Meanwhile, nearly two thousand miles away, a man named Barry Bonds rules the baseball world. He, too, has amassed phenomenal statistics. But Bonds does not run down fly balls. He does not make friends with teammates. He is generally regarded as the antithesis of a team player.
And the world loves him.
It's a disturbing cross-section of the American subconscious: Character be damned, just be personally successful. Even more disturbing is the notion that, by all rights, Sweeney is the epitome of the anonymous everyman; the player that the populace should love more. But instead they flock to the surly son of a millionaire who doesn't consider it worth his while to run out grounders. Mike Sweeney is the nice guy America should have taken to the prom, and Barry Bonds is the jerk who knocked her up in the backseat of his car and became her neglectful husband.
"I really don't mind it, honestly," Sweeney admits regarding his anonymity. "It's easier to hit a lot of home runs when you don't have two hundred million people breathing down your neck every at-bat. I mean, just ask [Mark] McGwire. He was miserable through most of that 1998 season, I can't believe he hit as many home runs as he did. If I was put under that sort of pressure I'd probably be in the looney bin by now."
Final All-Star
Voting Results, 2002
First Base
Source: Major League Baseball
1. Mark McGwire+
4,002,564
2. Barry Bonds*
3,516,488
3. Jim
Thome
2,995,214
4.
Frank Thomas
2,841,983
5.
Barrey Bonds*#
960,156
6. Barry
Boinds*#
877,800
7. The
dad from The Wonder Years*
454,195
8. Babe Ruth+*
402,647
9. Barry
Bnods*#
201,514
10. The
Rally Monkey*
158,650
11. OSAMA
BIN LADEN*
101,894
12. Mike
Sweeney
40,793
13. SHITTY
SHITTY SHITFUCK*
1
14. Jerry
Bonds*#
1
15. Oil Can
Boyd*+#
1
* = does not
play first base
+ = retired
# = presumed typo