With the Giants visiting the Red Sox tonight, USA Today’s Hal Bodley had the opportunity to quiz one observer who should’ve had something more interesting to say, and another who is apparently, beneath contempt.
“My guess is there will be boos audible in Cambridge,” says longtime Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan. “If Barry hits one (home run), I don’t think there’s the slightest chance that ball doesn’t return to the field. Whoever dares to keep it will risk physical harm.”
Ryan says the media “often overrate the sophistication of the people here. Parochially, they like to think of themselves as enlightened, intellectual fans as a body. We allow them to perpetuate that myth and go out of our way to propagate it. But I’m often let down by them.”
The Red Sox were the last of major league teams to integrate, in 1959. It’s taken years for the franchise to shake its reputation of being racist.
“I think it’s pretty much in the past,” says Ryan. “It’s hard to support any idea we haven’t become enlightened. Look at the treatment Mo Vaughn got here and how revered David Ortiz is.
“But, this weekend will test it in terms of how ugly people can get. I don’t discount the possibility of it getting very ugly.”
With all due respect to Ryan, whom I genuine admire when he isn’t advocating beating up Joumana Kidd, it’s pretty easy to support the idea Boston is far from enlightened. How many black ticket holders can you find at Fenway? What other city in America would tolerate the continued employment of Dennis & Callahan after the former’s “Metco gorilla” remark — a quip that makes Don Imus seem downright culturally sensitive by comparison?
As for the treatment of Mo Vaughn that Ryan refers to, indeed the former Red Sox 1B was a fan favorite. Albeit one the former ownership was all too willing to see sign with Anaheim.
Bodley’s piece continues with the nonsensical ramblings of boycottbarry.com founder Daniel Kramer :
Kramer, a political consultant, says he wants to provide fans tools to help clean up baseball. He adds he’s spent “at least five figures of my own money” getting the project started.
“We’re going to be passing out Bondsfolds, a blindfold fans should wear every time Bonds steps up to the plate,” he says. “It’s our way of demonstrating a desire for authentic records only and an even playing field.”
Kramer believes “baseball is in danger of a downward spiral if it doesn’t address its most serious threat since the 1919 World Series, which was thrown by the White Sox. I submit the steroids scandal is the biggest threat of all time because the 1919 World Series was a one-time thing.”
Kramer rates baseball’s current steroid testing “as a joke. Baseball fans aren’t stupid. They went away in droves after the 1994-95 strike and, if there’s not serious action taken, they’ll do it again.”
Apparently, Kramer considers baseball’s enforcement of the color line to be a rather tiny matter compared to the 1919 Black Sox Scandal and whether or not Randy Velarde ingested PED’s.
As for the fans going away “in droves after the 1994-5 strike”, it might’ve escaped Kramer’s notice that not only is Major League Baseball experiencing unprecendented prosperity, but the catalyst for the current attendance boom, construction of new stadiums, etc., might well have been the exact sort of steroid use he decries.
While I can’t understand why Bodley would provide a vehicle for this knucklehead and his simplistic notions of “a level playing field”, it could be time to reserve the URL boycottpetermagowan.com with Network Solutions.
How about noonereallycaresexceptthemedia.com ?
when my waitress today was telling me about a Sons Of Sam Horn thread about whether or not to moon Barry or simply curse him, I think it is safe to say someone besides the media actually cares. Whether or not they should, is another matter.
People care about steroids to the extent it gives them a chance to boo or heckle a guy on an opposing team. If David Ortiz tested positive, do you think he’d be booed at Fenway on the day he returns? I bet he’d probably get a standing ovation.
I guess we’ll have to wait until he tests positive. But I think you make a good point. Much of the outrage is manufactured (if not downright selective) — particularly in the case of this boycottbarry.com putz.
I think if Ortiz continued to perform at such a high level, he’d be loved in Boston no matter what, yeah. Jason Giambi falling out of favor in NY has less to do with his ‘roid revelations as opposed to a lack of production.
I lived in Boston when Mo Vaughn became a free agent and though the fans genuinely liked the guy, they also ran him out of town when he wouldn’t give them that elusive ‘hometown discount’ (though he grew up in CT, not Boston). I wouldn’t speculate as to whether the reaction was generally race-based, but I disagree with Ryan if he is saying that Mo Vaughn always had it easy here….with fans AND media.
I seem to recall Mo’s strip club visits were the source of no small yucksterism on WEEI at the time. And since I’m a one of those the-glass-is-half-full kinda guys, I suspect said jokes were not malicious at all and had nothing to do the hosts’ Mandingo complexes.
I agree on the ‘manufactured outrage’ front. I’ve mentioned this here before, so sorry to repeat myself, but at Dodger Stadium, no one gets booed harder than an SF Giant busting historic records amidst a steroid scandal like Barry, and yet, no one gets as many flash bulbs going off for every swing of the bat, and certainly no Dodger, since everything he does at this point is making history.
How that applies to Fenway, I don’t know, but I’m glad I’ve seen the guy play for the past few years now. Steroids or not, he has too many records, too many skills, to be a total fake, otherwise there would be ten guys doing what he does.
Ben
Barry has helped me get over my A-Rod hatred. If the dood stays healthy, the handsome metrosexual will possibly get close enough to break whatever record Barry sets. I say Barry doesn’t get much past 755 anyway and if you project The Rod’s homer numbers, it can be done. So instead of shaking my fist at the television whenever Rodriguez hits a homer, now I grit my teeth and reluctantly say ‘good for him.’ Besides, he might be bringing his designer jockstrap down to Fenway if the rumors of him opting out are true.