Karma will be a bitch for MLB as a whole for taking part in this because I won’t just say the ‘B’ word but also the ‘C’ word for COLLUSION with what is happening to Barry Lamar. Future sports fans will read about the curious case of the homerun king and sadly shake their heads and wonder what the hell their ancestors were drinking that we would allow the greatest player of probably three generations to go out like this.

Jesus wept indeed.

As far as I’m concerned, Barry Bonds is the greatest player of the last 40 years. Period. End of story. Even if he took a little sum’in-sum’in. I can remember as a 10 year old who did his book reports on athletes and teams and whose first (and usually only) stop at the library was SI….sometimes some love for “Sport” too, the hype re: Barry as a skinnier youngster. He was super fast, he had power. He was the second-coming. Of course, this is before the blogosphere, sports-bloviating on the radio etc….but at least to my ears, there was a lot of anticipation of Barry. I remember watching him play the Dodgers on channel 11 here in LA; Pirates wearin’ those gangsta ’80s Pirates uniforms with the ugly-ass caps. Anyway……point is…well, it’s not unfathomable to me that Barry’s been done like this. I have to admit, I didn’t have a lot of sympathy for Barry till about five years ago…but the disparity and double-standard has become so glaring in these past few years…it’s become so surreal to see the man hyped up by the sports media and then………..nuttin’. It’s like the way Stalin’ did Trotsky. I’m sure y’all heard when he became President he excised any mention of Trotsky from the history books. There are pictures which have been compared, side-by-side. Same pictures, but one is the original, the other is after Stalin came to power. Stalin and Trotsky standing together, brothers-in-arms. Then when Stalin and him become rivals, the pictures are doctored so Trotsky didn’t even exist. It’s just terrible. Karma will be a bitch for bitch Bud.

The point is simply this – and I’m not quite sure that your response nailed it. There are no Angry Black Men getting love in this here nation. That’s not surprising and is to be expected. Your original point was this his ANGER, and LACK of PERSONALITY rather than his BLACKNESS was the reason for getting the national gas face.

Given the list of names I rattled off, it’s fairly obvious that being anger, furious, boring or even a fuck up is not a barrier to “white” guys getting love.

I don’t know where you’re going with this. Do you? Sammy Sosa has no bearing on this conversation – exempt to amplify your uncontested and obvious point that buffoons like Barkley can get love 24-7. No news there.

Deal with Carlton, Clemens, Christian, Larry and all the other boring guys who would ruin a family vacation or night at the bar who STILL get love every single day. McGwire was/is boring as hell and until he went all Witness Protection, the media and the fans were falling all over themselves to suck him dry. Same went for Joe D. Those, my friend, are not exceptions…they are the RULE which you seem hell bent on ignoring.

Perhaps you should simply buy Barry Lamar Bonds some paint.

“Dig deeper on this”? “Infantile suspicions”? OK. How about Mark McGwire or Joe DiMaggio? Neither of those guys were close to warm and cuddly. Sammy Sosa? “Baseball been berry, berry good to me!! with an Uncle Tom smile on his face. They all get the media pass. Yes, there are exceptions. Ted Williams’ legacy is intact even though he could be an a–hole to the press and the fans. People forget this now, but behind Willie Mays’ image was an angry black man who had to deal with prejudice for almost his whole career. All that being said, I still stand behind the opinion that being an angry black man hurts him in the court of public opinion. He doesn’t play the “game”, so he’ll never get the leeway that someone like Jason Giambi is still getting.

I think Bonds deserves better than what he’s gotten but I also believe that his declining abilities, overall, has lead him to not be signed with a team. He’s not going to take a minor league contract, and why should he?

About black baseball players:

Growing up, I played baseball. Little tikes to College. My experience from it was that much like how the soccer teams in high school were formed from the male hispanic population, the baseball teams were all white guys. The only sport that had true integration of the races was football, where it was 50/50.

I played on 3 teams (that I can remember) my entire “career” that had 1 black baseball player on the team. That’s from little league to college, even the travel teams where players were picked from the area didn’t have black players on the teams. The teams in my later years were all white. We played teams in Newport News and the Hampton areas that were mostly black, but all other teams had the majority of whites on the team.

Scrolling through some old sets of baseball cards (1989 and 1990 respectively) the racial split was, at best, 90/10 whites or hispanic to black. Of course there were no japanese players, just goofy looking white guys and a few black players here and there. Most of the black players, I found, played for the Detroit Tigers (oddly enough).

Of course it’s just me, and my experience of baseball in the Northern Virginia/DC area. I don’t think I’d be wrong in saying that baseball, at least in my generation, has been all that popular for anyone other than white people or latinos.

It’s a shame it’s not more popular than it is, it’s a fun sport to play and a fun sport to get involved with, with your kids. People say it’s boring, but when you’re involved in it, it’s really fun. There’s nothing better than taking your son to a baseball game man, I think Mizz can confirm that…

Two brothas in any All-Star game where cats aren’t skating has to cause concern.

Me and some of my friends have a summer basketball league kicking off on next week, and flag football in the fall. Trying to keep the youth busy and out of trouble.

Gaston’s story needs to be told. Thanks for sharing.

Anyone wanna discuss the roadmap, hit Mizzo for my info. or hit me at my site.

Be well.

There are no laws or real irreducible barriers to creating a true pipeline of MLB quality talent by investing in leagues for youth. The dollars expended on just one bullshit ass European car could provide a down payment on a lot; leverage a sponsorship-partnership with local, regional and international businesses; and buy uniforms for about 40 years.

If you’re in a Limited Edition Maserati or Ferrarri and bitching about MLB, shut the fuck up. If you’re a broke ass, write the proposal or shut the fuck up. Free your mind, impose your will. Be the change you want to see. It’s not up to them…it’s up to me and you and you. Make it happen or keep it movin’.

Always in love.

You know pedro, vlad, big pappi and the rest.

A nation CHOCK FULL of boring, underachieving AWM’s relate profoundly to the bubbling anger in Silent Sams like Randy Johnson — but despise Bonds. They love the contemptible antics of bad boys like Christian Laettner. But they hate Bonds. LOL.

And if you can find a quote worth reading from CL or RJ, add it to the pile of Sleeping Pills served up by Lefty and the Hick from French Lick.

Oh, you doooo Slay Me. ROTFLMBAO!