The Home Run Derby is Today, But Baseball is Still Afraid to Call Barry Bonds Its Greatest Hitter

Today is the Home Run Derby, and every sports analyst will spend hours falling over themselves talking about the greatest sluggers in the history of baseball.

But the greatest home run hitter in the game’s more than 120-year history won’t be mentioned. Barry Bonds had an untouchable résumé; yet, he will never receive the admiration his greatness deserves.

Why? Most people will say it is because of steroids. But that ain’t it. Bonds committed two sins. The first was allegedly using steroids. The second was being an unapologetic and brilliant Black man.

Bonds Was Brilliant Before Steroids

Barry Bonds started using PEDs around 1999. But by then, he had already spent 13 seasons building a résumé that would have made him a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

So why do people act like the man wasn’t one of the greatest players baseball had ever seen before he ever touched a PED?  The answer is as old as Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight champion, whose greatest offense in the eyes of many Americans wasn’t simply winning. It was refusing to act grateful after he did.

The Uppity Negro

Bonds wasn’t interested in tap dancing and flashing his pearly whites for the media. He didn’t charm reporters or spend his time trying to make himself more palatable for the viewing public. He knew he was great, and carried himself like it.

To many white folks, that translated into something else. They saw an “uppity Negro” who refused to know his place. It’s a familiar story.

In his death, people love to wax poetic about how much they adore Muhammad Ali. But never forget that he was stripped of his heavyweight title, banned from boxing, and became one of the most hated men in America all because he refused to be the humble, grateful handkerchief-head Black champion people wanted him to be. Decades later, Deion Sanders was called selfish and arrogant for celebrating his brilliance and having the unmitigated gall to call himself “Prime Time.”

Bonds wasn’t political like Ali or a showman like Sanders. While those men were mistreated, you can see why they caught the hell they did. Bonds’ offense was simpler. He refused to make himself likable for the people covering him.

Look, his choice to (allegedly) use PEDs damaged his legacy. No doubt. But it was the fact that he was an unapologetic Black superstar who knew he was great that made it easier for people to define him by his mistakes and ignore everything that came before.

Tonight, MLB will spend three hours celebrating the long ball while continuing this country’s decades-long tradition of punishing a Black man who knows he is great.

That is America’s true pastime.