There is an old saying that says people without money know who their friends are. Conversely, Barry Bonds knows who his enemies are. Here is a man at the top of the baseball world, two home runs from immortality, and he's getting about as much love from the country as George Bush at a meeting of the Sierra Club. Here are five reasons to root for the man nobody seems to want to root for.
- Team player
Much is made over the fact that Barry Bonds cares only about himself. Let's examine what the definition of "team player" really is to answer that charge. A team player is a player who puts the team before all else and who is willing to sacrifice personal glory for victory. Make no mistake, Barry Bonds fits this description.
Bonds walks more than anyone else in the game, and he does so often at the expense of his home run pursuit. There is no question that if he wanted to swing away more often, he could be chasing 80 homers instead of 70. Yet Bonds knows that his team needs him on base, especially with last year's MVP Jeff Kent batting behind him. Bonds' greatest feat this year will not be his 70 home runs; it will be his .500 on base percentage, a sign that he has done what is best for the team all season, namely, get on base. Furthermore, Bonds has been chasing a mark for quite some time that would put him on a level by himself: 500 home runs and 500 stolen bases. Yet one of the reasons why he has not stolen many bases in the past couple seasons is he realized that Kent did not hit well when he saw a runner moving out of the corner of his eye. Thus, Bonds has stopped running; Kent has not stopped hitting.
- Clutch home runs
Often Bonds has been criticized for hitting meaningless home runs. Yet this year, Bonds leads the "ajors in what Giants announcer John Miller calls "clutch home runs," homers that either tie the game, put the Giants ahead, pull the Giants to within one run, or extend a one-run lead. Bonds' 500th home run, which came in April this year, won the game for the Giants. Twice in August, Bonds hit game-winning homers on the road to give the Giants important wins.
- Media relations
In August, Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly wrote a scathing article about Bonds and his teammates' dislike for the man. The article quoted only one source (Kent), and he was later quoted as saying that Reilly "had an axe to drop." Yet Bonds did not rant and rave at Reilly (like Red Sox outfielder Carl Everett did at The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy); rather, he let his bat do the talking, homering the next night in Montreal to win a game. And afterwards, he did not taunt Reilly or gloat about his success, he talked about what a big win it was for the Giants.
- Zero respect
Throughout his career, Barry Bonds has been constantly overshadowed by players who are, frankly, not as good as he is. First it was people like Terry Pendleton, who undeservingly won the 1991 NL MVP, an award that Bonds should have won. Had he been rightfully selected, Bonds would have won 4 consecutive MVPs. Later in his career, he was always compared (unfavorably) with Ken Griffey Jr., despite the fact that Griffey played in the hitter-friendly Kingdome against American League pitching. Meanwhile, Bonds had to battle the swirling winds of San Francisco's Candlestick Park. Then it was Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire who took center-stage.
All of these players have been up and down over the past 10 years, but Bonds has been constant. He was MVP in 1990, 1991 and 1993. He was a 40-40 man in 1996. He led the Giants to the playoffs in 1997. He was injured for much of 1999 and still had a great season. He hit 49 home runs in 2000. Bonds is finally being appreciated for his talent now, and it took the greatest offensive season in Major League history for that to happen.
- Nice guy
But first and foremost, Barry Bonds is not the devil that people make him out to be. Barry Bonds has, at worst, an annoying personality. But is that really a reason to condemn him? Bonds has consistently shown what his heart is made of, and it is impressive. Bonds helped start a bone marrow donation drive in the African-American community, a drive that helped save the life of a baseball player at my Bay Area high school. Bonds also donates a substantial portion of his large paycheck to help inner-city schools get Internet access for their students. Nice guys really can finish first. And when he breaks that record, I, for one, will be rooting for him.
