Controversy Swirls On How MLB Should Celebrate New HR Mark

Polls Find Fans, Players Disagree On Barry Bonds

Only 8% of fans polled in a USA Today/Gallup poll consider Giants LF Barry Bonds “the greatest all-time home run hitter,” and just 34% of the 469 fans surveyed “would acknowledge Bonds as the best” if and when he passes Hank Aaron’s career home run mark of 755, according to a front-page Cover Story by Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY. In a separate poll conducted by USA Today and The Sports Exchange that surveyed 493 of the 750 active MLBers, “nearly three in four players said [Bonds] deserves to be seen as the game’s greatest slugger.” Most fans (72%) “think Bonds has used illegal steroids, but most players (66%) declined to say whether they thought he had.” About two-thirds of players who gave an opinion said that they “thought Bonds has taken steroids.” Yankees SS Derek Jeter said, “The public’s perception of Barry is different than ours because of what they’re reading. If you have enough people writing bad things about you, people start believing it” (USA TODAY, 5/18).

SELIG’S ATTENDANCE: The polls also asked players and fans whether MLB Commissioner Bud Selig should be present when Bonds breaks the record (USA TODAY, 5/18).


Selig Thursday declined to answer any questions about whether he will attend Bonds’ expected breaking of the record. Selig consistently has declined to say what he will do, and said again, “I will make my decision at the appropriate time” (Eric Fisher, SBJ). Former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent said, “I would stay away. I would send Bonds a message and make it clear that I am withholding some of the ceremonial congratulations because of the circumstances” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 5/17). USA TODAY’s Hal Bodley writes Selig “must swallow hard and tell the world he’ll be front-row center” when Bonds breaks the record. He “has no other choice” (USA TODAY, 5/18). In S.F., Ray Ratto: “If he attends, he is going to look only pained and silly. ... On the other hand, if he stays away, he will look only like a hypocrite” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 5/16). Selig appeared on NESN’s coverage of Tigers-Red Sox on Thursday, and NESN’s Jerry Remy said afterward, “He said to us off-camera, ‘I wish I could be more direct but I can’t’” (NESN, 5/17). In Boston, Jackie MacMullan: “Soon ... it will no longer be possible [for Selig] to sidestep Bonds and the obvious public relations headaches he presents” (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/18).

Bud Selig Still Mum On His Plans For Bonds Celebration

S.F. TREAT: The Giants are planning a tribute to Bonds at AT&T Park when he breaks the record, and Baseball HOF President Dale Petroskey said that the HOF “will honor Bonds’s achievement regardless because it’s part of baseball lore” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 5/17). In a cover story, SI’s Chris Ballard examines the local fan support of Bonds. Giants Exec VP & COO Larry Baer said, “A Giants fan who sees the loyalty, the performance, being part of the family, he’s not going to say, ‘Just throw him out on his ass.’ ... Others say, ‘He’s Barry, but he’s our Barry.’” S.F. Chronicle reporter Lance Williams, who covered the BALCO scandal with Mark Fainaru-Wada, said, “At the beginning of this, when Mark and I would pop a story, the e-mail from Giants fans would be, ‘You’re lying, you’re making it up.’ ... Over the course of the story, and especially after the grand jury stuff, it changed. And now it’s, ‘We don’t care. Sure he did it, but everybody did’” (SI, 5/21 issue).

CHANGING VALUES: Yankees 1B Jason Giambi, who reportedly told the BALCO grand jury that he used steroids and HGH, this week said, “What we should have done a long time ago was stand up — players, ownership, everybody — and said, ‘We made a mistake.’ We should have apologized back then and made sure we had a rule in place and gone forward. ... It was a topic that everybody wanted to avoid. Nobody wanted to talk about it” (USA TODAY, 5/18). In NEWSWEEK, George Will writes pro athletes “stand at an apex of achievement, but their achievements are admirable primarily because they are the products of a lonely submission to a sustained discipline of exertion. ... The athlete’s proper goal is to perform unusually well, not unnaturally well” (NEWSWEEK, 5/21 issue).