of multimillionaire pitching failures, Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle (both World Series starters last year), went 14-13 and 9-8, respectively. Inexplicably, O'Dowd sent veteran catcher Brent Mayne packing in June, followed by pitchers Pedro Astacio and Ron Villone, outfielder Ron Gant and infielders Todd Walker and Neifi Perez. The result? A two-month, 10-35 slide into oblivion from which the team never recovered. But, hey, All-Star outfielder Larry Walker won his third NL batting title in four years with .350, and first baseman Todd Walker finished second at .336. So what? The Rockies' gruesome 73-89 record doesn't bode well for a club that will likely stand pat next year in terms of payroll ($65 million) and personnel. Better get the band up on E-deck, Cap'n, and tell 'em to play their hearts out.
Exhibit D: Tony and Rip and Oh, Danny Boy. While the last of the game's great one-team, one-town players, San Diego's Tony Gwynn and Baltimore's Cal Ripken Jr., were taking retirement bows in their respective leagues, a twelve-year-old named Danny Almonte, from the Dominican Republic by way of the Bronx, was pitching no-hitters and perfect games in the Little League World Series like the second coming of Nolan Ryan. Just one problem: The unhittable Danny was actually fourteen, a product of parental chicanery. The overage hurler's team was stripped of its playoff wins and promptly sent home. Luckily, the victimized child was taken in by a famous fellow Dominican, the great Sammy Sosa, who promised to oversee his future in baseball. Who knows? By the time little Danny turns seventeen (whenever that is), maybe he can help the Cubs win their first pennant in more than half a century. Until then, we'll have to make do with baseball's usual collection of scoundrels and ordinary men.