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Barry Bonds a throwback for calling critic out

5 min read

I really like Barry Bonds. Not because the former Pittsburgh Pirates’ outfielder and current San Francisco Giant slugger is a seven-time National League Most Valuable Player. Not because he’s got a really good chance to become baseball’s all-time home run champion, surpassing the great Hank Aaron. And not because I hold him up as any kind of role model

I like Bonds not because he’s a throwback player, but because he’s a throwback person.

He reinforced this belief last week in how he handled derogatory comments made by former Chicago White Sox player Ron Kittle, whose name won’t roll off anybody’s tongue as a standout player of his own era, let alone baseball history.

Kittle has written a book. In it Kittle says he approached Bonds 12 years ago asking that the All-Star sign some jerseys for charity, and that Bonds replied, “I don’t sign for white people.” The implication, of course, is that Bonds is racist. Which is a little hard to believe when one considers that his first wife, with whom he had children, is white.

So how did Bonds handle the Kittle allegation? He basically did what people used to do not so long ago, in the days before television’s Phil Donahue starting making wimpiness fashionable. He called him on.

“Tell him he’s an (you can fill in this part, letting your imagination run wild) idiot,” Bonds told the media. “Tell him I’m at 24 Willie Mays Plaza and he can come get me anytime he wants to – with pleasure. Don’t insult my family.”

How refreshing. While I’m not advocating physical violence, I also don’t think anyone should try to rush Bonds to “anger management” classes or sit him down for a one-on-one with Dr. Phil for a tutorial on how to handle his temper.

Bonds responded in an appropriate way to an appropriate stimulus, in my book. There’s nothing wrong with that.

These days it seems that everyone with any connection to someone famous, or in some cases infamous, comes forward with some tawdry tome, eager to peddle their “insights” for what amounts to a quick and easy buck.

Butlers, ex-lovers, former spouses, entourage members, former friends – all have attempted to cash in this way. Even the last big holdout, Watergate’s famous “Deep Throat” Mark Felt, was convinced by his family at age 91 to reveal himself so some riches might be had.

There’s something mighty refreshing in the way Bonds handled this. Someone said something about him that he disagrees with, so he aimed straight at the source in issuing his response. The lines of communication don’t get any cleaner or clearer than that.

Maybe athletics is the last bastion of society where one can get away with saying what Bonds did, without a horde of counselors descending on you for intensive therapy or the talk show crowd portraying you as a loose cannon ready for the loony bin.

Not that long ago, Bonds’ behavior was an accepted norm when someone talked trash. You had to be prepared to back it up.

But that was in the days when man-to-man conflict resolution was conducted far more sensibly, and didn’t involve guns and beatings and drive-by shootings and senseless deaths.

So once again, no one should hold Bonds up as role model for how he handled the Kittle situation.

Try to mimic that bravado on a city street these days and it’s quite possible some hooligan with no sense of morality or fair play will shoot you in a heartbeat, even if you’re Barry Bonds.

This isn’t to say that Kittle shouldn’t have included Bonds in his book, or that he’s not entitled to make a buck by authoring his remembrances, which he claims are truthful.

But I seriously doubt that Kittle’s being completely honest when he says he didn’t bring up the Bonds incident in order to sell books. What other passages from his memoir have you heard about? I hope the book details how Kittle, who is white, reacted to the comment, which he says was made before a game at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Chances are very good that he wasn’t as honest and straightforward as Bonds has been toward him, or we’d have heard about it by now, even if someone had to interrupt Kittle’s convalescence to get the story.

In these days of instant celebrity, too many people you otherwise would never hear about dish up dirt without facing any consequences. Too often rumor, innuendo and sensationalism rule the day. This practice seems out of control only because it probably is.

As this controversy rages, one thing’s pretty certain: You won’t find Ron Kittle showing up at 24 Willie Mays Place, home of the Giants and Barry Bonds, anytime soon.

Paul Sunyak is editorial page editor of the Herald-Standard. He can be reached at (724) 439-7577 or at psunyak@heraldstandard.com

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