The More Things Change...

As someone who doesn't listen to much sports radio I'm constantly surprised by the vitriol that spews from the mouth of many of the hosts who populate the airwaves. Paul Finebaum, a radio host and columnist from Alabama is the most recent addition to the roll. He wrote a column last week calling out Hank Aaron for not being interested in being in attendance when Barry Bonds breaks his home run record.

However, from this standpoint, as vile as he may appear at times, Bonds is showing no less class than Hammerin' Hank, who just can't let bygones be bygones. He continues to wear his bitterness on his sleeve after all these years and will likely sulk all the way to the grave...(Aaron) could actually do something constructive here instead of continuing to shake the dust and cobwebs off the hate mail he has saved from 33 years ago. But no, Aaron continues to play the same grumpy and surly role now as he did during his prime. Some things never change...Perhaps one should be sympathetic toward Aaron, who was overshadowed during his Hall of Fame career by players like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays (Bonds' godfather and mentor). Perhaps we should go light on him because of what he had to overcome. Still, the man has had a pretty cushy life since then and baseball has made up for its momentary snub and fans have made up for their attitudes back then tens of millions of times over.

Finebaum writes that Aaron's chase for the home run record was fraught with controversy, just like Bonds is experiencing right now. What he leaves out is that the controversy came from racists who didn't want a black man breaking Babe Ruth's record not from people who felt that Aaron cheated to reach the level of Home Run King. It's an absolutely inane comparison to make and one that doesn't hold up to even the slightest bit of scrutiny. Bonds' problems stem from his own (alleged) drug use, his prickly personality and, in short, things that he's hand his hand in. Aaron's problems came about because of the color of his skin and the fact that he dared challenge the records of men of a different color.

Another sports radio personality, Chris Dimino from Atlanta's 790 The Zone, had Finebaum on to discuss the column and the bombs that Finebaum lobbed in Aaron's direction. Chief among those bombs is the assertion that Aaron is in Bud Selig's back pocket. When asked to clarify what he meant by that, Finebaum said that Aaron was Selig's "house boy, his cabana boy." I don't know if his use of those phrases was a way of showing that racism does indeed still exist in the South but that's just what he did. Whatever you think of Hank Aaron, and it's clear Finebaum has a personal axe to grind, he's entitled to support Bonds, denounce Bonds, ignore Bonds or anything else without being called names that revert back to the days of slavery by a white sportswriter in Alabama.

Comments

[Sooze]

Dude. Seriously, how dare he speak about Hank Aaron that way? The man is a legend.

[Jason]

What an insufferable ass. Mr. Finebaum, enjoy your 15 minutes of infamy.

[One More Dying Quail]

What a piece of work.

Why does Finebaum seem so bothered by the fact that Aaron remembers the hate mail he received in the 1970s? Who is he to decide that The Hammer should be over the way he was treated by fans and baseball officials back then?