Barry Bonds, whose numbers argue forcefully that he has surpassed Ted Williams -- and by the time he is finished, anyone else -- as the greatest hitter who ever lived, will play against the Red Sox this weekend for the first time in his 19-year major league baseball career.
But Bonds, whose knowledge of baseball history had him humorously mocking a visitor stumbling to draw comparisons between Williams's feats with the Red Sox and those of the 39-year-old Giants slugger, said Boston is a place he would never call home.
"Boston is too racist for me,'' he said. "I couldn't play there.''
It is a judgment, he acknowledges, not derived of firsthand experience -- he missed the 1999 All-Star Game, played in Boston, because of an injury -- but on word-of-mouth.
"Only what guys have said," he said, "but that's been going on ever since my dad [Bobby] was playing baseball. I can't play like that. That's not for me, brother."
When it was suggested the racial climate has changed in Boston, Bonds demurred.
"It ain't changing," he said. "It ain't changing nowhere."
They built a tunnel to honor Ted Williams in Boston. What did he imagine would be built for him?
"Nothing, man," he said. "I'm black. They don't build stuff for blacks."
Bonds, who created an uproar with earlier comments that suggested he was more interested in passing Ruth than Aaron because Ruth was white, views the antipathy toward him not as a function of personality, but of race. When he spoke of Boston's racist past, he knew to which audience he was speaking. "I'm not dumb," he said.
I ain't never played baseball for fame. I just play to play. I ain't never liked fame. I don't need that [expletive]. I don't need fame. Fame is taking care of your bills, your kids, and your household and having respect, that's about all. That's famous to me.
"Sure, we make a lot of money. So? That's the only thing I do. If I could do something else better, I already would have done that. This was my skill."
Ted Williams famously is said to have expressed the desire that when people saw him walk down the street, he wanted them to say, "There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived."
Did Bonds ever entertain a similar desire?
"All I want you to do when you write your story," he said in response, "is list all the white athletes that they say things about, and then list the black athletes that are talked about in a positive way.
"Ted Williams will always be positive. Babe Ruth will always be positive. They had a ceremony here at the World Series [a credit-card sponsored "most memorable moments," as chosen in fan balloting] and Willie Mays wasn't even in it. How can you not have one of the best baseball players to walk on the planet not there?
"He was downstairs here, with me.
"How can 70 home runs [the number hit by Mark McGwire, the first player to reach that number] outdo 73? And don't blame 9-11 for nothing, dog. Don't try that. You know what I mean?
"Do I care? No. Am I letting you know about it? Sure. Whatever you write, that's on you. Do I worry about it? No."
In his hands, Barry Bonds held a bat, the instrument of his greatness.
"See, we're like baseball bats," he said. "We're equipment. When this breaks, they get another one to replace it.
"In any sport, you try to do the best you can and don't break, so they don't replace you. That's all I do."
I'm sick and tired of Barry whinning that he's black etc, If a white player said what he said, he would be torn to shreads. The whole story can be read at boston.com/sports
But Bonds, whose knowledge of baseball history had him humorously mocking a visitor stumbling to draw comparisons between Williams's feats with the Red Sox and those of the 39-year-old Giants slugger, said Boston is a place he would never call home.
"Boston is too racist for me,'' he said. "I couldn't play there.''
It is a judgment, he acknowledges, not derived of firsthand experience -- he missed the 1999 All-Star Game, played in Boston, because of an injury -- but on word-of-mouth.
"Only what guys have said," he said, "but that's been going on ever since my dad [Bobby] was playing baseball. I can't play like that. That's not for me, brother."
When it was suggested the racial climate has changed in Boston, Bonds demurred.
"It ain't changing," he said. "It ain't changing nowhere."
They built a tunnel to honor Ted Williams in Boston. What did he imagine would be built for him?
"Nothing, man," he said. "I'm black. They don't build stuff for blacks."
Bonds, who created an uproar with earlier comments that suggested he was more interested in passing Ruth than Aaron because Ruth was white, views the antipathy toward him not as a function of personality, but of race. When he spoke of Boston's racist past, he knew to which audience he was speaking. "I'm not dumb," he said.
I ain't never played baseball for fame. I just play to play. I ain't never liked fame. I don't need that [expletive]. I don't need fame. Fame is taking care of your bills, your kids, and your household and having respect, that's about all. That's famous to me.
"Sure, we make a lot of money. So? That's the only thing I do. If I could do something else better, I already would have done that. This was my skill."
Ted Williams famously is said to have expressed the desire that when people saw him walk down the street, he wanted them to say, "There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived."
Did Bonds ever entertain a similar desire?
"All I want you to do when you write your story," he said in response, "is list all the white athletes that they say things about, and then list the black athletes that are talked about in a positive way.
"Ted Williams will always be positive. Babe Ruth will always be positive. They had a ceremony here at the World Series [a credit-card sponsored "most memorable moments," as chosen in fan balloting] and Willie Mays wasn't even in it. How can you not have one of the best baseball players to walk on the planet not there?
"He was downstairs here, with me.
"How can 70 home runs [the number hit by Mark McGwire, the first player to reach that number] outdo 73? And don't blame 9-11 for nothing, dog. Don't try that. You know what I mean?
"Do I care? No. Am I letting you know about it? Sure. Whatever you write, that's on you. Do I worry about it? No."
In his hands, Barry Bonds held a bat, the instrument of his greatness.
"See, we're like baseball bats," he said. "We're equipment. When this breaks, they get another one to replace it.
"In any sport, you try to do the best you can and don't break, so they don't replace you. That's all I do."
I'm sick and tired of Barry whinning that he's black etc, If a white player said what he said, he would be torn to shreads. The whole story can be read at boston.com/sports
