Starr Gazing: Begrudging Barry Bonds

I wouldn't want my absence from the chorus congratulating Barry Bonds on the occasion of his 40th birthday to be considered a possible oversight. My absence, as well as my abstinence from praise, was deliberate.

Believe me, I don't begrudge him his piece of cake or a jolly locker-room chorus of, "Stand up and tell us ..." Actually, there's a great deal I'd like him to stand up and tell us. And I do begrudge baseball's reigning curmudgeon so many remarkable paeans from so many sportswriters who should know better.

Too many tripped over each other to sing Bonds's immortal praises. Most feared batter of all time! Greatest 40-year-old player in history! I've watched Major League Baseball squander its greatest asset, its storied history, with cynical indifference to the whys and wherefores of modern, record-smashing performances. But I expect baseball writers to do a little better by the game and demonstrate at least a modicum of historical perspective.

Let's start by taking those claims at face value. Most feared hitter of all time? That's a judgment that reflects the propensity of managers to walk him so frequently. Well, let's consider for a moment Babe Ruth. His career slugging average was .690, almost .100 higher than Bonds's career mark, and he hit almost 200 more home runs than anyone remotely his contemporary. You think he scared a few pitchers and managers? He may not have received quite as many walks as Bonds. But do you think he might have if Pedro Feliz or Benito Santiago had batted behind him rather than Lou Gehrig?

Greatest player ever at age 40. It's possible, though he certainly wasn't the greatest at age 39. At 39 Ted Williams won a batting crown hitting .388, higher than Bonds has hit at any age, while finishing second in the league in home runs. At 40 he won his sixth batting crown so I think you can at least make the argument for Teddy Ballgame. Or how about a hurler? Granted that as hard as it is to compare hitters from different eras, it's even more difficult to compare hitters with pitchers. Still, the year he turned 40 Warren Spahn won 21 games and led the league in ERA. (He was even better at 42 he went 23-7 with a 2.60 ERA.)

Of course, the comparison isn't entirely fair. Williams and Spahn were a slightly older 40 than Bonds is today, since one suspects that serving in two wars and crashing a plane in Korea, as Williams did, or being wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, as Spahn was, might take more of a toll than a life by the San Francisco Bay. Certainly neither veteran had the benefit of the anti-aging wonders of modern science, as has Bonds with his amazing, indeed transforming, fitness and nutritional regimen. (Sadly, Williams was saddled with the "blessings" of modern science only after his death.)