Citizen Journal

...home run king, miscreant. He writes:

Bonds is also regarded almost universally as a world-class jerk who has given us a dozen reasons to root against him. He's a grandstanding show-off who stands at the plate and admires his home runs forever, and taps his chest before catching routine fly balls. He doesn't get along with teammates, he's never been fan-friendly, he loathes the media, he's beyond disingenuous about alleged use of banned substances, and he has enough chips on his shoulder to fill a can of Pringles.

Even when he's talking baseball history, Bonds has been insulting, as when he said he was more interested in surpassing Ruth's home run total than Henry Aaron's.

"[T]he only number I care about is Babe Ruth's," said Bonds. "Because as a left-handed hitter, I wiped him out. That's it. And in the baseball world, Babe Ruth's everything, right? I got his slugging percentage and I'll take his home runs and that's it. Don't talk about him no more.

Bonds has always been a prick, and I've been half-rooting for a Bonds knee injury for years. Steroids aside, something's always struck me that he's after Babe Ruth, rather than Hank Aaron, for the worst reason: because Ruth was a white man. For years Bonds has said many things of the type that, were the race picture reversed, would be verboten. And Roeper suggests it's not too far off to infer the worst:

Former White Sox outfielder and American League Rookie of the Year Ron Kittle has a new book titled Ron Kittle's Tales from the White Sox Dugout. Kittle -- a solid, likable guy who hardly has a reputation for stretching the truth or sensationalizing things -- writes that when he approached Bonds in the Wrigley Field visitors' clubhouse in 1993, the encounter quickly went sour. He had a couple of Bonds' game-worn jerseys and he asked Bonds to sign them for a golf fund-raiser for children with cancer.

"I paid about $110 of my own money for [the jerseys] so they could be auctioned off at the golf outing," writes Kittle. "I did that all the time for stars like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens . . . every player gladly signs -- with one exception.

"I walked up to Bonds at his locker . . . introduced myself and said, 'Barry, if you sign these, they'll bring in a lot of money for kids who need help.'

"Bonds stood up, looked me in the eye and said, 'I don't sign for white people.' If lightning hits me today, I will swear those exact words. Matt Williams and other Giants were in the room and they heard what Bonds said.

"I said, 'White guys aren't the only ones who get cancer,' but Bonds had turned his back on me and walked out of the clubhouse."

What a dink. Of course, it hardly proves Bonds's Ruth-only pursuit is race-motivated, but it's a glimpse into the unbalance that is Barry Bonds. Is it much of a stretch to believe after whitey? Is there any other reasonable explanation?