We're thrilled out on Mud Lake in rural Michigan tonight that our beloved Mafia (our fantasy baseball team) has amassed 299 points just 12 games into the season, and that this is good enough for 7th place!
That may not sound like much to cheer about, but the past two years we finished in 12th place, and before that, lower still. (There are sixteen teams in the league.)
We've been patiently building this club around the pitching staff. So far my six starters are 7-3 with a 3.39 ERA. My three relief pitchers are 10/10 in saves and have an ERA of 1.84.
Our top two hitters (Jason Bay and Andruw Jones) are cold as ice, batting .213; and our power-hitting first baseman, Adam LaRouche is hitting a microscopic .088, lower than most pitchers.
But they'll awake. Cold weather hurts hitters more than pitchers, usually. Overall, our guys are hitting .257, with our top guy over .400. For the first time in years, this looks like a fantasy baseball season to look forward to.
***
In the real baseball season, Barry Bonds has three home runs in only nine games. At that pace, if he played an entire season, he'd hit 54. He needs 19 more round-trippers to pass Hank Aaron's all-time record of 755, and if he stays healthy, he could do that by mid-season.
Bonds is also the most controversial player in the game today and many people hate him. He has been linked to the steroids scandal shaking baseball and many other sports. But he is only one of many, many players caught up in this scandal, and to date, he has not been charged with any crime, nor has he ever tested positive for steroids or any other illegal drug.
Today was Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball (MLB). When I was one day old, Robinson played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. That was 60 years ago today. By doing so, he broke the "color barrier," which until 1947 had kept black players out of the elite level of the "national pastime."
By the mid-seventies, African-Americans composed 27% of all MLB players, but as it turned out, that was when their numbers peaked. Ever since, their numbers have been falling until today, blacks number only around 8% of Major Leaguers.
To its credit, the MLB is trying to turn this decline around. In the past quarter century, other sports, especially basketball and football, have embraced black players, and captured the imagination of kids hoping to grow up and become successful athletes.
Baseball, meanwhile, has gone global, attracting players from Central America, Japan, Korea, and other countries. Today, more than a quarter of the players on MLB rosters are Latino.
Given the wonderful history of African-Americans in baseball, and how hard-fought Jackie Robinson's personal triumph was, let's hope his legacy, which is also that of many other stars, like Larry Doby (the first black player in the American League, with the Cleveland Indians, a few months after Robinson started in 1947); Don Newcombe, Willie Mays, Aaron, Frank Robinson, Willie McCovey, Eddie Murray, Tony Gwynn, Dave Winfield, Reggie Jackson, Bob Gibson, and so many others, will not be lost.
It can be argued that no one, white, black, Latino or Asian, has been a greater offensive player than Barry Bonds. He has 510 stolen bases to go with his 737 home runs. No other big-time power hitter ever stole more than 300-some bases. Bonds is the all-time leader in walks, and his overall numbers rival those of Babe Ruth.
In fact, Bonds is the black Babe Ruth. Both men were controversial in their own ways, especially near the end of their careers. I admire Bonds and the way he is shutting out all the noise around him in pursuit of his goals. A federal grand jury continues to investigate him, in what has to be one of the longest-running efforts to nail a star athlete in American history.
Given what we now know about earlier baseball stars and their proclivities imagine how their legacy would appear had ambitious prosecutors (not to mention reporters) tried to catch them in, among other technicalities, perjury traps, tax evasions, and "performance-enhancing drugs."
Not to mention what should be the cardinal sin of prosecutorial misconduct -- using one's ex-girlfriend against a man. We all know how ugly breakups can be, and perhaps there are no uglier ones than those between a rich, famous, married man, and a younger woman not otherwise distinguished by anything other than her sexual relationship with said fellow.
Don't read me wrong. I consider Bonds, and every other attached man who cheats on the woman who loves him a jerk. In my mind, he created a far worse crime than some petty IRS violations or some fancy dancing around what he knew when about the creams and potions his "trainers" cooked up for him in their "laboratories."
He broke his wife's heart. I watched her lovely face, holding their tiny daughter on her lap, throughout the magical 2001 season, when Bonds hit 73 home runs and broke the single-season record. She was there every time, on the road and at home, holding her baby and cheering for her man.
Meanwhile, he was cheating on her with another woman who, once he dumped her, turned against him with a vengeance, and told prosecutors every bad thing she could think of about him. All of his confessions, including some that allegedly involve his steroid use.
Ever since the story broke, revealing this girlfriend's existence, Bonds has played his game alone. His wife never comes to the ballpark any more. His little daughter is sometimes there, accompanied by a friend; his mother, his sons. But never that lovely wife.
No one writes about her, nothing is said.
Yes, I hope Bonds breaks all the records in baseball. He deserves to; he's the greatest hitter of our time. I've seen them all, these past 50 years, and he is the best.
But he is not the best example of a man. I don't want him to go to jail. I want him to dedicate himself to healing the awful wound he created in the woman who loved him. To my mind, that is his greatest crime.
Violating the trust of those we love is the lowest any of us ever can sink to -- trust me, I know, from both sides now.
***
There are brighter lights in my universe, none sweeter than my grandson, James, who smiles his smile and talks his talk. Babies draw us to them because we see how innocent we all begin; yet we know how much trouble and pain we may all create. This young man, with his excellent parents, will hopefully grow up with values to help our world be a better place.
Even if he makes mistakes along his way, which he will, I hope he always keeps his steady gaze on his future, with hope, love, and compassion for everyone around him.
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