The Natural just came on. I love this movie on so many levels. First, there's Redford looking better than a body has a right to. But let's go beyond that.
This movie is about baseball. In it's best and purest sense. It's about the individual excelling beyond his personal best. It's about the team. It's about right and wrong, lust and virtue. It's Americana, tradition and continuity. The movie begins with Roy playing catch with his dad and ends with Roy playing catch with his son.
Roy gets shot, not a shot in the ass. Roy gets poisoned, but not by Balco.
It's not just that Bonds is a cheat that bothers me. Nor that he's a petulant asshole. It's that he's Bobby Bonds' son. I go back to the first and final scenes of The Natural. Father and son. Generation to generation. I just hate that it's despoiled by steroids.
I am a Cub fan because my grandparents were Cub fans and my parents are Cub fans. We fought about politics and religion, but generation after generation, we call Wrigley Field home. My grandmother's favorite player of all time (even more than Mr. Cub himself, Ernie Banks) was Ryne Sandberg. The lady LOVED her Ryno. At her wake, the neighbors commented on how cute the old girl looked, gardening in her #23 Cubs jacket. I insisted her floral arrangement included a cluster of Cubbie blue in the center. Now when I go to Wrigley Field and see the #23 pennant flying overhead, in honor of Sandberg's retired number, I think of her. And Grandpa. Even my father. All the departed members of my family who watch from above.
Corny? OK. But so is this movie, including John Williams' score. I bet Bonds would never sit through this sentimental, idealized, mythological view of baseball. And that's why, when he inevitably breaks Hank Aaron's record, no one's soul will be stirred. It will be no big deal. I take comfort in knowing someone (A-Rod maybe?) will surpass Bonds soon and all this will just be a bad memory.
Bobby Bonds was a certifiable asshole in his day. And Barrys uncle, while a playing genius, was Willie Mays, who is a brick with a p as well. So one should not be surprised at his petulant attitude. let him have the record for a year or two, A-Fraud, Griffey or even Howard will break it soon enough
ReplyDeleteAw Sparky! Did you have to rain on my father/son baseball parade? Bobby Bonds played his last season here and I don't recall him being a dick. He might have mellowed by then. It would be cool if Ken Jr. broke his "friend's" record though, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeletewell, Griffey may have been playing for what 10 years or more, but his legs should only have like 8 on them with all those injuries.
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