Jon Heyman on Bonds & Boston



Newsday's Heyman never looks better than when he's agreeing with CSTB.

At the risk of upsetting folks from Southie, the North End and all over Boston, not to mention Barry Bonds haters everywhere - which pretty much covers half the country once you figure in that last group - but Bonds might be right.

If Boston isn't a "racist" city, as Bonds said the other day, then an alarming number of its inhabitants prefer white people.

Which isn't that great a distinction, if you think about it.

Bonds' complaint that "they don't build stuff for black people," was ridiculed, and it's been pointed out that Willie McCovey and Mays are honored with statues outside SBC Park in San Francisco. But in Boston, white players enjoy disproportionate reverence. Sports Illustrated polled 401 Massachusetts residents as to the "greatest athlete who ever lived or played for a team in your state."

The results were astonishing.

Williams, 40 percent. Larry Bird 17 percent. Bobby Orr, 10 percent.

Babe Ruth, 8 percent. Babe Ruth. A Yankee!

And finishing a distant fifth . . . Bill Russell, 4 percent.

Eleven championships. Four percent.

Posted: Sat - June 26, 2004 at 04:03 PM      

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